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

 

To sign up to comment in person or online, please scroll down.

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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WCSB
As City Council members, this is your opportunity to fight for the people you claim to represent. I'm sure you think you're doing that every day, but as many of us realize, you're not in fact on our side in the majority of instances. This is the time to show that you both hear and understand what the people desire, instead of aligning your selves with the moneyed interests. The reasons the people of Cleveland and the surrounding areas, and indeed many people from around the country and world, love WCSB so much are deep and varied. But suffice it to say that we had one of the rarest cultural assets in the world frankly, and that is not a statement I make lightly. This arrangement for Ideastream to take over the airwaves of WCSB in such a secretive and hostile way by two individuals who are neither from Cleveland, nor have either of them even listened the the station that they have deemed unworthy of existence, cannot be tolerated. CSU is publicly funded institution, and as such should be beholden to the public and not a board of people so out of touch that they would allow this to happen. Some deep changes need to be made in returning this country to it's people and not it's corporations, and this is a powerful place to start this movement. You as Council members have the ability to affect this change, and thereby begin to correct course for the city and it's people. Do the right thing, delve deep into this matter, and do the right thing for the people you represent. We are your board, and we demand it.
Erin Lung
Independent media in cleveland.
Please give WCSB back to the students. We need independent voices of our community to share ideas and deliver news that is truly free from oversight of big corporate interests. Lastly WCSB plays the best and most diverse music on the entire radio dial.
Where else can you listen to Frank Zappa followed by Fiona Apple! Help save college radio stations in the rock and roll capital. Thank you.
BTW I also love Ideastream
Let's make room for both.
Phil Strube
Phil Strube
The takeover and dissolution of WCSB student run, college radio.
To Whom It May Concern:
WCSB, Cleveland State University’s student run, college radio station has been an asset to the university as an institution, the students and the community of listeners far and wide for over fifty years. As an Alumna of CSU, I’ve always been proud of and tuned in to our unique and culturally diverse college radio station. There is always something interesting to hear on WCSB. It is a great opportunity for students and community to curate and create, and practice. It is a priceless cultural icon in Cleveland. This is a heartbreaking loss. Please consider saving WCSB and reinstating it in its former state.
Sincerely,
Sally J. Hudak
Sally Hudak
WCSB
The recent agreement between CSU ID stream is being touted as a “win” for public media, Cleveland, and the community; this is a laughably, arrogant perspective, and could not be further from the truth. How can CSU and Dr. Bloomberg claim to support free speech and diversity of thought, while simultaneously destroying the most diverse radio station in Northeast Ohio? To destroy 50 years of history and culture in favor of playing ONE genre of music, 27/7 is clearly NOT a move made in the interest of diversity. WCSB was a lifeline for local immigrant communities – where else could these families and their communities listen to music and talk programming in their native tongue? Where else could you listen to experimental world music, or obscure metal subgenres, or the history of Black music and art? It is (or should be) plainly obvious to city council and the wider community what a grave loss this is. I understand that not everyone loved everything that WCSB played – but WCSB offered SOMETHING for EVERYONE. To now only play one single genre of music will limit the reach and influence that the station once had, and it will now feel alien and inauthentic to most — and from a station that was once a bridge across communities, cultures, and people. Ideastream has promised to offer internship opportunities to students, but no low-level internship could EVER provide the wealth of experience and responsibility that was already being provided to students through WCSB. Dr. Bloomberg has increasingly made CSU hostile towards and inaccessible for local students, who are being priced out of what used to be a quality education and denied the opportunity and breadth of experience CSU used to offer. This is yet another terrible and short-sighted decision that will not benefit ANYONE. The outrage from the community — made up of current students, university and station alumni, and listeners from Northeast Ohio and around the globe — is more than justified. Listen to us. I trust city council to see how egregious this decision is, how damaging this decision, and I know that you know in your heart that this move from CSU and Ideastream was WRONG. I implore you to pass this resolution and stand on the side of free speech and diversity.
Hannah Stonerock
WCSB
As a listener of WCSB since its inception, and as a life long resident of Northeast Ohio, I am appalled at CSUs deal with Ideastream! WCSB and its diversified and eclectic programming as been a staple of our region for 50 years. To have it turned off with no warning or reasoning is an insult to generations of listeners. Make CSU give back WCSB to its rightful owners, the listeners and student programmers and DJs!
Andrew Smoley
wcsb
for almost half a century wcsb has enriched the lives of csu students and the greater NEO community in strange and wonderful ways. to get usurped like this through the covert actions of institutional higher-ups is disgusting. can they not understand the value of giving music enthusiasts an outlet (as well as an engine) for their passion? or how special of an opportunity it is for a young person to be in charge of their own show, to put their own voice out there? or on the other end, for a listener to have access to such a diverse range of voices? to listen for free to voices that they come to trust in a cultural landscape being more and more distorted by commercial interests? & then there's the innumerable ways in which these voices and listeners intersect and the community that forms around these magical connections.. please don't allow the local artistic community to be suffocated underneath the sound of muzak
Jon Dawson
WCSB hostile takeover
Radio station WCSB was removed from control of the students and community members without any attempt to communicate, work with, or notify any of those students and community members. This attempt to remove voices from many people and communities is irresponsible. Additionally, what is to be put on the air of the station is now a very limited range of what was already available on WCSB. In addition to that, the CSU President has traded those voices for a seat for herself on the Ideastream Board of Trustees. Please help see that the station is returned to the students and community members.

I listened to WCSB when I was in Cleveland, and listen at times, here in Los Angeles. What the students and community provided is valuable and rare. What Ideastream and CSU have done is shameful and must be stopped. I also worked in student and non-commercial radio as well are receiving formal training in journalism and mass communication. My experience in non-commercial and college radio was far more valuable to me in my professional work in radio and media, than the internship I had, though the internship was still valuable. Do NOT fall for the false presentations of CSU and Ideastream.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Allen Gittelson
WCSB Radio
WCSB MUST be returned to the students and community at large. It's a travesty that Ideastream Radio is in control of the programming. This needs to STOP NOW! There are soooo few true commuminty radio stations serving the public. Corporations have destroyed radio & tv to a point it's not worth listening or watching the medium. Local radio is the last gasp of breath we have for access to the airwaves. NPR and it's affiliates have sucked the life force out of the lpfm spectrum for local programing.
jerry szoka
Resolution 1324-2025 WCSB
I am writing in support of 87.3 WCSB’s student-run programming, which has been a deep loss for my family. My kids and I have been measuring the days of our week by the radio schedule and we now have a huge hole instead of our favorite people and programs: Into the Void, Good Morning Metal!, the Auditorium, the Ray Carr Show, Edi Mejac, Sustainable Love Triangle and countless other serendipitous moments in which we discovered and re-discovered new and old artists, songs and entire genres. This is a unique community product. I couldn’t believe that radio could be so good when I moved here from Pittsburgh 10 years ago, and I’ve learned a lot about Cleveland’s musical heritage since then. Please let’s not lose the parts that bind us together and keep Cleveland open, exciting and homegrown.
Alexis Kunsak
WCSB Resolution
I am writing today to urge each member of the Cleveland City Council to vote in support of an official resolution to recommend that Cleveland State University transfer oversight of station 89.3FM back to the student-led organization that was WCSB for fifty years. As someone who was raised in Cleveland and continues my work and education in the city, I recognize WCSB as a pillar of not only Cleveland State University, but also of the community of Cleveland at large. Taking away the voices of a myriad of students and community members in such an underhanded and hostile manner was an egregious attempt to stifle creativity, passionate voices, and a cherished community. Moreover, this deal is simply impractical. There are no explicitly concrete provisions compelling Ideastream to provide the student opportunities so lauded by CSU as an integral part of the deal, instead being shrouded in vague language, with the agreement stating that "Over the term of the PSOA, Ideastream will prioritize paid and for-credit internships, classroom-level projects and other opportunities for students…” A lack of specificity in language is a common tactic utilized to escape scrutiny and responsibility. For example, how many opportunities does Ideastream have to provide CSU students in order for it to quality as “prioritization”? The initial obfuscation of a number of provisions in the agreement, such as a seat on the Ideastream Board of Trustees for CSU President Laura Bloomberg, and a misleading emphasis on student opportunities, makes it clear that Cleveland State leadership knew this deal was not to the benefit of their students nor Cleveland as a whole. While providing career preparation is an important component of higher education, there is also an essential requirement for institutions to foster student connection and community, NOT squander it. A society where commodification is valued at the expense of art and community will inevitably breed a soulless, discontent, and unfulfilled polity. With these sentiments in mind, please support the effort to transfer WCSB back to the hands that kept the station flourishing for fifty years.
Aviana Tovanche