Making an In-Person Public Comment at An Upcoming Council Meeting
Council welcomes public comments at each regularly scheduled Monday evening Council meeting.
If you are interested in speaking at a Cleveland City Council, please read the revised rules and procedures for public comments and fill out the online form below.
Submitting a Registration to Speak
Anyone who is interested in addressing Cleveland City Council at a public meeting must register with City Council prior to that meeting.
Registrations may be submitted:
- By using the online form below
- In person at Cleveland City Hall, Room 220, 601 Lakeside Avenue NE. Paper forms are available to register.
- By downloading this form, filling it out, and emailing it to publiccomment@clevelandcitycouncil.gov or dropping it off at Council offices.
Registration Periods
Registrations will ONLY be accepted between Noon on Wednesday and 2:00 pm on the same day as a regularly scheduled Monday evening Council Meeting.
Council allows no more than 10 people to comment at its regularly scheduled Monday night meetings. Registration will close as soon as the first 10 people sign up. Each registrant will be allotted 3 minutes to speak.
Registrations will only be accepted for making comments at the next regular meeting; registrations for any future meeting will not be accepted until the Wednesday before the meeting. Early, incomplete, or false registrations will be rejected.
Notice of Registration
If your registration is successful, you will be notified by email or phone.
Accommodations
If you need assistance due to a language barrier or disability, please let us know at least three (3) days in advance by going here to make a request.
Attending Council Meetings
Cleveland City Council meetings are held in the Council Chamber on the second floor of Cleveland City Hall, 601 Lakeside Avenue, East.
Visitors may park for free at the upper lot behind City Hall after 5:00 pm on days when Council is meeting.
Public Record
Please remember that all registration information and public comments are public records and can be subject to public record requests.
Decorum
Cleveland City Council must maintain orderly, efficient, and productive meetings to ensure the important business of city government is completed. Council has developed a set of rules and procedures that allow the public to be heard in a fair and orderly manner. These rules and procedures apply to all speakers, and Council does not discriminate based on the speaker's identity or viewpoint or the content of the speech. Please read Council's revised rules and procedures for public comments before you register and before you appear before City Council.
Please note: Anyone attending a Cleveland City Council meeting is prohibited from engaging in any action or behavior that substantially interrupts, delays, or disturbs the due conduct of the proceedings of the Council; such conduct includes but is not limited to: handclapping, stomping of feet, whistling, making other loud noises, yelling, or similar demonstrations. Any person who violates any of the above may be immediately removed from the Council Chamber.
Rules for Speakers
- Speakers may not yield their time to other speakers.
- Speakers shall only address the topic they registered to speak about.
- Speakers' comments shall not be frivolous or repetitive.
- Speakers shall not use language that is obscene or likely to produce imminent unlawful action.
- Speakers shall address all comments to the presiding officer.
Prohibited Items
- Signs, posters, banners, placards, or similar items
- Food and drink
Make a Comment In Person at a Council Meeting
To sign up to speak during the registration period (Noon Wednesday through 2:00 pm Monday before Council Meetings) click this button.
You will be notified by email or phone if you are one of the ten people who will speak.
Make a Comment Online
If you would rather submit your comments in writing, please fill out the form below.
Written public comments will be published on this page and delivered to all Councilmembers before the next full Council Meeting after they have been submitted.
Public Comments
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In front of the Kimpton Schofield Hotel, the designated curbside drop-off zone is routinely double-parked, spilling into the right-most travel lane.
Immediately past this area, southbound vehicles routinely violate the posted 'No Parking 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM' restriction zone.
This restriction violation bottleneck routinely causes southbound traffic to back up and sit directly in the active intersection of East 9th and Euclid Avenue, creating severe pedestrian hazards, blocking cross-street transit, and restricting emergency vehicles.
Targeted parking enforcement, active towing, and traffic control deployment during the 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM window are urgently requested to restore safety and flow
My name is Brian Siggers, and I serve as the Cleveland Metro Advocacy Director for the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Action Fund, which works toward achieving a clean, healthy Ohio, where our democracy empowers all communities to thrive in harmony with the environment. Cleveland is deciding how to handle data centers at a pivotal moment. Data centers are a part of the modern economy, and they are likely to be part of Cleveland’s future. The OEC Action Fund appreciates the time Council has taken to study the issue and hear from residents. With the moratorium set to expire October 20, this Council has the responsibility of putting clear guardrails in place so that any future development works for residents, ratepayers, and the environment.
Recommendations
Ratepayer Protections: Large water and energy users pay the full cost of the infrastructure required to serve them.
Environmental Impact Review: Evaluate every proposal for water, energy, and air quality impacts, and require or incentivize clean on-site power.
Community Protections: Keep neighboring residents' interests at the center of every review.
Conservation: Add data centers to the building performance standards and require efficient water and energy use.
Transparency: Require public disclosure of projected and actual water and energy use and prohibit non-disclosure agreements.
Data Center Challenges
Hyperscale data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the modern economy. Data centers used about 4% of U.S electricity in 2025, and that demand is expected to more than double by 20301. A typical AI-focused data center can use as much electricity as 100,000 households, while the largest facilities under construction may use 20 times more2. Their water demands are also significant: U.S. data centers used 17 billion gallons directly for cooling in 2023.3 Because utilities and city governments plan infrastructure years in advance, clear rules help prevent costs and risks from falling on the public.
Ratepayer protections
The core principle is cost causation: whoever drives the need for new infrastructure should pay for it. Large data centers can require major investments in water treatment, wastewater systems, and grid upgrades, and those costs should not be shifted onto families or small businesses. This concern is already showing up across the PJM grid. Capacity prices rose 22% over the prior year, adding an estimated $16 per month to the average Ohio household’s electric bill.4 Regional demand growth, including data centers, demonstrates how quickly costs from large new loads can reach residents. Cleveland should require large water and energy users to cover the full cost of the infrastructure, operations, and resources needed to serve them. Columbus recently directed its water and power utility to develop a new rate structure requiring large users, including data centers, to pay those costs5. Cleveland can use that approach as a practical reference point. Families and small businesses should not carry costs made by one large customer.
Environmental impact
Data centers vary widely in size, power source, and location, so the city needs a consistent way to evaluate them before approval. Comprehensive planning and impact analysis protects the city and gives developers a predictable standard. Some data centers rely on natural gas (or fuel cells powered by natural gas) for their own power— which can bring pollution and climate impacts to the surrounding community. A recent study found that air pollution from data centers could cause breathing issues and premature death for people living nearby6. Data centers can meet their energy needs with cleaner technologies, including solar generation paired with battery storage—and some states are exploring “Bring Your Own Energy” policies that require any on-site generation powered by clean sources. Cleveland should evaluate every proposal for its water, energy, and air quality impacts, and require or incentivize clean energy for any on-site generation. That approach protects air quality and supports the city’s climate goals.
Community Protections
Protecting communities are central to the OEC Action Fund’s data center policy approach. Data centers are large industrial facilities, and their effects are felt most by the neighbors closest to them. Nearby neighborhoods often face the first impacts on water systems, the electric grid, air quality, and the climate from added fossil fuel generation. While the benefits of data centers are spread across a broad customer base, the burdens are concentrated locally. Cleveland’s review process should account for that imbalance by keeping nearby residents at the center and ensuring costs do not fall by default on surrounding neighborhoods.
Energy and Water Conservation
Data centers use enormous amounts of water to cool the servers that power their computing systems—much that water does not return to the water system, which is often referred to as consumptive water use. The largest facilities can be used up to 5 million gallons of water per day, compared to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people7. Energy and water are limited resources, and Cleveland should require data centers to use both as efficiently as possible. Adding data centers to upcoming building performance standards would help reduce energy use and emissions while aligning new developments with the city’s climate goals. Clear efficiency standards would give developers certainty while protecting Cleveland’s grid and water systems from added strain.
Transparency
Transparency is the foundation for every other priority. The city cannot evaluate, price, or plan for energy or water use that is undisclosed. Technology companies do not always reveal how much water their data centers use, and voluntary reporting makes those figures more difficult to compare8. For local governments, that lack of information makes planning for water utilities and infrastructure investments that lack of information makes planning for water utilities and infrastructure investments much more difficult and risks harming residential and business customers. Cleveland should require full public disclosure of projected and actual water and energy use, infrastructure needs, and associated power generation, while prohibiting non-disclosure agreements.
Conclusion
Cleveland has an opportunity to show that environmental responsibility and economic development can go hand in hand. We urge Council to adopt clear standards that protect ratepayers, safeguard community resources, ensure transparency, and hold data centers accountable to water and energy efficiency standards. The OEC Action Fund looks forward to working with Council, the Administration, and community partners to build a data center review and local regulatory framework that is transparent, responsible, and sustainable.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Brian Siggers, Cleveland Metro Advocacy Director
Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund
The announcement that the cause of the explosion was undetermined should not be the end of this conversation. These families deserve clarity about what happened, transparency about what has been investigated, and a coordinated, trauma-informed response to the needs they are still facing.
I respectfully ask the Mayor, his administration, City Council, and our community partners: What happens next?
Regardless of whether a definitive cause is ever identified, 44 families were displaced, lives were forever changed, and a member of our community was lost. These families should not have to continue navigating recovery alone.
I am asking City leadership to bring the affected families to the table, publicly identify what assistance is still needed, establish who is responsible for coordinating that support, and provide the community with clear next steps and a timeline for action.
Fifteen months is long enough for these families to wonder who is listening and what comes next. Please do not allow “undetermined” to become the final word. Let the next words be action, accountability, compassion, and commitment and let the families see those words put into practice.
I am tired of watching decisions get made that affect my children, my family, my neighborhood, and my tax dollars while ordinary Cleveland residents are expected to sit back and accept whatever the city decides.
I DO NOT WANT DATA CENTERS IN CLEVELAND.
I am not asking you to regulate them better. I am not asking for more studies, more restrictions, or more “guardrails.” I am asking you to STOP approving new data centers in our city.
I do not want my family's future tied to massive facilities that can place additional demands on our electricity, water, infrastructure, and neighborhoods. Once these projects are approved and built, residents cannot simply undo the decision.
And I am equally angry about Flock cameras.
I DO NOT WANT FLOCK CAMERAS WATCHING MY FAMILY.
I don't want my vehicle's movements automatically recorded every time I drive through my own city. I don't want my children growing up believing that being constantly monitored by the government is simply normal.
Again, I am not asking you to regulate Flock better.
I want the Flock cameras removed.
If Cleveland has money available for surveillance technology, I want that money put toward something I believe actually protects our families: more police officers, better police training, better investigations, and the resources officers need to respond to crime.
I want Cleveland police focused on catching criminals—not Cleveland residents being treated like suspects simply because they drive down a public street.
Here is what I am asking City Council to do:
1. STOP new data-center development in Cleveland.
2. Do not replace that goal with a system designed to regulate and approve data centers.
3. REMOVE Flock cameras from Cleveland.
4. Stop spending taxpayer money expanding mass-surveillance technology.
5. Put those resources toward police staffing, training, investigations, and real public safety.
I am a parent. I am trying to raise my children in this city. I should not have to fight my own city government over whether my family deserves privacy or whether our neighborhoods should be protected from developments residents don't want.
We elect our representatives to listen to us.
So I am asking you to actually listen.
No data centers. No Flock cameras. Put our tax dollars toward protecting people—not monitoring them.
That is what I am asking for as a Cleveland parent.
I am asking Cleveland City Council to extend the current moratorium and adopt strong, enforceable protections before approving any new data center.
These facilities are not ordinary commercial buildings. They can consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, require major grid and utility upgrades, operate industrial cooling equipment and diesel backup generators, and create continuous noise, air and light pollution near residential neighborhoods.
Before granting any permit, tax incentive, zoning change, or public assistance, Cleveland should require the developer to publicly disclose the project’s entire planned build-out—not just its first phase.
That disclosure should include the total acreage, peak electrical demand, expected annual electricity use, daily and annual water consumption, source of the water, wastewater impacts, cooling system, backup-generator emissions, projected noise levels, utility and transmission upgrades, tax incentives, and the actual number of permanent jobs.
The city must also determine who will pay for new electrical, water, sewer, road, and emergency-service infrastructure. Families and small businesses should never be forced to subsidize a multibillion-dollar corporation or bear higher utility costs because of its enormous resource demands.
Cleveland should require an independent environmental and community-impact study, paid for by the developer but selected and controlled by the city. It should examine cumulative impacts from all existing and proposed facilities—not evaluate each project in isolation.
Finally, residents deserve early notice, complete records, neighborhood hearings, and enough time to respond before any decision is made.
Technology should serve humanity—not consume our communities without transparency, accountability, and consent.
Please protect Cleveland’s people, water, land, air, electrical grid, and future before opening the door to irreversible development.
Thank you.
Sincerely, Deborah Scotello
Submissions are accepted up to 5 hours before a hearing if time slots are available