AKRON, Ohio — During Wednesday’s special meeting, Akron city council unanimously approved eight candidates to sit on the police oversight board.
The candidates are Beverly Richards, Tristan Reed, Shawn Peoples, Donzella Anuszkiewicz, Kemp Boyd, Caitlin Castle, Robert Gippin and Diane Lewis.
The deadline to seat the board was February 27th. Council has held multiple votes and could not agree on the ninth candidate, 27-year-old Imokhai Okolo. The remaining candidates were voted on individually instead of as a group and Okolo is now likely out of the running, according to members of council.
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said the charter lays out guidelines for that ninth candidate.
“That was the diversity part of the entire panel to begin with, is to be able to make sure we are represented both age-wise, sex and demographics across the city,” Horrigan explained. “So as they seat that, I know there are probably a number of qualified candidates that city council will need. To come to a consensus on nine out of 13, to be able to find that, and I have a tremendous amount of confidence in city council to be able to do that.”
Over the next several weeks, council is expected to look at other candidates to see who could fill the last seat.
