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
Filter By
Cpp is horrible, do something about it.
Cpp doesn't care about the customers, every other day power goes out.
Tracu Graham
Cleveland Public Power
Cleveland public power is absolutely horrible! We continue to lose power when we call, they have no idea what’s going on. It’s been a continual problem for several years in the old Brooklyn area. Their infrastructure is extremely old and yet they continue to gouge us. With outrages prices, such as an added charge every month that is sometimes more than our bill! Supposedly to cover replacing old infrastructure! It’s time someone holds them accountable!!
Shirley Singleton
Cleveland Public Power
Please hold CPP accountable for their lack of care and ability to keep the city’s power on when it can 100% be avoided. They need to update their grids, we pay too much to not have consistent power.
Jordan Laird
Cleveland public power
As a resident of the old Brooklyn neighborhood I am complaining about the inconvenience of Cleveland public power and the numerous issues of power outages especially in the heart of the winter. Most people like myself have young kids in the house or elderly and we have to go hours on out with out power. Power even cutting off in the middle of the night. With no idea when it will be resolved this has been going on for far too long longer workers don't seem to care and yet we are left to pay are hard earned money but let you need a hardship from them there is nothing that can be done
Angel
Lakefront Development
Lakefront Lunacy: Enough is Enough. It’s Time to Finally Put People Before Profits!
Here we go again spending gobs of taxpayer money with a politically connected developer and high-priced consultants to decide how Cleveland’s lakefront might be developed. And like ravenous hogs at the overflowing trough of public money, private interests are scrambling breathlessly to find ever more creative and clandestine ways to gorge themselves with taxpayer largesse any way they can.
Our history in Cleveland has defined the term “public private partnership” as a crudely brutal mechanism to socialize business costs and privatize business profits, i.e. using public funds to fuel private fortunes. “Trickle-down” economic development has been nothing but a cruel, cosmic lie in Cleveland, Ohio. We remain one of the poorest big cities in the United States, despite decades of massive public subsidies to the private sector.
Which raises a pertinent question. Should Cleveland develop its lakefront? Well, that depends. It depends on what is meant by “develop.” It depends on exactly who benefits, and who pays.
The answer is a resounding “NO!” to more public subsidies for swank hotels, expensive restaurants and bars, gambling parlors, sports facilities, abandoned meeting spaces, tax-abated luxury apartments and anything that expands the deep income and wealth chasm that exists in this community. Anything that perpetuates or increases the endemic racism, inequality, inequity and gentrification we have witnessed, tolerated and in many ways promoted in this city in the last 50 years must not be entertained.
Anything that predominantly delivers more cash to the already rich while ignoring the chronically needy in our community must be rejected. The idea of even more lavish public subsidies to the private sector must be expunged at the concept stage of this project.
The answer is “Yes, of course!” to development if the lakefront can benefit everyone, and especially those who now cannot access it or afford it.
So, what would lakefront development for everyone look like? It could look like a lot of things.
Great cities have an abundance of large parks and gardens, with huge swaths of public land solely devoted to public enjoyment, not private profit. Obvious examples jump to mind in cities like Paris, New York and San Diego.
Cleveland’s lakefront should be a people’s lakefront, family-friendly and natural as much as possible, easily accessible by RTA, with FREE transportation from all areas of the city. Expansive PUBLIC land. And perhaps most critical: lakefront amenities and attractions must be AFFORDABLE, and for the most part, ENTIRELY FREE.
The possibilities for the public are endless, energetic and can address the concept of the lakefront being a place for healing.
How about foresting the lakefront? A huge forest. I’m no arborist and not sure if pines would thrive here, but imagine what that would be like and how healing that would be? A beautiful tall pine forest. A massive Park for the People.
How about a bird sanctuary, engineered wetlands, walking and biking paths, fishing piers, more public beach area, fields for sports like soccer and softball, picnic areas, a free music open pavilion, an outdoor theatre for free plays and movies, outdoor nature classrooms, a toboggan run, a cross country ski trail, a downhill ski hill, a skating rink, skateboarding decks, playgrounds, rock climbing areas, a miniature golf course, a fairgrounds area for arts and crafts fairs, a dog park, a sculpture garden, a public vegetable, flower garden and greenhouse, an exercise and fitness course, a Ferris wheel, a kite flying field, tennis, pickleball and squash courts or a roller blading and running course and walking meditation paths, to identify just a handful of people-centric, family-oriented possibilities.
Unlike many public areas in the city, public restrooms MUST be provided in close proximity to all spaces.
The point is the lakefront must not be myopically focused on commercialism and making money for a few. We have plenty of that now in downtown Cleveland, and a lot more is planned and on the way. The lakefront can be FOR THE PEOPLE, ALL THE PEOPLE and as such, we need to find ways for ALL the people to be able to easily access it, use it, profit and learn from it and be able to AFFORD it.
To the extent commercial ventures are launched, they must be accessible and affordable to use and THEY MUST PAY LIVING WAGES WITH BENEFITS TO CLEVELAND RESIDENTS.
With that said, can business and manufacturers be induced to locate on the lakefront to finally deliver ample family supporting salaries to Cleveland’s endemically poor urban population?
The massive construction needed to make this all happen must be awarded to preferentially minority and women-owned businesses, domiciled in the City of Cleveland. It’s time to bring to an end the obscene economic extraction that outside entities enjoy; plundering the fiscal vitality of our city’s heritage and natural resources to benefit an elite few.
To the extent housing is contemplated, it must be predominantly affordable and workforce, and there must be ample housing that people can purchase and own. We have more than enough fancy high-end, rental palaces that are making investors, property owners and managers, developers, bankers and landlords fabulously wealthy, feasting on the “can’t lose” backstop of cheap land, extravagant tax abatements, Opportunity Zone and other tax advantages and sky-high rents driven up by their supply side market manipulation.
The “bottom line” or “net net” is simply this: lakefront development must be as natural as possible, family-oriented and benefit all the people, especially those that have suffered the insidious indignities in this community of forced segregation, racism and poverty. The key is affordable attractions and leisure pursuits as well as ample high quality, full time jobs with benefits for Cleveland’s chronically disenfranchised residents.
It’s finally time to invest heavily in Cleveland’s people, rather than catering doggedly to developers’ profit and investor return demands.
Here we go again spending gobs of taxpayer money with a politically connected developer and high-priced consultants to decide how Cleveland’s lakefront might be developed. And like ravenous hogs at the overflowing trough of public money, private interests are scrambling breathlessly to find ever more creative and clandestine ways to gorge themselves with taxpayer largesse any way they can.
Our history in Cleveland has defined the term “public private partnership” as a crudely brutal mechanism to socialize business costs and privatize business profits, i.e. using public funds to fuel private fortunes. “Trickle-down” economic development has been nothing but a cruel, cosmic lie in Cleveland, Ohio. We remain one of the poorest big cities in the United States, despite decades of massive public subsidies to the private sector.
Which raises a pertinent question. Should Cleveland develop its lakefront? Well, that depends. It depends on what is meant by “develop.” It depends on exactly who benefits, and who pays.
The answer is a resounding “NO!” to more public subsidies for swank hotels, expensive restaurants and bars, gambling parlors, sports facilities, abandoned meeting spaces, tax-abated luxury apartments and anything that expands the deep income and wealth chasm that exists in this community. Anything that perpetuates or increases the endemic racism, inequality, inequity and gentrification we have witnessed, tolerated and in many ways promoted in this city in the last 50 years must not be entertained.
Anything that predominantly delivers more cash to the already rich while ignoring the chronically needy in our community must be rejected. The idea of even more lavish public subsidies to the private sector must be expunged at the concept stage of this project.
The answer is “Yes, of course!” to development if the lakefront can benefit everyone, and especially those who now cannot access it or afford it.
So, what would lakefront development for everyone look like? It could look like a lot of things.
Great cities have an abundance of large parks and gardens, with huge swaths of public land solely devoted to public enjoyment, not private profit. Obvious examples jump to mind in cities like Paris, New York and San Diego.
Cleveland’s lakefront should be a people’s lakefront, family-friendly and natural as much as possible, easily accessible by RTA, with FREE transportation from all areas of the city. Expansive PUBLIC land. And perhaps most critical: lakefront amenities and attractions must be AFFORDABLE, and for the most part, ENTIRELY FREE.
The possibilities for the public are endless, energetic and can address the concept of the lakefront being a place for healing.
How about foresting the lakefront? A huge forest. I’m no arborist and not sure if pines would thrive here, but imagine what that would be like and how healing that would be? A beautiful tall pine forest. A massive Park for the People.
How about a bird sanctuary, engineered wetlands, walking and biking paths, fishing piers, more public beach area, fields for sports like soccer and softball, picnic areas, a free music open pavilion, an outdoor theatre for free plays and movies, outdoor nature classrooms, a toboggan run, a cross country ski trail, a downhill ski hill, a skating rink, skateboarding decks, playgrounds, rock climbing areas, a miniature golf course, a fairgrounds area for arts and crafts fairs, a dog park, a sculpture garden, a public vegetable, flower garden and greenhouse, an exercise and fitness course, a Ferris wheel, a kite flying field, tennis, pickleball and squash courts or a roller blading and running course and walking meditation paths, to identify just a handful of people-centric, family-oriented possibilities.
Unlike many public areas in the city, public restrooms MUST be provided in close proximity to all spaces.
The point is the lakefront must not be myopically focused on commercialism and making money for a few. We have plenty of that now in downtown Cleveland, and a lot more is planned and on the way. The lakefront can be FOR THE PEOPLE, ALL THE PEOPLE and as such, we need to find ways for ALL the people to be able to easily access it, use it, profit and learn from it and be able to AFFORD it.
To the extent commercial ventures are launched, they must be accessible and affordable to use and THEY MUST PAY LIVING WAGES WITH BENEFITS TO CLEVELAND RESIDENTS.
With that said, can business and manufacturers be induced to locate on the lakefront to finally deliver ample family supporting salaries to Cleveland’s endemically poor urban population?
The massive construction needed to make this all happen must be awarded to preferentially minority and women-owned businesses, domiciled in the City of Cleveland. It’s time to bring to an end the obscene economic extraction that outside entities enjoy; plundering the fiscal vitality of our city’s heritage and natural resources to benefit an elite few.
To the extent housing is contemplated, it must be predominantly affordable and workforce, and there must be ample housing that people can purchase and own. We have more than enough fancy high-end, rental palaces that are making investors, property owners and managers, developers, bankers and landlords fabulously wealthy, feasting on the “can’t lose” backstop of cheap land, extravagant tax abatements, Opportunity Zone and other tax advantages and sky-high rents driven up by their supply side market manipulation.
The “bottom line” or “net net” is simply this: lakefront development must be as natural as possible, family-oriented and benefit all the people, especially those that have suffered the insidious indignities in this community of forced segregation, racism and poverty. The key is affordable attractions and leisure pursuits as well as ample high quality, full time jobs with benefits for Cleveland’s chronically disenfranchised residents.
It’s finally time to invest heavily in Cleveland’s people, rather than catering doggedly to developers’ profit and investor return demands.
Arthur Hargate
Rainbow Terrace Explosion
First and foremost, I pray that every family affected by this tragedy receives the help, healing, and proper treatment they urgently need. This situation should not be swept under the rug. Two children’s lives will never be the same, and their mother will carry this pain forever. Lord, give her strength. Cover her family, and cover all 44 families going through this heartbreaking process due to the Rainbow Terrace explosion .The Mayor City Hall & HUD needs to take accountability for this explosion and provide full support to every family affected mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially. The treatment these families are receiving is unjust, and it is cruel to overlook people whose stability, safety, and livelihoods truly matter. If this were a multimillion-dollar contract or a project to make Downtown Cleveland look great, action would’ve already been taken. These families deserve the same urgency, respect, and care.
Help these families get answers. Stop neglecting the reality they are living through right now. This trauma will stay with them forever those who lost loved one those who survived, and everyone who witnessed the devastation with no explanation or compassion from the very people who are supposed to do right by them. They matter. 🙏🏽❤️Prayer
Heavenly Father, we lift every family affected by this tragedy into Your hands. Cover them with Your peace, Your comfort, and Your healing power. Strengthen the mothers, fathers, children, and survivors who are carrying unimaginable pain. Guide the leaders of this city to act with integrity, compassion, and urgency. Let justice be served, and let resources flow to every family in need. Bring clarity where there is confusion, support where there is lack, and hope where hearts are heavy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Help these families get answers. Stop neglecting the reality they are living through right now. This trauma will stay with them forever those who lost loved one those who survived, and everyone who witnessed the devastation with no explanation or compassion from the very people who are supposed to do right by them. They matter. 🙏🏽❤️Prayer
Heavenly Father, we lift every family affected by this tragedy into Your hands. Cover them with Your peace, Your comfort, and Your healing power. Strengthen the mothers, fathers, children, and survivors who are carrying unimaginable pain. Guide the leaders of this city to act with integrity, compassion, and urgency. Let justice be served, and let resources flow to every family in need. Bring clarity where there is confusion, support where there is lack, and hope where hearts are heavy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Tiaerria Smiley
Rainbow Terrace explosion
Why hasn't there been an update about the Rainbow Terrance explosion ? Why is the Tennants still displaced . I feel the city of Cleveland deserves answers this could happen to anyone of us at the very least.
Regina Adams
Rainbow Terrace Explosion
Saturday, I had the blessing of spending the afternoon with 10-year-old Z.
Our families went to Tower City to try to experience a little holiday joy the kind that children should be able to feel without effort, without pain, without fear.
But Z is not most children.
On June 23rd, she was burned on over 50% of her body in the explosion at Rainbow Terrace. That day also took the life of the only father she and her brother have ever known, Mr. Cordell Sheffield. Cordell was not just a partner to their mother. He was “Daddy.” He was love, safety, presence, and guidance. His absence is not just emotional, it reshaped their entire world.
Her older brother Ty, now 12, was burned the same way on over 50% of his body.
What happened to them was not an accident. It was a failure of systems that should have kept these families safe. And while silence is presistent and policy conversations are happening around the city, these children are still living the consequences in their bodies, every single day.
On Friday, December 5th Ty had another major surgery. Doctors removed skin from one leg to repair another. He is connected to a medical vacuum to draw out fluids and protect the healing site. He is in pain. He is exhausted. He has survived more procedures at 12 years old than many adults will ever face.
Picture this:
Saturday, while Ty was recovering, I sat with Z in the Tower City food court. She was trying her best to be a kid again; to smile, to explore, to feel some holiday spirit. And then the train passed under us. The floor shook…
just slightly, and everything in her body changed.
Her shoulders locked.
Her eyes scanned the room.
Her breath shortened.
Sirens made her flinch.
Cold air rushing from the tunnel made her brace herself.
This is trauma you can see.
This is trauma you can feel.
This is trauma stored in a child’s nervous system because her last memory of the ground shaking was fire, screams, chaos, nowhere to run, and losing the man who protected her.
Saturday, I saw a child fighting for joy and a body fighting for safety at the same time.
Z and Ty are in weekly treatment, taking multiple medications a day, and undergoing ongoing surgeries all while their mother tries to hold this family together. And here is the reality most don’t know:
💔 They still do not have safe, secure housing.
💔 Mom cannot work as she is the full-time caregiver to two medically fragile children.
💔 Their older sister also cannot work given the complexity of the kids needs.
💔 They have no steady income, not even enough to cover daily basics.
💔 Every medical appointment, every bandage change, every meal is a sacrifice.
The city has moved on.
But this family is still living June 23rd every day.
Now, I want to be very clear:
As we enter this holiday season, I am overwhelmed with emotions and questions…
What about them?
What about two children learning to walk again in their own skin?
What about a family facing disability?
What about a mother grieving her partner while caring for two children whose bodies bear the scars of that day?
It has been 24 weeks.
Our families went to Tower City to try to experience a little holiday joy the kind that children should be able to feel without effort, without pain, without fear.
But Z is not most children.
On June 23rd, she was burned on over 50% of her body in the explosion at Rainbow Terrace. That day also took the life of the only father she and her brother have ever known, Mr. Cordell Sheffield. Cordell was not just a partner to their mother. He was “Daddy.” He was love, safety, presence, and guidance. His absence is not just emotional, it reshaped their entire world.
Her older brother Ty, now 12, was burned the same way on over 50% of his body.
What happened to them was not an accident. It was a failure of systems that should have kept these families safe. And while silence is presistent and policy conversations are happening around the city, these children are still living the consequences in their bodies, every single day.
On Friday, December 5th Ty had another major surgery. Doctors removed skin from one leg to repair another. He is connected to a medical vacuum to draw out fluids and protect the healing site. He is in pain. He is exhausted. He has survived more procedures at 12 years old than many adults will ever face.
Picture this:
Saturday, while Ty was recovering, I sat with Z in the Tower City food court. She was trying her best to be a kid again; to smile, to explore, to feel some holiday spirit. And then the train passed under us. The floor shook…
just slightly, and everything in her body changed.
Her shoulders locked.
Her eyes scanned the room.
Her breath shortened.
Sirens made her flinch.
Cold air rushing from the tunnel made her brace herself.
This is trauma you can see.
This is trauma you can feel.
This is trauma stored in a child’s nervous system because her last memory of the ground shaking was fire, screams, chaos, nowhere to run, and losing the man who protected her.
Saturday, I saw a child fighting for joy and a body fighting for safety at the same time.
Z and Ty are in weekly treatment, taking multiple medications a day, and undergoing ongoing surgeries all while their mother tries to hold this family together. And here is the reality most don’t know:
💔 They still do not have safe, secure housing.
💔 Mom cannot work as she is the full-time caregiver to two medically fragile children.
💔 Their older sister also cannot work given the complexity of the kids needs.
💔 They have no steady income, not even enough to cover daily basics.
💔 Every medical appointment, every bandage change, every meal is a sacrifice.
The city has moved on.
But this family is still living June 23rd every day.
Now, I want to be very clear:
As we enter this holiday season, I am overwhelmed with emotions and questions…
What about them?
What about two children learning to walk again in their own skin?
What about a family facing disability?
What about a mother grieving her partner while caring for two children whose bodies bear the scars of that day?
It has been 24 weeks.
Bridgette Smith-Jacksom
Agenda File #1550-2025: Development on West 47th Street & Taylor Court
Dear Councilmembers,
I am writing to oppose the proposed development of 5 townhomes at West 47th Street and Taylor Court.
My primary objection is the use of tax abatements for this project. We live in a highly desirable neighborhood where demand already outstrips supply; buyers do not need financial incentives to move here. Granting abatements in a thriving market is fiscally irresponsible. It shifts the tax burden for schools and infrastructure onto long-term residents like myself, effectively forcing us to subsidize new luxury housing while our own costs rise.
Placing 5 units on these specific lots represents a density that is uncharacteristic of our street. Other developers have worked with the neighborhood block club and designed homes that better fit the historic nature of our street (which makes Ohio City a desirable place to live in the first place).
I am writing to oppose the proposed development of 5 townhomes at West 47th Street and Taylor Court.
My primary objection is the use of tax abatements for this project. We live in a highly desirable neighborhood where demand already outstrips supply; buyers do not need financial incentives to move here. Granting abatements in a thriving market is fiscally irresponsible. It shifts the tax burden for schools and infrastructure onto long-term residents like myself, effectively forcing us to subsidize new luxury housing while our own costs rise.
Placing 5 units on these specific lots represents a density that is uncharacteristic of our street. Other developers have worked with the neighborhood block club and designed homes that better fit the historic nature of our street (which makes Ohio City a desirable place to live in the first place).
Carli Ciofani
Agenda File #1550-2025: Development on West 47th Street & Taylor Court
Dear councilmembers,
I am writing in objection to the proposed development of five townhomes on West 47th Street and Taylor Court. As a homeowner on West 47th Street I have had to watch two century homes damaged and left open to the elements until eventually being demolished this year. These were not unrepairable homes, and what happened to them is completely unacceptable. Our historic housing stock is an asset to the city. Do not set a precedent that developers who operate with a blatant disregard for the community, its residents, and its laws can do as they see fit with our neighborhood.
I am writing in objection to the proposed development of five townhomes on West 47th Street and Taylor Court. As a homeowner on West 47th Street I have had to watch two century homes damaged and left open to the elements until eventually being demolished this year. These were not unrepairable homes, and what happened to them is completely unacceptable. Our historic housing stock is an asset to the city. Do not set a precedent that developers who operate with a blatant disregard for the community, its residents, and its laws can do as they see fit with our neighborhood.
Chris Faykus
Submissions are accepted up to 5 hours before a hearing if time slots are available