Craig Morgan named city of Akron's chief prosecutor as Gert Wilms takes top cabinet post
Closing in on a quarter century of service, Akron's next chief prosecutor has more time on the job than his boss, whom he will replace next month.
Mayor Dan Horrigan is offering Deputy Chief Prosecutor Craig Morgan the top spot in the city prosecutor's office come January. Morgan is taking over for Gert Wilms, who will join Horrigan's cabinet as chief of staff.
The city is taking applications to fill Morgan's No. 2 spot in the prosecutor's office, which consists of advising courtroom prosecutors, managing staff and working with law enforcement to dispense and advance criminal justice in the city.
Morgan has never worked anywhere but the city in his professional career as a lawyer. After earning undergraduate degrees in criminal justice and political science at the University of Akron, Morgan started clerking for the city's law department in 1998 at the end of his first year of night classes at the UA School of Law.
He got his juris doctorate and passed the Ohio bar in Nov. 2001 and was hired on as an assistant prosecutor that year, around the same time Wilms joined the prosecutor’s office as an intern during her third year of law school. In 2005, Morgan became the police legal adviser, offering on-the-job and time-sensitive tips to officers building criminal cases in the city.
In 2010, former Mayor Don Plusquellic promoted Morgan to deputy chief under then prosecutor Doug Powley. Wilms became chief in 2012 when Powley retired after running the prosecutor's office for 23 years, which remains the record.
Next month, Morgan will take the reins.
"I'll be hitting 24 years in May," Morgan told the Beacon Journal Monday of his time with the city. "And there's really no words to express my gratitude to the mayor, to the administration, to my co-workers for all that they've done to support me.
"They make me better," he continued. "I'm a little bit overwhelmed and emotional."
Morgan said he'll continue to build on criminal justice reform in the city.
"Gertrude laid a great foundation for me here. She was very innovative in certain regards, and I supported that," he said.
He cited the prescient move in 2016, with input from police, to stop jailing people charged with low-level, nonviolent felonies while awaiting trial. Locking people up for major felony, domestic violence and weapons charges has provided more room in a county jail that was near or over capacity even before COVID cramped the operation.
"Who knew that there would be a pandemic coming?" Morgan recalled of the timing. "And the felony summons program was paramount in us operating during the pandemic. It's just one of those ideas that comes up and, at first, people look at you and say, 'Are you sure you want to do that?' You try it out. You get some success. The police support it. And it's good for everybody involved.
"I hope to try to do the same things [Wilms] did in that sense of looking at new ways to evolve the criminal justice process."
Collaboration will be key to building the most efficient and fair criminal justice system, Morgan said. "I just want to help foster all of our relationships with our partner agencies," "I'm here to help lift my people up. So, I want to try to open those connections that Gertrude did so good at the last 10 years, and move the office forward.
"We are customer service. And we can't always guarantee results. But we can guarantee effort."
Wilms will earn $149,323.20 as chief of staff. Morgan, who makes $101,025.60 after more than a decade as deputy chief, will earn $115,564.80 as chief prosecutor. The city is offering $94,000 to $99,000 to the next deputy chief prosecutor. That job listing can be found at https://bit.ly/3otgmDJ.
Wilms was named the new chief of staff last month when Annie McFadden, who ran Horrigan's first campaign for mayor, announced she would resign at the end of the year for personal reasons.
Reach Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-719-1756.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron mayor picks Craig Morgan to replace Prosecutor Gert Wilms
