Akron officials are conducting interviews this week for three seats on the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board. More than 20 people applied to serve on the board.
The two-year terms of Board Vice Chair Anuszkiewicz and board members Bob Gippin and Crystal Jones expired in March. They are still serving until city officials either re-appoint them or pick new members.
The board was created in 2022 by a voter-approved change to the city’s charter to recommend policy reforms for the city’s police department. The board also oversees the office of the city’s independent police auditor, Anthony Finnell.
City officials are setting up interviews with candidates for the next two weeks, said Stephanie Marsh, spokesperson for Akron Mayor Shammas Malik.
Akron City Council will pick two of the candidates, and one will be picked by the mayor, according to the charter.
Jones said in a previous meeting she does not want to continue serving due to family obligations, while Anuszkiewicz and Gippin both reapplied to the board.
Anuszkiewicz and Gippin were appointed by city council to the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board when the board was seated in March 2023. Gippin serves as chair of the board’s governance committee, which crafted its rules and procedures.
Jones was appointed to replace Tristan Reed, who resigned from the board last year.
Board Chair Kemp Boyd has asked to be involved in the board member interviews.
City council leadership declined to have him involved, while Mayor Shammas Malik has invited him to take part, Boyd said.
“What the mayor has invited us, is to be a part of his interview process,” Boyd said in a recent board meeting. “I will go and represent our board in that regard, to be a part of those interviews.”
Council members did not give Boyd a “definitive answer” for why he could not take part in their interviews, only that there is “no precedent” for city commission board members to sit in on interviews for new members, Boyd told Ideastream Public Media.
“We will not be a part of those,” Boyd said.
The remaining six board members are serving four-year terms, according to the city’s charter.
Overall, Akron City Council handles six of the appointments, while Mayor Malik picks three, per the city’s charter.
Board members have expressed interest in expanding the board’s authority through a future charter amendment. Currently, the board has no disciplinary power.
