Councilwoman Tara Mosley Should Be The Next Mayor of Akron.

Shortly after Councilwoman Tara Mosley was elected to her third term on City Council, she took four of her granddaughters on a tour of her workplace, Akron’s City Hall. The tour was to give her granddaughters a sense of possibility. If their grandmother – who they call “Gigi” – could go from being a teen mom in one of Akron’s rougher neighborhoods to serving on City Council, how much farther could they go?

One of the stops on the tour was a wall filled with the portraits of all of Akron’s mayors – from the first, Seth Iredell, elected back in 1836, all the way to the current mayor, Dan Horrigan. The four little girls lined up in front of the wall, taking in the portraits. Tara snapped a picture on her phone to capture the moment.

Right after she took the picture, the oldest of the four girls with her that day, Kayleigh, turned to her and asked, “Gigi, where are the girls?”

Councilwoman Tara Mosley – a lifelong Akron resident who has served on City Council for the past 9 years – is running to make history as the first woman and the first black woman to be elected as mayor of the city of Akron. Tara takes pride in her family’s strong roots in Akron. Her great-grandfather, David Mosley, moved to Akron from Georgia with his five sons to find a new home.

One of those sons, Luther Mosley, married Ruth McWain and had 9 children, including a daughter, Velze (pronounced “Vel-ez”), who was Tara’s mother. Tara was born a short time after the Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws against interracial marriage.

Still, people held on to their prejudices. So, when Tara was very young, her mother could not take her to visit her white father, Brian O’Donnell, at his Army barracks. Despite all the unfair obstacles facing Tara’s parents, they still created a loving family for Tara and her siblings. (She is the second oldest of four.) Tara credits her late grandmother, mother, and father with instilling in her at an early age the importance of family and standing up for what you believe in, principles that she says have been guiding lights on her journey.

That journey was not without adversity. Tara was a teen mom. She had two daughters while she was still in high school. At that point, many people in the Akron Public School system gave up on her, just as they gave up on many girls in Tara’s same situation. But there was an exception—Mrs. Woodleaf, who took many of the teen moms at Central Hower High School under her wing. According to Tara, Mrs. Woodleaf made a diffi cult environment bearable for her and the other girls.

She taught them practical things, like how to make a meal on a budget, how to open a checking account, and how to balance a checkbook. She also made sure that they had fun, taking a group of girls and their babies to see Disney on Ice. Most of all, Mrs. Woodleaf impressed on all the young mothers at Central Hower how important it was for them to get their diplomas. That lesson stuck with Tara. And, though she had to work hard, balancing schoolwork with a job and taking care of her children, Tara finished high school.

She then went on to continue her studies, attending the University of Akron and the Academy of Court Reporting. All the while, Tara was working multiple jobs to support her children. It was around this time that Tara caught the attention of Akron Attorney Ed Parms, who hired her as a paralegal and offi ce manager for Parms Law Firm.

Mr. Parms encouraged Tara to get involved in local politics. Though Tara already had so much going on—with kids, school, and work—she found that she had a passion for getting involved in local campaigns, especially judicial campaigns.

Her efforts on these campaigns eventually led to a job as a bailiff in the Akron Municipal Court. As a bailiff, Tara found herself once again in a system that too often gave up on people. Tara, though, decided to follow the example of Mrs. Woodleaf. She would not give up. When she interacted with people in the judicial system, she did what she could to connect them with what they needed, such as resources to avoid eviction or services for addiction and mental health challenges.

But there was only so much Tara could do as a bailiff. She felt she could do more with a bigger platform. So, in 2013, after over twenty years of helping other candidates run for offi ce, Tara decided to be the candidate herself. She ran to represent Ward 5 on Akron’s City Council. After a long-fought, grassroots campaign, Tara won. She had completed a long journey—from teen mom to madam councilwoman. She was ecstatic. But she was far from done.

Tara went to work for Ward 5. Ward 5 stretches from North Hill at the top, through Downtown in the middle, and down to parts of South and East Akron at the bottom. Some of the poorest neighborhoods in Akron are in Ward 5. So, one of Tara’s first priorities was bringing economic investment to her ward. Over her 9 years on council, she oversaw $1 billion in economic development in Ward 5. Much of that development happened on Market Street, where Stark State University and Summa Health built brand-new buildings, bringing new jobs and opportunities to Ward 5.

But Tara did not focus only on the biggest employers. She also made sure to help foster small businesses and entrepreneurs, which she believes are the engines for an innovative, strong local economy. Tara also worked to make the city government more accountable to the residents of Akron. She proposed live-streaming City Council meetings, making them more accessible to the people of Akron.

There was some initial resistance to this idea from some of her colleagues. So, Tara decided to start bringing her tablet to meetings and live-streaming them herself on FaceBook. Seeing that they were going to be on camera no matter what, some of the holdouts on the city council finally relented, agreeing to officially live-stream all council meetings.

Tara did not stop at putting a camera on City Council. She also put a camera on Akron police officers. She introduced a resolution that passed City Council for the city to purchase and install dash cameras in police cars. As a result of this purchase, the people of Akron will be able to see their officers at work. And the benefits of this are not just for civilians. Officers, too, will benefi t from the fact that there is a clear record of their actions out in the field.

Another top priority for Tara has been ensuring that the people of Akron have safe, reliable housing. She passed legislation to hold landlords responsible for moving tenants into properties with open housing code violations. Tara’s work for the people of Akron raised her profile in the Democratic Party, which gave her the opportunity to run for Lieutenant Governor of the State of Ohio in the Democratic Primary in 2018. That run was not successful, but it was instructive for Tara.

As part of her campaign, she went to every corner of this state, even those places in Ohio that are usually Republican strongholds. She was determined to have real conversations with as many people as she could, regardless of how they voted. These conversations reinforced Tara’s belief that most people no matter their race, politics, or religion want a government that is accountable to, and representative of, the people.

Tara is determined to create that type of government for the people of Akron. So, she decided to run for mayor. Tara’s campaign platform is focused on putting people first. She has a five-point plan to address the city’s issues.

1. Public Safety 

Tara plans to work to repair the relationship between the police and the community. As mayor, she will push to put police substations in Akron’s neighborhoods and expand crisis intervention training to train all Akron officers how to handle people experiencing a mental health crisis.

2. Economic Development

Tara will invest in small businesses and hire more local businesses so that the city could further develop a business community is dedicated to Akron.

3. Housing

Tara’s administration will focus on building sustainable and affordable housing, while at the same time rehabilitating the city’s existing neighborhood housing. She will also strengthen the neighborhood assistance department and enforce the housing code.

4. Mental Health/Addiction 

As mayor, Tara will partner with our state and county to provide additional funding for mental health and addiction services. She will also work to provide mental health and trauma services for all city employees.

5. Environmental

Finally, under Tara’s leadership, the city will ban fracking, cap gas, and oil wells, and protect wetlands. To oversee this effort, Tara will create a cabinet-level position of environmental justice director. You can read more about Tara’s plan for the city at her website, mosleyformavor.com.

During Tara’s long tenure on City Council, she has put together an extensive resume and a string of legislative accomplishments. She threw herself into her job, serving on every committee, aside from two, on City Council. She also uses her leadership position to elevate Akronites’ needs on the national and regional levels, serving on the National League of Cities Board of Directors and as the NBC-LEO Regional Officer.

Both NIC and NBC-LEO Boards oversee more than 2,700 cities across the nation. She is also the Secretary and Treasurer for the Northeast Ohio Joint Medical District Board of Directors.

The experiences ‘Tara has had because of her position in City Council have taught her the intricacies of how city government works and allowed her to forge the necessary community relationships that have prepared her to take the next step in her journey of serving the people of Akron.

But it is not just her experiences as a councilwoman that have prepared her to be mayor. It is also her experiences as a teen mom, and then as a working mother_ her struggles and her successes as a regular person trying to survive in this city that have made her ready to be the leader that Akron needs at this moment.

Tara is determined to create a city government that understands and addresses the needs of all of the city’s residents, including regular working people.

That is why she is running for mayor, so that the next mayor has the right experience for the job. And, so that when someone takes their daughters or granddaughters to city hall, they will, for the first time, see a woman on the wall of mayors.