Mayor Makes Two New Cabinet Appointments

Mayor Don Plusquellic announced today that he is appointing two assistants to the mayor. One is Laraine Duncan, the former director of the Private Industry Council and the other is Clerk of Akron City Council, Vincent Ciraco.

Ms. Duncan’s primary responsibility will be to coordinate the implementation of recommendations from the ImagineAkron: 2025 project with groups and organizations throughout the city. ImagineAkron last year issued a comprehensive report compiled after 18 months of community input on long-range planning for the city of Akron.

Mayor Plusquellic said at his morning news conference where the announcement was made, "Laraine will be responsible for the ongoing planning that will keep these ImagineAkron recommendations alive. Hundreds of people throughout our community put many hours into creating this road map for the future, and we need to ensure that there is continuity in this process for years to come."

Ms. Duncan will also assist in matters involving communications within the community. This work will be done in conjunction with the director of communications.

Laraine Duncan most recently was director of guest services for Inventure Place. Prior to that, she was executive director of the Akron/Summit/Medina Private Industry Council. She has also served as director of administration for former County Executive Tim Davis and as district director for both U.S. Representative Tom Sawyer and John Seiberling. Ms. Duncan is a 1988 graduate of Leadership Akron and is actively involved in numerous community organizations.

Vince Ciraco, who has announced that he will be retiring in January of next year, will be administratively assigned to the Office of the Public Utilities Commissioner. Mr. Ciraco will work for the remainder of the year with the law department, to develop a plan for the manner in which the public utilities commissioner’s office will be operated in the future. The previous commissioner, Linda Sowa, is now employed by Summit County government.

Mayor Plusquellic said, "Since Vince Ciraco has clearly indicated he will be retiring the first of next year, and since historically the City Council clerk’s job has been filled by an experienced member of council, I felt that it was more appropriate to have these changes occur before the election rather than after the election. This prevents the public from being surprised after the election with officials for whom they’ve voted suddenly taking a new job."

Mr. Ciraco, who turns 67 at the end of May, was first elected to Akron City Council in 1976 (D-2). In 1987, he was named council president, and in 1988 became clerk of council.

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