Council Meeting Highlights

Feb 09, 2026

City Council met in person this evening in Council Chambers, and the meeting was also live-streamed. A quick reminder that the Council website and email addresses now end in .gov, so please update your contacts if you haven’t already. The next Council meeting will be on February 23. City Hall will be closed for Presidents’ Day on Feb. 16, and budget hearings kick off the following day. Here are a few highlights from today’s meeting:

Working Towards Food Security: Council approved legislation authorizing the Director of Public Health to apply for and accept a grant of $24,000 from Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign to support the Food Access Navigators program under the Cultivating Cleveland’s Next Generation (CCNG) project, and to enter into contracts with East 66th Street Services Inc. and Elements of Internal Movement Eternal Pull Inc. to implement the grant.

CCNG is a youth workforce development program focused on food sovereignty and civic engagement. Grant funds will support four Cleveland youth Food Access Navigators, compensated at $15 per hour for up to five hours per week over 40 weeks, as well as food, materials, and program management provided by the partner organizations. Navigators will use their lived experience to connect peers and families to food assistance resources such as SNAP and WIC.

Program goals include: hiring and training four youth Navigators; hosting or tabling at up to 16 outreach events across all Cleveland wards; and connecting at least 80 Cleveland families to SNAP, WIC, and related programs. Ord. No. 119-2026

Oral History Project on Cleveland's Hispanic Community: Council approved legislation, sponsored by Councilwoman Jasmin Santana, authorizing the city to enter into agreement with MetroWest Community Development Organization for the Latin American Historical Society Oral History Project providing cultural research publications of the Hispanic Community of Cleveland through the use of $10,000 of Ward 14's Casino Revenue Funds. Ord. No. 186-2026 

Congregate Meals and Community Resources: Council passed legislation, sponsored by Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones, authorizing the Department of Community Development to contract with Famicos Foundation to deliver emergency congregate meals and community resource information to eligible Cleveland residents using $22,420 in Ward 7 Casino Revenue Funds, based on the ward boundaries in effect on November 15, 2025. Ord. No. 188-2026

Council Condemns Racist Truth Social Post: Council passed a resolution, sponsored by Council President Blaine A. Griffin and joined by all of Council, condemning President Donald Trump and his Administration for the racist video portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes that was posted to President Trump’s Truth Social account. The resolution reads in part: "this video is the latest example of President Trump’s long history of racist behavior, including alleged housing discrimination dating to the 1970s, the demonization of young black men as dangerous thugs, and his acceptance, defense, and pardoning of white supremacists...Americans should expect their Presidents to lead the country forward and not pull the country back into the cesspool of its racist past." Res. No. 200-2026