Akron voters approved two charter amendments on Nov. 3 that will reshape the relationship between renters and landlords across the city — and the work of turning that vote into working law now falls to Akron City Council, which faces a hard 90-day deadline once the measures take effect, according to reporting by the Akron Beacon Journal.
The amendments, Issues 11 and 12, take effect 30 days after their Nov. 3 approval, the Beacon Journal reported. Both measures require council to enact additional implementing legislation within 90 days of that effective date. The Summit County Board of Elections is scheduled to certify the election results on Nov. 23, and Council President Margo Sommerville told the Beacon Journal in a Nov. 4 email that council will work with the city’s Law Department to meet its drafting obligations and expects to begin considering the enabling legislation soon after certification.
Issue 11 changes how security deposits work in Akron. Under the amendment, property owners and operators must offer tenants three- or six-month plans for paying a security deposit in installments, according to the Beacon Journal. The measure criminalizes failing to notify tenants or prospective tenants of that right, bans fees, charges, deposits or other payments collected before a rental agreement is finalized, and criminalizes collecting application fees.
Issue 12 goes further. It establishes criminal history — with exceptions for sex offenders and arson offenders — and source of income as protected classes in housing, the Beacon Journal reported. Property owners and operators are prohibited from refusing to rent to someone, or refusing to engage in a real estate transaction with them, based on their criminal history.
The amendments reached the ballot through a petition drive led by Freedom BLOC, a nonprofit focused on economic and social issues, working with a coalition of local organizations that collected the required signatures, according to the Beacon Journal. The measures passed despite opposition from developers, real estate agents and political officials who campaigned against them.
Implementing Issue 12 alone requires council to adopt six specific legislative steps, the Beacon Journal reported. They include giving the Akron Civil Rights Commission explicit jurisdiction over complaints, using the tools in Chapter 38 of the city code; authorizing relief for people harmed by a violation, including compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees; and establishing criminal liability for corporations, LLCs, partnerships and other organizational entities under the city code.
The remaining steps, as the Beacon Journal outlined them, apply a strict liability standard to violations, bar future legislation or agency rules that would curtail a complainant’s remedies or limit the commission’s jurisdiction, and state that nothing in the amendment diminishes protections already granted under Chapter 38.
For the security deposit amendment, council must also create penalties for noncompliance of not less than a fourth-degree misdemeanor, as Akron’s code outlines, according to the Beacon Journal.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is known: both amendments passed Nov. 3, take effect 30 days after approval, and council’s implementing legislation is due within 90 days of that date, with certification scheduled for Nov. 23. What is still open is whether opponents take the fight to court. Don Taylor of Welty Enterprises, the firm renovating the downtown CitiCenter Building, said before the election that he was prepared to challenge the amendments’ constitutionality, and on Nov. 4 he told the Beacon Journal, in the newspaper’s reporting: “We’re evaluating our options.” Taylor said the alternatives he is weighing are a legal challenge or asking council and Mayor Shammas Malik to place a reversing charter amendment on the May ballot. He said CitiCenter renovations remain paused, but stressed his companies are not leaving Akron.
Reaction from other opponents has been more collaborative. Greater Akron Chamber President and CEO Steve Millard said in a Nov. 4 statement reported by the Beacon Journal that the Chamber opposed putting detailed housing rules in the charter, not the goals behind them, and that the Chamber is ready to work with council, the mayor and other stakeholders on the implementing legislation. The Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors, which also opposed the measures as written, said the city must craft and communicate a plan for how the requirements will be applied and enforced, and that it will monitor implementation and keep its members informed, according to the Beacon Journal.
Mayor Malik initially opposed both issues, but said the day after the election that the people have spoken and his administration will respect their voice and help craft the required legislation, the Beacon Journal reported. Freedom BLOC, for its part, said in a Nov. 5 press release reported by the Beacon Journal that it will publicly track council’s 90-day deadline, bring tenants and returning citizens to testify, and is prepared to defend the amendments in court. “We won. That’s the only thing to say. The people won,” Freedom BLOC Executive Director Ray Greene Jr. said in the release, as quoted by the Beacon Journal.
The housing vote was one of two charter changes Akron voters handed city government this fall; residents also gave the city’s police auditor subpoena power, a change NewsForce247 covered as the city begins building that office out — Akron voters give police auditor subpoena power, now city must build it.
What happens next is a defined sequence: certification on Nov. 23, the amendments taking effect in early December, and then council’s 90-day clock to pass the implementing legislation — with Freedom BLOC watching the deadline publicly and Welty Enterprises still deciding whether its next move is a courtroom or a May ballot fight.