Akron plans to offer free menstrual products in restrooms owned by city
Feminine hygiene products could soon be stocked and free in all cityowned and operated bathrooms.
Two bills offered by Ward 5 Councilwoman Tara Mosley sailed through Akron City Council’s Health and Social Services Committee Monday afternoon. Normal rules requiring multiple readings were suspended allowing for a final vote Monday evening, when they was unanimously approved.
The first bill is a resolution supporting free menstrual products like tampons and pads in all municipal-owned buildings, including City Hall, the Akron Municipal Courthouse, fire and police stations, community centers and more. The second bill authorizes the city’s purchasing agent to publicly bid for the products and have them ready to distribute in early 2022.
Mosley told the Beacon Journal that she waited until Cleveland City Council passed a similar ordinance this month before bringing it to Akron. That new Cleveland law, which requires feminine hygiene product dispensers in city bathrooms by early next year, was sponsored by District 14 Councilor Jasmin Santana, whom Mosley called a colleague.
Community Learning Centers operated and maintained by Akron Public Schools but co-owned by the city of Akron have made feminine hygiene products available to students and staff since at least 2008, when Deb Foulk said she took over the school health clinics as the new business affairs manager. The school health clinics opened in 1996 and may have had menstrual products available at no charge before 2008, she said.
When the public rents space at a community learning center, Foulk said the city’s recreation department could contact her office to make these products available, but no one has taken this step.
Unanimous support
“This is about compassion and dignity and respect,” said Ward 1 Councilwoman Nancy Holland, “and I wholeheartedly support this ordinance. And I hope that all the women and all the men of City Council will do so as well.”
“When I read [this legislation], I was surprised that we didn’t have this,” said At-large Councilwoman Linda Omobien, who chaired the committee.
At-large Councilwoman Ginger Baylor motioned to recommend that all of council accept the bills Monday evening.
At-large Councilman Jeff Fusco also offered support, urging swift passage so the city procurement office could get a jumpstart on the budgeting and bidding process before systems shutdown in December for an update.
“It would be ready to go, basically, first thing next year,” Finance Director Steve Fricker said of passing the bills Monday night instead of waiting a week.
In asking for support, Mosley cited a study this year by Kotex, a maker of tampons and pads, which found two in five people struggle to buy menstrual products. Women pay up to $6,000 in their lifetimes for these products, which have gone up 35% in price since Kotex last surveyed the public in 2018.
Based on implementation in other cities and the $6,000 average lifetime cost, Mosley said she conservatively estimated that stocking city restrooms with menstrual products would run between $14,000 and $16,000 annually.
“It could very well come in way under that,” she said.
“We definitely have enough funds for this,” she added.
Nothing required of privately owned restrooms
Mosley said 23 states have passed feminine hygiene products legislation. Most of the laws, including those passed by cities in states like Ohio that do not waive taxes on menstrual products, cover publicly owned buildings and spaces.
One American city has gone further. On Nov. 15, council members in the Michigan city of Ann Arbor unanimously passed an ordinance requiring all restrooms open to the public, not just in municipal buildings, to provide free tampons and pads. The ordinance also codified that public restrooms must provide other sanitary products, including toilet paper, soap, paper towels and water.
Ann Arbor is believed to be the first American city to require businesses with public restrooms to provide feminine products at no cost. The city’s mayor, Christopher Taylor, said the sweeping law in his college town was prompted by a female teenager.
“A high school student came to me to express her concern that persons without established residences had difficulty obtaining menstrual products,” Taylor told USA Today. “And that got me to thinking over time, there have been some advances with respect to schools, particularly in Illinois and New York in government buildings. California has got one as well. And I asked staff to look and see whether we could obligate [that] all public restrooms in Ann Arbor provide the supplies because they’re basic and fundamental for people. “We can and we did.”
Mosley said mandating businesses to support this issue of gender equity might be too much to ask of her fellow lawmakers in Akron.
“I’ve got to watch getting into the weeds with this council on private stuff because that just makes them backtrack,” she said. “We’re already a pink tax state. This should be very easy for them.