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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Please stop this hostile takeover.Return WCSB to the students.
Independent and student-run media is important to our city and to our communities. CSU stripping WCSB of its programming not only silences the voices of the radio show hosts, but the voices of any artists that were played on those shows. Regardless of how the programming may change from its current smooth jazz focus, CSU students and Cleveland residents will never benefit from the current partnership the way they did with the student-run WCSB. Students having the airwaves means a great deal to many Clevelanders, and we see how seriously the students and independent hosts took on that responsibility. Independent and student-run media will always be more important and impactful than corporate media - where the purpose is to appease as many people as possible or risk hurting the bottom line.
In addition, the community needs transparency on what’s happening.
I’m writing to express how disgusted and disappointed I am with the recent actions taken by Cleveland State University and Ideastream Public Media. Without warning, consultation, or transparency, CSU handed over our station’s signal to Ideastream, effectively ending decades of student and community broadcasting. This was done under the label of a “strategic partnership,” but it was never about partnership, it was about control.
The implications go far beyond losing a frequency. CSU and Ideastream’s actions represent the silencing of a vital student and community voice, one that amplified independent musicians, artists, and activists across Cleveland. WCSB was a space that represented creativity, diversity, and authenticity. That has now been replaced by corporate branding and bureaucracy.
CSU has betrayed the trust of its students, alumni, and the larger Cleveland community. What they’ve done undermines not just WCSB, but the idea that public universities should protect freedom of expression and student media.
CSU and Ideastream should terminate their agreement and return the station back to student and community members.
I truly don't think people understand how much cultural and arts infrastructure WCSB provided to the community. And not just that, but WCSB provided community to people who otherwise may have difficulty accessing community.
As a terrestrial radio station with extremely diverse programming, WCSB was a Cleveland organization that exemplified accessibility and inclusivity.
The citizens most likely to not have Internet access in their homes, or have computers or smart phones, are poor people and disabled people. A terrestrial radio station is so important!
As Cleveland develops, I had hoped we could side-step some of the problems of conformity. I don't think doing the same thing that every other city is doing is good for us. We're worth doing better! We are worth not making the same mistakes other cities may have made with their irreplaceable FM cultural and arts jewels. I want better for us than to just throw away 50 years of community and student led programming for 1000 add slots and a board seat for the president of CSU!
I'm also extremely dismayed that a public university and a public media company did not seek any public comment or feedback before finalizing this very large and consequential deal.
WCSB is very important to me personally.
Listening to good music that I've never heard before is one of the greatest joys of my life! For over 30 years WCSB has done it for me!
WCSB is the radio station I listened to the most. I buy inexpensive old cars so I only have the radio in them.
While I didn't attend CSU, the college or university I chose to attend having a cool radio station was a "dealbreaker" for me. Back then, I simply wouldn't apply to any college or university that didn't have a student-led radio station. And I feel like, growing up in Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, WCSB may be partly responsible for that, lol. But I'm so thankful that WCSB set that expectation for me!
Just last month I heard a band from Zimbabwe that I had never heard before on a WCSB radio show. I liked them, and they were playing at the Beachland the next week, so I went to see them! I don't want to be deprived of that type of immediate joy!!! And I don't want to deprive artists of revenue!
I want full return of WCSB FM radio station to the students and to the community. Students built WCSB starting 50 years ago. It simply wasn’t CSU's to give away, not really.
As a local Realtor I believe that WCSB is a historical institution that adds immeasurable value to Cleveland and Cleveland communities and it deserves our action to protect it. Thanks for your time!
Submissions are accepted up to 5 hours before a hearing if time slots are available