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Residents press Akron council on vacant houses, data centers and surveillance oversight; mayor addresses potential company relocation
Summary
During public comment, a resident urged action on dilapidated homes he called public-safety hazards; another urged Akron to consider a trans sanctuary designation, opposed a local data center and asked for oversight of license-plate readers. The mayor addressed concerns about a possible Smithers relocation.
At the start of the meeting Akron residents used the public-comment period to press city leaders on several neighborhood issues and surveillance policy.
Mr. Seeley (the first public commenter) told the council the city has not done enough to address dilapidated and vacant houses in Ward 3, calling them "crime magnets," fire hazards and risks to public health. He said repeated complaints and inspector visits had produced no lasting results and named a property on Veodum that he said remains standing despite promises to remove it. "It's time for results," he said, and he urged the mayor and council to take more decisive action on blighted properties.
Teresa Augustine of Kenmore asked council to consider designating Akron a trans sanctuary city, said residents of Summit Lake and Kenmore oppose a proposed data center in their neighborhood, and urged stricter oversight of police license-plate-reader programs. Augustine, who identified herself as studying cybersecurity and data-privacy law at Cleveland State University, cited a Law360 analysis and a recent Supreme Court ruling that treated geofence searches as searches for Fourth Amendment purposes and said the ruling supports tighter oversight of surveillance tools.
Later in the meeting Council members asked the mayor for information about reports that Smithers had moved downtown operations to Fairlawn. Mayor Malek said the city has been in active conversations with the company and that downtown offices moved to Fairlawn months earlier; he told council there was no final decision about any broader company relocation and offered to share communications he had with the company's CEO.
The council did not take formal action on blight policy, sanctuary designation or license-plate-reader oversight at the meeting; those matters were raised during public comment and will require follow-up if council or staff elects to pursue policy changes.
