Meeting Highlights--August 19, 2026

Aug 19, 2026

Today, August 19, 2026, Cleveland City Council held its third meeting during its summer recess. Council President Blaine Griffin convened a meeting of Council’s Committee of the Whole at 9:00 a.m. The meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m. The full Council Meeting convened at 3:45 p.m. and adjourned at roughly 4:45 p.m.
 
The next meeting of Cleveland City Council will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 14, 2026, when Council returns from summer recess and resumes its weekly meetings.

Kids are back in school. Preseason football is about to start. And Cleveland City Council held its last meeting during its break. The end of summer can't be that far behind.

Maybe, with so few days of summer left, Council wanted to get out of City Hall and make the most of them. Or maybe it was because nothing really controversial was on their agenda — no Flock, no Data Centers, no Burke Lakefront. But they worked through a lot of legislation and still left by 5:00 p.m. Council staff was very grateful!

Just because today wasn't controversial doesn't mean the meetings were boring (at least to policy nerds). People have different, deeply held beliefs about many of the topics Council addresses, so the back-and-forth can get pretty interesting. 

Here's the agenda from today's full Council Meeting. And here are a few of today's highlights.

TIFS, TIFS, TIFS: The word--or acronym--of the day was TIF. Tax Increment Financing, one of the tools local governments have to pay for public infrastructure or support development projects.

(Absolutely no one is going to read an email that tries to explain TIFs, so if you're interested, Wikipedia provides a pretty good overview. So does Signal Cleveland.)

Ordinances 615-2026, 693-2026, and 941-2026 all dealt with TIFs. 615 would enact a new TIF on the east side covering about 3% of the city that would generate revenue that can be invested in infrastructure in the TIF district. Ordinance 693 would help fund the E. 9th Scarlet Project at 2060 E. 9th Street. And Ordinance 941 amends the TIF agreement the City made in 2020 on the Liberty Lofts project. All of these ordinances passed.
 
I've been Working on a Railroad (Bridge) Council passed Ordinance 770-2026, which authorizes the Norfolk Southern Corporation to replace the Superior Avenue Railroad Bridge at no cost to the City. Why would I call this out as a highlight? Because this NEVER happens. Railroad bridges are a problem. Debris can rain down from a railroad bridge onto whatever is unfortunate enough to be under it, and usually railroad companies don't do anything about it. In this case, Norfolk Southern is stepping up. Good for them. And for us.

Hands Off Our History Councilman Mike Polensek introduced, and Council passed Resolution 954-2026 opposing an effort by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to change the National Historic Preservation Act to make it easier for the federal government to approve projects affecting historic places without giving local communities a meaningful voice.

Mail is for Everyone: Councilman Richard Starr introduced, and Council passed, Resolution 956-2026, which urges the United States Postal Service to work with local stakeholders to ensure senior high-rise and residential buildings provide residents with secure, accessible outgoing mail collection services.

City Council didn't just pass legislation today. It also introduced new legislation, including:

  • Ordinance 928-2026 to appropriate property for new Fire Station 23 at 10002 Madison Avenue, the former location of a CVS.
  • Ordinance 931-2026 for the City to reimburse the Cleveland Browns for repairs to the Huntington Bank Field

Lastly, Council passed Resolution 955-2026 recognizing our friends at TV20 on the occasion of the station's 40th Anniversary. Congratulations!

That’s it for today. Full recordings of today’s meetings are available on City Council’s YouTube Channel.
 
Talk with you next month!
 
Mike

(Any errors are mine. Accuracies are likely someone else's)