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
XCSB was a tremendous asset to the Cleveland area, a marvel of community built around arts programming. The students and volunteers raised funds to purchase music, recorded PSAs, promos, acquired new music, and hosted events. Best of all, they dedicated time to curating radio shows that exposed listeners to new and interesting music, traced musical influences, promoted new artists and local shows, and generally brought people together around these shared interests. THAT’S COMMUNITY! Nothing can replace it, not podcasts, not streaming. Please restore this authentic, beloved Cleveland treasure.
Emmie Hutchison
WCSB
At the very least, please consider helping the students regain access to the physical station so they can continue recording and broadcasting programs online. Many community members, alumni, and students have long supported Cleveland’s live music scene by announcing shows that might otherwise go unheard. Our city’s venues, musicians, and concertgoers depend on that connection — it’s an essential part of keeping Cleveland’s music culture + music economy alive. I'm not sure what City Council can actually do, other than put pressure on CSU to restore access. Please help keep the spirit of community radio alive!
Leia Hohenfeld
WCSB Hostile Takeover
WCSB is known and loved far beyond the few blocks of the Cleveland State campus proper as one of the greatest campus radio stations in the country. Cleveland State's incredibly hamfisted and poorly thought out decision to shutter the station came as a gut punch, not only to those of us who volunteered countless hours creating programming, but to the listeners who tuned in weekly to their favorite shows. Additionally, I learned skills from my time there that continue to serve me to this day; I cannot say the same for any of the broadcasting classes I took at CSU. If there is any possibility of reversing course on this horrendous decision, do what is right - let Ideastream keep their bland jazz streaming online and bring back one of the greatest things Cleveland - and Cleveland State - had to offer.
Sade Linn
WCSB
I strongly urge Cleveland City Council to do what it can to return Cleveland State University students and community programmers to the airwaves on WCSB 89.3FM. Greater Cleveland is suffering an insurmountable loss at the hands of Laura Bloomberg and Kevin Martin. The decision to automate programming on the campus radio signal will have a measurable impact on already marginalized communities across our city, in addition to undue harm to arts & culture programming and, of course, the economics surrounding it. Our namesake public university and local public media are meant to operate in the interest of the greater good of the community in which they serve, and what Ideastream and CSU have done with WCSB-FM, a volunteer-run public service, is reprehensible.
Lindsey Bryan
WCSB 89.3 Shutdown by CSU/Ideastream
I'm a long time listener (and donor) to WCSB Cleveland 89.3

WCSB was a unique and incredibly valuable asset to our community as a person living in Cleveland. The diversity of programming, interesting content, exposure to obscure or off the beaten path music, and local focus made it an absolutely invaluable hallmark of our art scene as a city.

CSU's choice and ideastreams complicity in shuttering this incredible station shows an absolute disregard for the art communities of the world and of the critical independent voice of our city.

It should be considered priority one by Cleveland to restore this radio station so we can continue to have crucial access to local music, independent music, ideas of our community, and all the benefits that this station brought for nearly 50 years. We also deserve to have universities in our city that do not turn their backs on independent art and student broadcasting.
Nathan Hestley
WCSB Shutdown
WCSB is one of the bright stars of the creative spirit of Cleveland. Growing up here it was always one of my sources of new music and good vibes! One of the things that makes Cleveland so good is its artists and community led radio is an anchor for creative folks of all kinds. Bring it back!
Adair S
The abrupt closure of WCSB
I’m writing in support of reinstating WCSB at 89.3 in place of JazzNEO. WCSB was highly important to many Clevelanders. We are a population of music lovers, and stations like WCSB helped spread knowledge of unpopular music through the city. The station helped expand our city’s musical horizons as well as fostered an environment for art to really thrive. Popular radio plays the same 4 songs over and over and over. WCSB highlighted strange and funky music that otherwise would never make the airwaves. They even had a proper jazz hour, where they would play abstract jazz as opposed to mainstream jazz standards like what the station now exclusively plays. We’ve really significantly hurt whatever semblance of culture we have left in this city by erasing WCSB and that decision needs to be reverted yesterday.
Zack Asher
Cleveland State University's WCSB being shut down
I am from Cleveland Heights, and educated in North East Ohio (College at the Cleveland Institute). I've listened to Cleveland State's WCSB for over twenty years, even as I relocated to out of the state. There is nothing like WCSB, in it's eclectic program schedule of rare music and cultural programs. Furthermore, it has been a gravitational center for an artistic, passionate, devoted, diverse community in Cleveland. I am requesting that WCSB be reinstated for the good of the Greater Cleveland community.
Michael McDermott
WCSB Takeover
I urge Cleveland City Council to take action and restore Cleveland State University students and community programmers to WCSB 89.3FM. The decision by Laura Bloomberg and Kevin Martin to automate programming is a devastating loss for Greater Cleveland, particularly impacting marginalized communities, arts and culture, and the local economy. CSU and Ideastream are public institutions meant to serve the community, and their treatment of WCSB-FM, a volunteer-driven public service, is devastating.

Alex Madej
The removal of student run WCSB
I stand with my friends and community members, disappointed in the decisions made from the CSU administration. The student run radio station was invaluable to the cultural fabric of this city and it was pawned off for a quick buck and job positions on the board of ideastream
The radio station should be brought back to its former glory.
Andrew DeCarlo