The Akron mayor's office has responded to some Akron City Council members' concerns about this past weekend's canceled Juneteenth events that were raised during a tense city council meeting Monday night.
Mayor Shammas Malik canceled all city-affiliated gatherings on Friday after eight council members signed a letter “respectfully request[ing] that [Malik] cancel these events in the interest of public safety,” council members wrote in the letter, specifically referencing Juneteenth events on city property. Their concerns included that the suspect or suspects in a recent mass shooting are still at large and that gatherings could “set the stage” for “retaliatory shooting.”
There were no “credible threats,” Malik said Friday.
However, during Monday’s city council meeting, several council members brought up concerns not mentioned in the initial letter.
Council President Margo Sommerville’s main concern, she said, was that police staffing for the three Juneteenth events was inequitable.
She alleged that the Joy Park Juneteenth event, which was held in East Akron near where the shooting occurred, was given four Akron Police officers, while the gathering at Stoner Hawkins Park on the west side was given nine.
The Joy Park Juneteenth event on the east side was allocated five officers and a supervisor, while the Stoner Hawkins event was given eight and a supervisor, the mayor's office said in an emailed statement Tuesday morning.
"This staffing was more than adequate based on the scale of each event. Equitable staffing does not necessarily mean assigning an equal number to each situation," wrote mayor's office spokesperson Alexis King in the statement.
Tara Mosley Weems, a former city council member who hosts the Joy Park event, was previously told there would be seven officers at the event based on the number of expected attendees — about 250 to 300 people coming and going, she said.
Sommerville also alleged that Police Chief Brian Harding told her the Hawkins event was given more officers because it was a “city-sponsored” event with “the city logo on its marketing materials.”
Nanette Pitt, Mayor Malik’s chief of strategy, denied Sommerville's claim.
“Officers were allocated according to the needs of each event as evaluated by the protocols of the police department,” Pitt said. “[Malik] relies on the expertise of the chief of police and all of the experts in the police department to make those determinations.”
In the Tuesday statement, the mayor's office said two of the three Juneteenth events were not city-sponsored. Non-city events typically do not have Akron Police Department officers there "besides traffic patrol," according to the statement. But safety officials including the police and fire chief had worked to provide officers and medical units for all three Juneteenth events.
"The city administration worked very hard to have 18 additional officers available on Saturday, in addition to our normal patrol staffing," the mayor's office said in the statement.
Another concern discussed Monday was that the mayor did not reach out to ward council members to review the safety plans for the events, Sommerville said. While Malik told her there was a plan, he did not provide specific information, she said.
Jan Davis, who represents Ward 4 on the city’s west side, echoed these concerns.
“I’m the ward councilperson. You should have included me in those conversations, and we may not be here in this space today,” Davis said.
"It is not standard procedure to involve council members in safety forces planning unless requested, which was not done," the mayor's office said in the Tuesday statement.
Davis told Ideastream she did not specifically ask Malik for the safety plan.
“That is something that I accept, and I should have reached out, OK, but I didn’t,” Davis said. “I think the reason I didn't reach out [was] because I was hearing from leadership that he wasn't sharing.”
Ward 5 Councilmember Johnnie Hannah represents parts of the city’s north, south and east sides, including East Akron where the mass shooting occurred. Hannah felt that not enough information was provided to council members about the safety plan, he said during the meeting.
“Council members were not included or consulted,” Hannah said.
Going forward, Davis wants ward representatives to be included in event planning, she said.
Davis also said she did not want the Juneteenth events to be canceled and had even donated $100 to each of the two events in her ward.
“It was never my intent to have this event canceled. That letter, for me, was the letter that was going to be for the record in the event that something occurred,” Davis said.
When asked why she signed the letter, which specifically requests for the events to be canceled, Davis said she did not read it first before allowing her signature to be included.
“The bottom line, the mayor has the right to veto,” she said. “If you felt that everything was safe, you have to make a decision and... go and move on, move forward with it.”
Councilmember Donnie Kammer also spoke out calling for a better process for planning community events. He added that he wanted an apology for a post on the mayor’s Facebook page which said the Lock 3 concert would be canceled “due to Akron City Council member’s concerns.”
City officials announced that they have partnered with the Akron Urban League to hold a Juneteenth celebration on Wednesday from 1 to 7 p.m. at the John S. Knight Center in Downtown Akron. METRO RTA will waive fares all day, according to a news release.
Read the full statement from the mayor's office below:
"Anytime that Councilmembers reached out to the Mayor’s office and city administration, we responded to their questions and gave them information on our security staffing plans for these events.
On Thursday, Council President Sommerville reached out to Mayor Malik raising safety concerns similar to the Friday letter. Both Mayor Malik and Chief Harding spoke with Council President Sommerville to discuss these concerns, at no time did they learn that other Council members had similar concerns.
Mayor Malik, Police Chief Brian Harding, Fire Chief Leon Henderson, Deputy Service Director Eufrancia Lash, and the event organizers have been in frequent contact over this past week to plan adequate public safety staffing at the Juneteenth events. While two of the three events in question were not city sponsored and, therefore, would not normally have Akron Police Department presence besides traffic patrol in the case of a parade, the city administration worked very hard to have 18 additional officers available on Saturday, in addition to our normal patrol staffing. This included 5 officers and a supervisor at Joy Park, 8 officers and a supervisor at Stoner/Hawkins Park, and a captain overseeing both events. We also had 3 additional plainclothes officers in place. On Sunday, 3 officers and 2 security guards would be present for the event at Kerr Park, with APD and the Mayor’s Office working to add additional staff. The Akron Fire Department had planned to have a med unit at each event, in addition to a representative from their Community Service Bureau. There were also several participants from Akron Fire that planned to take part in the Juneteenth Parade on Sunday, and Akron Police were assisting with traffic along the route. This staffing was more than adequate based on the scale of each event. Equitable staffing does not necessarily mean assigning an equal number to each situation. It is not standard procedure to involve council members in safety forces planning unless requested, which was not done. The Chiefs of Akron’s public safety forces determine what staffing is appropriate for each type of event based on their professional expertise and the Mayor supported their decision.
We did not invite councilmembers to the press conference on Friday because it was convened in response to the letter they sent with very little notice before weekend events. In the letter, the councilmembers did not ask for dialogue or a joint press conference. They urgently demanded a cancellation, and we did that. The decision was made to invite the organizers of the Juneteenth events because they were directly impacted."
