AKRON, Ohio — As the Akron community prepares for challenging days ahead, City Council still has to decide on one final candidate to be seated on the newly created Citizens’ Police Oversight Board.
“We are looking to bring forth an individual that we know we can rally nine votes for, bring that name for, so that we can vote on that candidate and that candidate can be seated and begin to do the work,” said Akron City Council President Margo Sommerville.
President Margo Sommerville says their decision comes just two weeks before a special grand jury will review evidence in the police shooting death of Jayland Walker last year.
“Any day now, we're going to get information back from BCI on the investigation of the killing of Jayland Walker. It's these nine people who will weigh in even on that situation,” said Sommerville.
Council members reopened applications for the board last Tuesday and have placed additional consideration on African American candidates between the ages of 18 and 35.
“I'm happy that they're trying to be intentional about filling that seat with someone who is young, Black, between that sort of age range,” said Imokhai Okolo.
Before the city council voted on the current eight members, they had been looking at applications for weeks to determine who would be the best fit.
But Sommerville says they couldn’t reach enough votes for one applicant: Imokhai Okolo.
She says it’s because opposing members raised concerns about past comments Okolo made on social media.
“It's unfortunate what sort of happened to me,” said Okolo.
Okolo tells News 5's Remi Murrey he wishes he could be on the board.
But he and Sommerville remain hopeful council will choose a candidate who reflects the community.
“This isn't a fix to all the problems with the police in our community, but it's hopefully a shot at trying to sort of build the relationship between the police department and between the community,” said Okolo.
Applications are currently open and must be submitted in-person to City Hall or emailed by noon on Friday, March 31. Click here to download the form and email it to citizenoversight@akronohio.gov
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