Amid questions about new positions in his administration, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik continues to defend his proposed $815 million operating budget to residents at town hall meetings on Wednesday.
Malik answered questions alongside finance director Steve Fricker in a community meeting at Firestone Community Learning Center in the evening as well as a Facebook Live earlier in the day.
Several city council members have questioned Malik’s proposal to hire a net of eight new senior staff members, asking for some of those funds instead to be invested in the city’s neighborhoods.
In the Facebook Live conversation, Malik defended the positions.
“I really want to kind of echo that if we’re going to tackle some of these basic issues in our community, we have to make sure we have people who are dealing with them head-on,” Malik said.
The new roles focus on initiatives such as education and youth opportunities and public engagement, Malik said.
“We should have somebody waking up every day thinking about what Akron Public Schools is doing and how our other education partners fit into that. That’s so critical to the future of the community,” Malik added.
At the evening community meeting, Malik and Fricker gave an overview of the budget. Then, attendees broke into small groups with representatives from various city departments.
Some Akron residents said they were not on board with the increased spending in the police department.
Rachel Wilson from the Akron's south side said she and other don’t trust the police. She’d rather see more investment in social determinants.
“It is education. It is job security. It is living wages. Those things prevent homelessness, those things prevent crime,” Wilson said.
Hiring more police will give officers more time to participate in community policing and building trust with residents, Malik said.
Another resident, Breanna Wesson, would like the city to invest more in social services rather than parks and pools, she said.
“That’s not helping homeless people, that’s not helping people who are trying to come back to the community, as far as like, from being incarcerated or coming off of drugs,” Wesson said. “Parks and slides [are not] helping [anybody.] I mean, it’s cool, it’s nice to see – but what is it helping?”
Jada Moore agreed that homelessness should be more of a priority in city spending.
“I truly feel that we’re not going to get real change or anything allocated to homelessness until there are tents downtown, [and] there are tents at Lock 3, where the ugly is no longer pretty. It’s OK when there are tent communities in the woods,” Moore said.
Participants across several groups said they want to be able to give feedback earlier on in the budget process. Ward 4 Councilmember Jan Davis said she was inspired by the conversation in her small group to gather feedback at ward meetings throughout the year.
Malik would like to incorporate some sort of participatory budgeting in next year’s budget cycle, he added.
Earlier in the day, Malik and Fricker answered questions that came through in the comments of the Facebook Live.
Malik pushed back on a question about his investment in "top heavy" positions in his administration.
“It’s not like I'm just expanding the number of seats at the cabinet table,” he said. “I'm not hiring, you know, people to drive me around or anything like that. I really view this as making sure that we have a city government, that folks aren't burned out, and that means investing in police and fire.”
A few questions dealt with hiring and retaining Akron police officers, which Malik said is another priority in the budget.
In response to a question about why the city is budgeting for the highest number of officers in decades, Malik said this will help officers have time for community policing in addition to responding to emergency calls.
"You also have time for some of those encounters that aren't an emergency, where folks can sit and chat with a neighbor on the stoop for five minutes and get to know the person," Malik said.
The city is also looking to hire for a position dedicated to police retention.
“We want to look at what we can do and what incentive structures we can create, but the big thing to know here is that this is the last year of the police union contract and so, a lot of that is going to end up being negotiated into the contract,” Malik added.
Malik said the city would like to create a pipeline for middle school and high school students.
“You can't become an officer until 21, but, if we can find something you can do from 18 to 21 and really have that path for you, that will help, and the same is true with [the fire department] as well,” Malik said.
City council is expected to vote on the budget at its next meeting on March 25.
