Akron Mayor delivers first State of the City address

AKRON, Ohio — Akron Mayor Shammas Malik delivered his first State of the City address on Wednesday night. 

Many Akronites were eager to hear the Mayor discuss the city’s search for its next police chief. 

“This has been the hardest thing I have dealt with in this job,” Malik said.

Earlier this week, activists like Judi Hill with the Akron NAACP asked the mayor to pause the search.

“We’re hopeful that he will at least put a pause right now on the police chief search. We were hopeful in the beginning that we would do National search or at least widen the search so that we could have a diverse pool of candidates,” Hill said.

Activists are unhappy with the diversity of candidates after Malik said state law precludes the city from conducting a national search for its next Chief.

Steve Mylett retired effectively Jan. 1, and Brian Harding has been serving as acting chief ever since.

Only two current officers within the department are being considered, both of whom are white.

“I really believe that in order to undertake that systemic change, we need a permanent police chief who can lead the department, who can implement a vision, who can make decisions in a way that an acting chief simply cannot,” Malik said.

Malik said there will be community town halls for everyone to meet both candidates for chief and ask them questions that matter most. 

“Real system-wide change takes much longer than 100 days, but I remain as committed as ever to the promises I’ve made about leading live change here in Akron,” Malik said.

While addressing the police chief search was a topic which many were interested in, Malik also addressed the continued need to partner with Akron City Schools and asked that people sign up for mentorship programs. The mayor also got a big round of applause after announcing improved housing codes. He said it’s important to stay ahead of issues instead of being reactive.