With the polls open for early in-person voting ahead of the Nov. 4 election, residents of Akron’s Ward 1 are deciding between Fran Wilson and Acacia Reynolds for their City Council representative.
Both applied to fill the seat when Nancy Holland stepped down in January 2024. Council instead selected Sam DeShazior.
Wilson won the May Democratic primary against DeShazior and Emily Durway. Reynolds joined the race afterward as an independent. Both Wilson and Reynolds have taken some critical stances against the council, they say they won’t shrink from collaboration if elected.
Here’s a closer look at each of the candidates.
Who is Fran Wilson?
Wilson is a fourth-generation Akronite who ran a grassroots campaign on a platform of people power and government accountability.
“I think right now people in the city, and in our country and in our state, people are really hungry for no-nonsense leadership that tackles actual problems,” said Wilson. “The reality is is our life affordability crisis here in Akron, and in our country, is a problem that needs to be addressed, and some of that is because of the lack of accountability in government.”
Though they’re running as the party’s candidate, Wilson’s politics differ from those of mainstream Democrats. They said they align with the Working Families Party, a “Democrat-adjacent” organization that Wilson says does a better job representing everyday people.
In the last five years, Wilson has frequently attended City Council meetings, served on the board of the West Hill Neighborhood Organization and ran for an at-large City Council seat in 2023. They also served on the Akron Civil Rights Commission.
In addition to keeping residents informed through the ward’s council newsletter, Wilson plans to work with Mayor Shammas Malik’s administration and other council members to hold town halls on important issues and start “to make actual policy push forward, but bring people along for the ride.”
Wilson lives in rented housing, which they said is the case for most Ward 1 residents and approximately half the city. They said they share others’ concerns about negligent and absentee landlords creating poor living conditions. Wilson said they intend to address what they say is years of City Council inaction on the issue.
“We need to crack down on slumlords,” said Wilson, “and we need to revise our housing code.”
Many Ward 1 residents, Wilson said, have seen the effects of increasing rents, poor housing conditions and police brutality on their neighbors, family and friends — with no steps taken to address the problems. Wilson said they intend to rectify that.
“We won this primary with a mandate to get stuff done and to advocate on real issues,” Wilson said, “and no one is going to stop me from doing those things.”
Who is Acacia Reynolds?
Reynolds, a transplant from Pennsylvania, has lived in Akron for seven years — two of those in Ward 1. She originally lived in Ward 3.
She said she sees people speaking to City Council during its public comment period, but feels that the elected officials do nothing to address their problems or concerns.
“The people of Akron are technically the boss,” Reynolds said, “and I don’t feel like the council is giving them enough respect. So that is the primary reason I decided to run.”
She said she wants to be more accessible to residents than current council members are. Reynolds said she’d utilize her husband, William, as the equivalent of a congressional aide, allowing him to answer constituent emails when she’s otherwise indisposed — working her day job, for example — barring any confidentiality policies council or the city may have.
The Reynoldses also don’t shy away from discussing serious allegations reported last month by Signal Akron. As documented in Summit County court records, Acacia has been accused of child neglect; her husband — a former City Council candidate — has been accused of sexual abuse. Both firmly deny the allegations, and neither has been criminally charged. Written findings from multiple judges dealing with Juvenile Court cases involving the couple, however, have concluded the allegations are credible.
Summit County Children Services removed all five of Acacia’s children from the home — originally for what’s described in court documents as a “deplorable” living situation.
Reynolds, who believes in a human right to affordable housing, wants to help solve the ward’s housing crisis. She said establishing a living wage is important to that goal.
“There’s a lot of renters and there’s a lot of homeowners that are facing huge property crises in taxes,” she said, as well as high water bills.
If elected, Reynolds said, she hopes to serve as a uniter inside and outside her ward’s boundaries.
“Basically,” she said, “we need to know our neighbors and then get to know the whole city as a neighborhood.”
Ward 1, she said, is generally safer than many other parts of the city.
“I would like to look into why that’s a safer environment as opposed to some of the other wards,” Reynolds said, “and I would like to see if we can’t implement some of the other things that are working in Ward 1 in other wards.”
This story has been updated to correct an error in the “Key Points” section.
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Fran Wilson and Acacia Reynolds square off in race for Akron City Council Ward 1 seat
Reporting by Derek Kreider, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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