Vinson outcry continues during, after Council meeting
By Stephanie Kist
DOWNTOWN AKRON — For the second week in a row, a large, generally peaceful group of citizens crowded into Akron City Council Chambers March 26.
Well more than 100 people crammed into the pews, stood along the wall or crowded in the hallway, peering through the doorways, as Council conducted its regular business.
As Council moved through the evening’s legislation, members of the crowd silently began to raise a flurry of more than a dozen placards, the stenciled letters reading, “We want the truth,” “It don’t add up,” “Why did he die?” and “No justice, no peace.”
More than a week after the controversial death of Demetrus Vinson, 19, of North Akron, during a police traffic stop, the outcry and questions remain.
In the final moments of the meeting, Council President Marco Sommerville (D-Ward 3) acknowledged the presence of the Vinson family in Council Chambers.
“You have our prayers, and we will continue to work with you through this whole process,” he said.
He reminded the audience that
Mayor Don Plusquellic has
asked Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason to direct
an independent investigation into the death of Vinson,
who, after being shot three times by a police officer,
apparently took his own life with a gunshot to the head,
according to the Akron Police Department and Summit
County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler. [See
related Police News & Notes item on Page
15.]
Sommerville said Mason has appointed
an assistant prosecutor who happens to be an African-American
female to conduct the investigation.
And Sommerville asked for patience
from the community until all the facts are on the table.
“Let’s wait till
all the facts of this case are out before anybody rushes
to judgment one way or the other,” he said, adding
the Vinson family has sought a second opinion on the
autopsy, and the Summit County Medical Examiner’s
Office is awaiting further test results.
With that, he smacked the gavel
down to dismiss the meeting, seemingly taking the crowd
by surprise as the Rev. Bruce Butcher, of St. Paul AME
Church, attempted to address Council.
There was a collective gasp,
and one woman yelled, “You’re provoking
this!” while Sommerville argued down Butcher,
saying the two had talked earlier, apparently agreeing
that Butcher would not speak at the meeting.
One man, while he was being crowded
out of the room by another audience member, loudly demanded
respect.
With only that brief outburst,
the members of the crowd then quietly filed outside,
where they stood in a tight knot in front of the municipal
building holding candles and flashlights.
Butcher and several other speakers
encouraged the crowd to remain peaceful and expressed
displeasure that city hall is behind the independent
investigation.
Demetrus Vinson’s father
told the crowd he is overwhelmed by the outpouring of
support his family has received after Vinson’s
death.
Two members of the public who
did speak during the Council meeting were Portage Path
School of Technology teacher Karen Grindell and PTA
President Cornelia Elliott Hearst, who encouraged the
construction of the new Portage Path Community Learning
Center (CLC) to take place as soon as possible.
Reading excerpts of a letter
she would later submit to Plusquellic, Elliott Hearst
said, “The children of Portage Path School of
Technology deserve and need a new school built according
to schedule. ... I’m not sure of what the issues
are, but I do know time
is of the essence.”
Grindell, who said she was representing
the staff and principal of Portage Path, said the staff
wants to retain the building on its same footprint,
not “buckle it up against the back end of the
theater,” as one of the potential plans for the
CLC suggests.
As the future of the Highland
Theater has recently come into question, there has been
discussion about how the theater itself, or the land
it is on, could be folded into the plans for the new
CLC.
But Grindell said it’s
time to start building, as the current 99-year-old building
is “literally falling down.
“As a staff, we are asking
you to build Portage Path right here, right now, as
fast as you can,” she said, adding the children
“don’t deserve this kind of environment
for a learning environment.”
In other business, Council passed
the 2007 operating budget for the city of Akron. The
$580.3 million budget is similar to the $518.3 million
2006 budget, with no major changes, according to Budget
and Finance Committee Chairman Garry Moneypenny (D-Ward
10).
In the budget is a 1 percent
wage increase for city employees. The general fund,
the largest fund in the city, increases 2.86 percent
this year to $153.1 million.
According to Moneypenny, the
goals of the 2007 budget are to flat-line expenses where
feasible and allow slight increases where necessary
by maintaining current staffing levels and hiring new
personnel only when deemed critical.
A last-minute addition to the
new budget allows for some increases for the Akron Municipal
Court, including $57,410 in part-time salaries and additional
funds for travel, education and dues/memberships.
Moneypenny said the additions
reflect the implementation of a new DUI Court.
Also at the meeting, Council:
• approved the levying of
$113,457 in special assessments for the improvement
of Parkdale Drive. The total project cost, including
the property owners’ portion, is $927,065;
• authorized a $350,280
contract with the Summit County Public Defender Commission
to provide legal services for indigent defendants in
Akron Municipal Court. The amount is a 1 percent increase
over the 2006 contract; and
• set April 9 as the date
for a public hearing on FirstEnergy Corp.’s request
for a conditional-use permit to construct an office
building at 341 White Pond Drive, on the company’s
West Campus.
The next regular Akron
City Council meeting will take
place April 2 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers on
the third floor of the Akron Municipal Building, 166
S. High St. Committee meetings are scheduled to begin
at 2 p.m. that afternoon, also in Council Chambers.
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