Akron City Council voted 12-1 on Monday, Oct. 26, to authorize issuing bonds to replace the $4.75 million drawn from the city’s general fund to pay the settlement with the family of Jazmir Tucker, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. The borrowing lets the city spread the cost of the settlement rather than absorb it in a single budget year.
Law Director Brian Angeloni told council’s Budget and Finance Committee that members had two choices — approve the bonds or reduce city services by the amount paid toward the settlement, according to the Beacon Journal. Council chose the bonds at its Oct. 26 meeting.
The city agreed to settle with Tucker’s family in August, the Beacon Journal reported. Jazmir Tucker, 15, was shot and killed on Thanksgiving night in 2024 by former Akron police officer Davon Fields. Fields was fired over what Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said were several policy violations and criminal allegations, according to the Beacon Journal.
The family’s lawsuit, filed Nov. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, sought monetary damages and police reform, the Beacon Journal reported. In exchange for the $4.75 million, Ashley Green, Jazmir’s mother and the administrator of his estate, agreed to drop all claims.
Finance Director Steve Fricker told the committee the city has taken this step before, the Beacon Journal reported. “We reached a settlement and we issued $5 million in bonds,” Fricker said, referring to a 2016 fire department promotions case, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. He said the city was able to cover a $4.85 million settlement with Jayland Walker’s family from the general fund without issuing notes because of federal stimulus funding available through the American Rescue Plan Act — funding he said is no longer available.
“Typically, they are small enough that we do absorb them within the operating budget of that department. In this case, that simply wasn’t possible due to the size of the settlement,” Fricker said, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. The city pays out various settlements every year, he told the committee.
Fricker said debt service on the notes will be paid from property tax revenue, but within the existing levy of the city’s inside millage, so residents’ tax amounts will not increase because of the borrowing, according to the Beacon Journal. The bond issuance and sale will now move forward under the authorization council approved Monday.
Photo: Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0