The Rotary Club of Akron welcomed Margo Sommerville as our guest speaker during our Tuesday, August 4th Club meeting. It was a very informative presentation discussing some of the initiatives the City Administration and Council are working on. A recording of the presentation is posted below but if your website or email client prohibits you from seeing you may click here to view.
Margo Sommerville is president of Akron City Council, chairs the Committee on Committees and is an ex-officio member of all standing Council Committees. Ms. Sommerville was appointed to be the Ward 3 representative in 2013 and elected to that position in 2014. Ms. Sommerville decided to run for Council President in 2018 to act as a “bridge between a divided Council.
Council representative Sommerville hosts Ward 3 meetings on the second Thursday of the month from 6 to 7 p.m. at Odom Boulevard Branch Library, 600 Vernon Odom Boulevard.
When not involved in Council business, Sommerville is vice president and funeral director of Sommerville Funeral Services. She attended Firestone High School. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Lincoln University and a Master's in Public Administration/Urban Studies from The University of Akron.There are several initiatives that Akron City Council has recently acted upon or are in the early stages of researching or implementing. In June, the Council voted to ban police choke holds as well as additional measures to protect police officers and citizens. In June, the Akron City Council declared racism as a public health crisis.
Recently a committee of the Council has begun reviewing the city charter. Several of the items being reviewed are as follows: Updating the “rule of 3”. This review has to do with the hiring practice of interviewing the “top 3” candidates. The proposed change is to increase the number considered for interviewing up to 10. This expansion would allow for a broader and more diverse selection process. Another HR area being reviewed involves “preferential points for hiring and promotions.” In addition to some of the existing reasons for awarding preferential points (residency, veteran status, etc.) consideration would be given for good job performance evaluations and other considerations.
Another area that is being reviewed is the competitive bidding process. In many ways the existing process penalizes small businesses and minority businesses. The change would allow the Mayor’s office to do more purchasing, allowing the expansion of potential vendors that may be excellent businesses but do not have the staff to compete with larger corporations with more staff to handle the complicated administrative bidding processes.
The Council is also looking at releasing all body camera footage to the public when there are cases of deadly use of force situations to ensure transparency.
A final initiative is the “Reimagining Public Safety.” With all the national discussions on defunding police departments and other actions looking at police departments, this initiative will involve several subcommittees that will be meeting between September and November with results being provided in December as to possible recommendations. Each subcommittee will have a representative from the police department to be sure the police perspective is not overlooked.
For further information about the City of Akron or the Akron City Council, you can go to the City of Akron website https://www.akronohio.gov/ or the City Council website: https://www.akroncitycouncil.org/council
For the fastest response to concerns about everything from potholes to tree trimming to snow or ice removal, call 311 within the City of Akron or 330.375.2311 from any other phone.
Ms. Sommerville allowed us to record her presentation. If you wish to view it you may do so below or if your website/email client prohibits the video from appearing you may click here.
