By Stephanie Warsmith
The Akron Beacon Journal
AKRON, Ohio — Akron firefighters have offered police officers $1,000 on several occasions to target Mayor Don Plusquellic, the fire chief and two deputy fire chiefs, Plusquellic said Wednesday.
The officers turned them down, the mayor said.
“This is uncalled for — on anybody’s part,” Plusquellic said during a news conference.
Plusquellic discussed an incident early Sunday in which he says an Akron firefighter and his girlfriend followed him from a Tallmadge restaurant and tried to get him in trouble with police. An Akron officer stopped and questioned Plusquellic, but didn’t cite him.
The mayor called it part of a concerted effort by “immature, rogue firefighters,” who are upset about recent layoffs “to go after me.”
“This has to stop,” he said.
Paul Hlynsky, president of the Akron police union, said he hasn’t heard of any firefighters offering officers “any bounty on the mayor.” He called this a serious allegation, that if proven, would be a felony.
“I think this was bar talk — somebody kidding around or something like that,” Hlynsky said. “It sounds to me like people are taking sides in this whole thing and hanging on every word that may have been said.”
Phil Gauer, president of the Akron fire union, did not return multiple phone messages Wednesday seeking comment. He plans to hold his own news conference today to respond to Plusquellic’s statements.
Plusquellic said he has had a strained relationship with both the fire and police departments because of his backing of a now-defunct requirement that they live in Akron. Adding to the friction were the recent layoffs of 91 employees, including 38 firefighters, to bridge a projected budget shortfall of as much as $8 million by the end of the year.
Plusquellic said he has no doubt he was targeted in an incident early Sunday morning that occurred after he left the Firehouse Bar & Grille in Tallmadge, where he attended a birthday party for a longtime friend who is an Akron police officer.
Plusquellic said he had several drinks, but switched to glasses of ice water about 11 p.m. and had a steak that was so big he couldn’t finish it.
“The law doesn’t say you can’t have any alcohol,” he said, adding that his friends teased him about drinking water.
Plusquellic said he and his girlfriend, Melissa Barnhart, left shortly before 1 a.m. to return to Akron. The mayor, who has gotten speeding tickets in the past, said he might have exceeded the posted limit during the drive.
“Other than that, there was nothing in my driving to indicate I was impaired,” he said.
A woman, later identified as the girlfriend of Akron Fire Lt. Dennis Shumaker, called 911 at 12:51 a.m. Sunday, saying she was “almost run off the road” on Memorial Parkway near Hickory Street.
The woman gave a description of the vehicle and its license plate number, attempted to follow the vehicle as she continued talking to the police dispatcher and ended her call when she reported seeing police officers behind the vehicle on West Market Street in Highland Square.
Lt. Rick Edwards, a police spokesman, has said the police lieutenant who questioned Plusquellic found that the mayor “checked out OK.” He said the officer had no suspicion of drunk driving.
Neither Shumaker nor his girlfriend returned messages Wednesday seeking comment.
Plusquellic said he later learned Shumaker was at the Firehouse early Saturday, found out about the party and that the mayor likely would be there, and returned that night.
The mayor said a couple at the restaurant overheard Shumaker and his girlfriend talking about how they were going to “get the mayor.” He said the couple decided to follow Plusquellic, witnessed everything that happened and can corroborate the mayor’s account.
Plusquellic said the couple are willing to be witnesses, if necessary, but declined to release their names. He said Shumaker’s girlfriend provided a false statement to police.
Plusquellic said it won’t be up to him whether that warrants an investigation.
Police Capt. Daniel Zampelli said the department isn’t looking into this.
“We have to balance this particular incident with the bigger picture,” he said. “We don’t want to hamper people from calling us to report impaired drivers or criminal activity. At this point, there is nothing we have to go forward with.”
Police also aren’t investigating Plusquellic’s claim that firefighters have asked officers to target him and other city leaders.
“This is a tough economic time the city is going through, with a lot of innuendo and rumor,” Zampelli said. “We are not going to be playing that game.”
If factual information of collusion is provided, the department will investigate, he said.
Plusquellic said the officers who were approached by firefighters offering to pay them didn’t even “think about doing it.”
“They said, ‘If you get arrested in Akron for DUI, you deserve it. We’re not going to start targeting people,’ ” he said.
Plusquellic said he is unaware of any other incidents in which firefighters have targeted him.
Council President Marco Sommerville, who recently got into a shouting match with an Akron firefighter after a council meeting, said firefighters could have spared their members from being laid off if they had delayed longevity payments — annual bonus payments based on years of service. He said firefighters are upset with city leaders when they’re the ones who turned down an offer to avoid layoffs.
“When you do [turn down an offer], you have to take the poison,” he said. “In my neighborhood, we say, ‘Hate the game, not the player.’”
Copyright 2009 Akron Beacon Journal