ARKON, Ohio — The City of Akron will only consider internal candidates for the next chief of police for the city due to a state law provision that the city's legal team discovered while researching options for the retiring fire chief, the mayor announced Monday at a news conference.
Fire chief retiring this month, cannot be rehired as chief
Current Akron Fire Chief Joseph Natko is retiring after 33 years of service with the department. Under the current pension program, individuals who have worked for a department for 33 years must retire or risk losing some of the benefits they have accrued.
Natko expressed interest in remaining the city’s fire chief through a practice known as “retire and rehire.”
In the past, it was common practice for cities to allow senior city staffers to retire then be re-hired for the same position, but an Ohio Supreme Court case essentially prevents this practice, and the city must open the position up to a candidate search, Mayor Shammas Malik said.
Retiring fire chief will fill new emergency management role
Because of this, once Natko officially retires as fire chief this month, the city will rehire Natko in a new role for Akron: Assistant to the Mayor for Emergency Management.
“During the transition, this is a function that we identified as a gap,” Malik said. “The city has not historically had a significant emergency management function, while the county has. We want to make sure that we have that capacity to both plan and respond to both natural and man-made emergencies. This is a role we were going to fill before the opportunity to retain Chief Natko in this role came up. So, we’re glad to have him. It’s a good fit for his experience.”
Deputy Chief Steven Kaut will serve as the acting fire chief while the city conducts an internal search for the next permanent fire chief. Kaut has been serving the people of Akron for 31 years and is a lifelong resident of the city, Malik said.
City's law team discovered complication
Malik said that while the city’s law department was looking into possibly retiring and rehiring Natko as the fire chief, they discovered a provision of state law that has forced them to adjust their search for the next police chief.
The provision “essentially says, when there is a vacancy above the entry-level in safety forces, that must be filled internally,” Malik said. “Our city charter could trump that state law, however, our city charter states that promotions should occur internally ‘whenever practicable.'”
Malik said that as written, it does not appear that the city charter presents a sufficient conflict to trump state law. The penalty for violating this state law would be the removal from office of the official who did the hiring.
“This is certainly something that we would like to avoid,” Malik said.
Malik said this provision came as a surprise to him, as they have had at least two previous police chiefs— James Nice and Steve Mylett— who came from external sources. When he announced the process last fall, he said he believed he’d be able to do the same.
“However, I am acting on the best legal advice I have today,” he said. “I do believe the previous administrations were acting on the best understanding that they had at the time.”
Akron Police has had acting chief since start of 2024
Brian Harding has been Akron’s Acting Police Chief since the beginning of the year after the department’s former chief, Steve Mylett, retired at the end of 2023.
City leaders also revealed that if both deputy chiefs apply for the top job, captains cannot be considered.
Harding has applied for the job. It's not clear if Deputy Chief Jesse Leeser will apply.
Applications for the position have been extended until March 18.
Watch our story on the initiatives that Harding is pushing for as acting police chief below:
RELATED: Akron's Acting Police Chief Brian Harding pushing for more community policing
Akron can only consider internal candidates for police chief
Malik said they had a few options, including placing the search for police chief on hold while they update their city charter to allow for external candidates.
Instead of doing that and potentially holding the search for nearly a year to update the city charter, Malik decided to press forward with internal candidates only.
Malik said they would be accepting applications from deputy chiefs and captains, per their understanding of the state hiring laws. If multiple deputy chiefs apply, however, they will not be able to consider captains. Malik said they are extending the deadline to apply by two weeks to March 18, in order to give all internal candidates the chance to apply.
Malik said that they will also look at the charters for other cities in the state to determine what language they used to allow them to extend their search to external candidates for the fire and police chief positions with the goal of bringing forward a charter amendment by November to address this issue for future hiring decisions.
“I promised when I took on this position that I would be as transparent as possible with our community, and when challenge arose, we would face them head on. I didn’t know about this exact situation, but I think this is what I was talking about. What we’re doing here, and while this isn’t ideal, I am confident we will find outstanding candidates for both our fire chief role and our police chief role from here in our ranks,” he said.
City will continue to use outside agency, take community feedback
Malik said that they will continue the contract with the outside agency that has been assisting with the police chief search, as they have provided services beyond finding external candidates, such as conducting community surveys related to the next police chief, of which over 1,500 have been collected so far.
“I believe their help will be valuable,” Malik said.
As his first public engagement event since becoming Akron’s new mayor, Malik hosted a town hall in January to get the community’s feedback on the next chief.
Find out what the community wants - and doesn't want - in a new police chief in our report below:
RELATED: Akron hosts first townhall in search of Police Chief
Malik said he plans to host at least two more town halls to get feedback directly from the community before selecting an internal candidate for the next police chief.
“Our job is to cast the widest net possible that we can, given the law that we have,” Malik said. “I believe that we will have an excellent candidate…We endeavor in every single role to have diverse representatives, and we will continue to do that.”
