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
Listen. I have nothing against jazz. If you want a jazz station in Cleveland, go for it! But FIND YOUR OWN D*MN PLACE ON THE DIAL! Because 89.3 is already taken by a perfectly lovely college station and stealing is wrong. Relocate please. Give 89.3 back to WCSB.
Blayne
WCSB
I had no idea that WCSB was for sale. Where do I find the generous donations buy now button?
I’d like to browse this site and see what else is for immediate sale around Cleveland for the right price.
Maybe if I get enough money together I can buy Public Square and close it off to the public. I hope that isn't possible but then again I didn't expect WCSB to evaporate overnight.

I don’t think pieces of Cleveland’s cultural fabric should be so easily bought and obliterated. WCSB was an institution and somehow it’s gone in the blink of an eye. Ideastream and CSU should be ashamed of themselves and consider restoring this vital community voice.
Adam Z.
WCSB transition to Ideastream
I'm not a resident of Cleveland. I live in Kent OH. I have nothing against Ideastream, I listen to WKSU regularly. But I listened to WCSB 6 hours a week for years by downloading the shows to my phone. I had 3 programs I followed, run by these people - Bob Drake, Lisa Miralia, and Tom Orange. I donate about $200 per year to the station just for these programs. Most of my recent musical culture came from these three people and their shows. It is material I can't find anywhere else. As a professional musician, I depended on these shows to expand my musical vocabulary, and also to find where musicians were playing in Cleveland who played this progressive style of music. Once this was taken from me, I was surprised how much I derived from WCSB, and how much I miss the music and the personalities. It was a real gut punch and loss of a community of like-minded folks. It's actually a very lonely feeling. If this station could be resurrected, I would be a happy musician!
Brad Bolton
WCSB
As a current Cleveland State student and former WCSB general manager, I am ashamed of what the university has done to the school, the city of Cleveland and multiple community as a whole. Ideastream has acted out of greed at a time when they should act in solidarity with noncommercial entities like college radio that share the idea and vision of prompting local voices, offering unique programming, and reporting factually. Creatures like them will murder our city.
Jeremy Biello
Cleveland State & Ideastream thoughtless take over and erasure of WCSB 89.3 FM
Cleveland State University’s sneaky deal to hand over WCSB , 50 year stewarded and sustained student run radio station to Ideastream for the promise of “more opportunities for students” could not be more lip service, ironic and insulting to all of us who put in the community service to run the station all of these years. You cannot put a price on what we all individually did over the years to make the station what it was and what our community still is. What an insanely counter productive move by 2 out of touch organizations meant to “enrich us”. I was a DJ on the air Thursdays 9-11am from 2010 - 2020 on my radio show Pleasure Leftists. The entirety of my 20s. I started when I was 20 years old as a communications student. I was interviewed to join the station by students, the executive staff. The education of real time experience and the discipline of showing up each week to create my show is more valuable than anything I ever learned in a classroom. My fellow DJs would probably agree. I met bandmates, co workers life long friends and built and shared in the world I know now in Cleveland. I wish anyone with the power to do so to hold some of these people accountable for the damage these decisions do to this legacy, our current community and future generations who might not get to have the same experience. Even John Carroll University knew the value of their station to their students and said no to the same deal. Clearly Cleveland State could stand to learn a thing. Thanks for listening.
Haley Morris
WCSB license being taken from Clevelanders and handed to Ideastream
I live in Boston now but grew up in Cleveland listening to WCSB 89.3FM and all of the other wonderful college stations that serve the area. WCSB was a gigantic influence on me and so many others who went on to "do" college radio there and elsewhere... It even inspired me to later go on and work professionally in radio for years. There is an immeasurable value created by a student and community-run station as a part of the fabric of the city and area. It gives students and community members an opportunity to provide music and information and ideas, representing multiple musical genres and providing an opportunity for ethnic communities to share culture and connection. I love listening to the amazing variety of programming on WCSB. That's priceless. And amazing because it's all done by volunteers with financial contributions from listeners, and a tiny amount of financial support from the school itself. It was incredibly disrespectful to the students running and working at WCSB 89.3 FM, and to the entire listening community who has been enjoying and relying on the music and information WCSB provides for 50 years, the way this whole transfer of license was handled. After 50 years serving the community. On National College Radio Day 2025, no less!! I respectfully request that Cleveland State University reverse it's decision and figure out a way for the student and community programming to return to WCSB 89.3 FM Cleveland. Thank you.
Sara Billingsley
WCSB
I appreciate council's resolution in support of student-run WCSB, which represented community is a rare way, comprising students, alumni and a broad range of community members, including cultures that had no other voice. I hope the university and its partner will reconsider.
Michael Gill
WCSB
As a northeast Ohio resident for just under 40 years I've spent the last 36 listening to WCSB on and off. Recently I've listened every Tuesday night and throughout the day randomly at home online and in the car.
These DJs and their music are part of Cleveland history and culture. What has happened with their station, or should I say our station is ridiculous and wrong. CSU and Ideastream should be ashamed of themselves. This station needs to be given back to those that make it what it is.
Alex Cohen
WCSB
I urge the city council to get WCSB returned to the students and overall Cleveland community immediately. This short-sighted deal between CSU and Ideastream completely disregarded the 50 years of Cleveland cultural history that this station created. Get the president of CSU to join a city council meeting so she can answer the many questions surrounding this issue. The specs of the clearly heavily biased study done by Ideastream need to be examined. Cleveland wants our WCSB station back!
Hannah
WCSB radio station
As a life long Cleveland suburbanite and someone who became a huge fan and listener of WCSB back in the early 80s, I’d like to offer my support of the WCSB resolution being brought forward at the next meeting. Thank you.
Mark Brabant