Key recommendations from a recently released Racial Equity and Social Justice Taskforce report were notably missing from Akron's upcoming 2022 operational budget, sparking concern from task force members about the city's commitment to address racism as a public health crisis.
“I know it’s long-haul work, but you have to start making moves now,” said Robert DeJournett, who served on the task force and works as the vice president of opportunity and inclusion at the Greater Akron Chamber. “Our community needs to feel like the city is taking this really seriously.”
The report, released this month by a task force of 29 community members convened by the city, outlined a five-year strategic plan to promote equity and opportunity for Akron’s communities of color and other marginalized groups. City officials say they have already begun to enact some of the task force's early recommendations, but the group issued its final report — including requests that would involve significant spending — just prior to the 2022 budget presentation.
After more than a year of research and community engagement, the group made recommendations with both short- and long-term goals, beginning with changes it said should be implemented this year.
"We purposefully staggered the recommendations year over year," said Curtis Minter, co-chair of the task force's executive committee. "Our hope is those would be taken seriously and be integrated into the operating budget for this fiscal year. Our work by no means is finished; we have the capacity to execute, but not without accountability."
One of the top priorities outlined in the report was the creation of an office of equity led by a full-time position within the mayor’s Cabinet. The recommendation had been made by two separate subcommittees — communications and workforce development — in a previous quarterly report.
“Establishing an office of equity was our subcommittee’s No. 1 recommendation,” said Carla Davis, the communication subcommittee’s co-chair. “We recognized early on that there needed to be someone to drive these initiatives the task force is proposing.”
But the 2022 operational budget proposal, which was presented over four consecutive days last week to Akron City Council, excluded that and other notable recommendations that task force members were hoping would be implemented this year.
“If there is no one shepherding the process and making sure it stays on the forefront, my concern is these recommendations will be pushed to the back burner,” Davis said.
City says it hasn’t had time to assess proposals
At Tuesday’s budget hearing, Ward 8 Councilman Shammas Malik pressed city officials about the exclusion of recommendations outlined by the task force in the budget hearings.
In particular, Malik questioned the lack of budgeting for a proposed deputy mayor for racial equity and social justice, as well as a support staff for that position.
Gert Wilms, Mayor Dan Horrigan's chief of staff, said the city is “not in the position to have any kind of movement on that at this time” because of the recent release date of the report, which was submitted earlier this month. The city has not yet submitted its response to the report, which will outline which policy recommendations it plans to undertake immediately in the first year and which will be addressed at a later date.
“We will definitely take a look at that, make some determinations on what we can implement, what we cannot implement, what can happen this year, what we need to put off, but it’s just too premature based on how quick we got that report to make any kind of promise or dedication at this point,” Wilms said at the hearing.
Malik pointed out that some of those recommendations, such as the Cabinet position, were presented months before the final report was released. He said even if all the details aren’t fully ironed out, it’s important to carve out spending dollars and the number of budgeted positions.
“I really think we should have a sense of urgency around this and make sure that we don’t drop the baton in terms of implementing this,” Malik said. “That role and the support staff is going to be absolutely critical to implementing the dozens of recommendations.”
Wilms said the city already has staff and programs addressing equity and inclusion; it's just a matter of “marrying that up” with the recommendations, renaming positions and realigning goals.
“I appreciate that there is a lot of work that’s ongoing, but … one thing that really came strongly out of those committees was someone who should be only focusing on that so we can move these forward,” Malik responded.
Wilms told the Beacon Journal that with the promotion of Tamiyka Rose to deputy chief of staff, she will be responsible for overseeing many of the recommendations. Rose has worked closely with the task force throughout the process.
Additionally, Wilms said, the city has already implemented a "lot of things" in the report, including the recent hire of a youth and community opportunity director. Horrigan has made an offer to a policy adviser to assist with these issues as well, Wilms said.
Several recommendations in the report do not require the use of city funds and may still be implemented this year once officials have had time to assess them, said a spokesperson for the city.
Some police reform recommendations missing
Malik also pressed the mayor’s office about the creation of a deputy police auditor role, which was recommended last January.
Per a previous recommendation, City Council voted to transition the police auditor position from part time to full time in March 2021 and hire an assistant, but the deputy auditor role was missing from the budget.
Wilms said that discussion will happen in a “future internal meeting yet to take place.”
“This is a repeated recommendation; one of the most frequent recommendations made by the criminal justice subcommittee," Malik said. “I think it’s an important way of bolstering our commitment to building trust between police and community and making sure we have adequate capacity in our police oversight mechanisms.”
Additionally, Malik questioned the police department over a recommendation that all uniformed officers wear body cameras starting in 2022. Though patrol officers are required to wear cameras, the criminal justice subcommittee of the task force recommended that officers deployed as SWAT and secondary employment, such as bar security, be required to wear them as well.
Akron Police Department Capt. Agostino Micozzi said although the department “probably has a few spares,” they do not have “enough for all of that.” He said they are working on it and have been reviewing whether they will require bodycams for officers on SWAT.
“There’s a lot of considerations that are weighty on cost,” Micozzi said at the hearing.
‘We can’t afford another opportunity to do something pass us by’
Several task force members told the Beacon Journal they are concerned that the city is not immediately budgeting for these first-year recommendations.
“None of the recommendations were impossible to implement,” said Torey Tolson, who co-chaired the workforce development committee. “They all were coming from a practical standpoint — and things that we thought could be implemented fairly quickly if not in a year's time.”
Tolson said she is worried the hard work the task force put in over the past year will not come to fruition because the city “doesn’t want to face the hard conversations.”
“In order to see real change, you have to identify what the problems are and have the guts to tackle them,” she said. “Not putting a position in like (the deputy mayor for racial equity and social justice) that many of us identified is needed is leaving the city at a disadvantage of making true change. We can’t afford another opportunity to do something pass us by.”
Others are still hopeful for the inclusion of the deputy mayor role and others — if not this year, then in the 2023 fiscal year.
“I’d like to think that if it doesn’t happen now, it’s not a ‘no,’ it’s a ‘not yet,’” said Jose Delgado, co-chair of the communications subcommittee. “Hopefully the ‘not yet’ isn’t too far off, because the results will take time. And, hopefully, the administration will pass the baton to the next administration to continue the work.”
DeJournett, who served on both the communications and workforce development committees, said he was grateful the city implemented certain changes as quarterly reports came out, particular ones recommended by the criminal justice subcommittee. He said he is hopeful Akron will “keep that momentum going.”
“You don’t just do one or two things and think you’re done,” he said. “We have to really look at outcomes. It’s a journey, not a one-time thing — take a recommendation, implement it and that’s it. There’s way more to it than that. You have to be deliberate and intentional when you want to move the needle on inclusion.”
Originally published in the Akron Beacon Journal on March 20, 2022.