AKRON, Ohio — Wednesday night, Akronites gathered in downtown for another Democratic mayoral debate.

What You Need To Know

  • The seven mayoral candidates gathered for a debate Wednesday night 

  • Candidates answered questions submitted in advance from community members 

  • The primary election is May 2

The Democratic primary is just weeks away on May 2, and no Republicans have filed to run.

All seven mayoral candidates gathered at the Akron-Summit County Public Library to answer questions submitted in advance from the public. 

The first topic candidates discussed was racism as a public health crisis. 

“African American people are disproportionately effected by air quality, by water quality, by the lead pipes that serve water to their homes,” Joshua Schaffer said. “There is no expectable reason that we should be drinking water out of lead pipes in 2023, no reason at all expect for money.”

“My approach may be a little different than others; I would like to be more transparent,” Keith Mills said. “Being open with our judges, with our magistrates, we need to have open communications with our drug courts, transparency with our divergent programs, our probation officers, and what can I do as a mayor to be a voice for a voiceless”

“We have to do more than just hiring people and putting together committees and having these talking points. What do they mean if they are not making it to the neighborhoods that are being effected?” Tara Mosley said. “When I look at the ward that I represent, we have an influx of vacant housing, — that is racism. We have a public safety issue that is in my ward — that is racism.” 

The auditorium at the library was packed with people of all ages as the candidates discussed their plans to help Akron's youth. 

“We need to support them, and have mentorship programs,” Marco Sommerville said. “I plan to have mentorship programs in the mayors office where I can expose young people to government and different things we are doing and also encourage them to participate in the city of Akron.” 

“When we start investing in our youth as the excellent resources and the aspirations they have. Intrinsically, we are going to find that they are going to lead Akron’s renaissance,” Mark Greer said. “As mayor I want to make sure I will lead Akron’s renaissance in our future generations so they know when they grow up they don’t have to leave Akron to find their way, but they will find it right here at home.” 

A question that is on the mind of a lot of Akronites as the grand jury proceedings are underway in the Jayland Walker case, what changes would these candidates make to the police department?  

“There are whole bunch of things that we need to do. I respect the service of every single member of our police department,” Shammas Malik said.  “But I deeply, deeply, deeply feel especially after watching that video, that we need policy and culture change in how our policing systems interact particularly with our Black community.” 

“One of the ways I tried to address that is I created the police and fire community engagement fund at the Akron Community Foundation,” Jeff Wilhite said. “That was a fund to allow our ladies and gentleman in the safety forces to be able to have resources to sit down, and something as simple as buying a pizza, and sit down with some young folks in the park and get to know them.”