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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Emergency resolution to urge the restoration of WSCB 89.3
I am writing in support of the emergency resolution to urge the full restoration of 89.3 FM WSCB radio. WSCB has long served students and the local community. The private decision to cut off this public good should concern us all.

For anyone with an FM radio, WSCB offers rich and various experiences, an education. Over years of daily listening, the station has introduced me to incredible music, across many genres, that I would never hear otherwise. The station is also a distinct point of local pride. When people from other places ask what Cleveland is like, I tell them about 89.3 first, even before LJ Shanghai. As is clear in the station’s wake, listening also makes me happier, less stressed out, more tuned in. WSCB makes my life better. As our protests demonstrate, this is true for many other Clevelanders, too.

It is difficult to understand why this radio station, which does so much good, should be cut. As a local educator who supervises student workers, I find CSU and Ideastream's claim that this takeover is in the interest of students' professional development to be unserious, irresponsible, and without imagination. Internships should increase student agency, responsibility, and professional readiness. The shutdown of WSCB demonstrates the superficiality of current CSU and Ideastream leadership's commitment to "true professional growth opportunities" for students.

WSCB has been an important source of good in Cleveland for fifty years. In ending this longtime public good against public will, CSU and Ideastream are acting against the interests of the students and community it's their mission to serve. They have not cared to listen to the people, but I hope they will listen to Cleveland City Council. On our behalf, please vote to pass this resolution.
Alyssa Perry
WCSB
There are few things as accessible and steady as radio. The decisions made regarding this student community without their knowledge or input is insulting not only to those students, but to everyone in need of free, diverse art and music who lives in Northeast Ohio. I think of the people who don't utilize social media who go to tune into this local treasure full of surprises only to find the same tepid jazz time and time again, until the day comes they don't tune in at all. Community trust has been broken but can be repaired: take the side of the students and community instead of corporate entities, and give them their platform and voices back.
Brittney Fuchs
WCSB
College radio is a huge institution in Cleveland. WCSB has been a leader of the low end of the dial for decades. WCSB is a full-fledged community, creating friendships, jobs, opportunities, and even marriages. It provides an alternative from standard commercial radio and corporate media, which is more important than ever in this day and age. My son now attends Cleveland State University, and I couldn’t be more disappointed in this misguided display of power. This move was clearly done in the interests of key individuals, with perhaps a bit of biased far-right political influence. It was not done to benefit the students of Cleveland State University, and it definitely does not benefit the city of Cleveland and surrounding listening area. Even though I enjoy jazz now and then, I will never tune into the new ideastream takeover station. In fact, the only time I would listen to jazz on the radio was when Herb was playing it - on WCSB. I hope those in charge reconsider and give the airwaves back to the students.
Casey Martin
WCSB
I miss my favorite radio station.
Lily
WCSB purchase by Ideastream
I, and many members of my community and family, are outraged by the loss of culture and diversity in the selling of this station. WCSB held many ethnic programs, all of which have been lost, a major one being the Arabic Hour that was cherished by many neighbors that are part of Ward 16's large arabic population and beyond. Even aside from ethnic programs, the station itself was a mammoth part of our city's culture for almost half a decade. It is very important to Cleveland that this station is reinstated to the students to bring back the diversity and communities it held.
Gustav JK Golden
WCSB
I join those urging the Council to adopt this resolution in support of CSU's students and community-based public media.
Zach Savich
WCSB
I am concerned about the nature of the deal struck by CSU and IdeaStream without public input or consent. This was executed behind closed doors without thought of the community and the students. It is concerning to turn a radio station that is licensed to be an education based programming into an all jazz with no education presented. The lack of transparency is appalling. There was no plan laid out for the valuable collections held by the radio station, no concrete education opportunities, just vague mentions of opportunities. There should have been public hearings and the CSU / IdeaStream negotiations made public. Why was an NDA needed? Why were funds specifically raised to support the station withheld by CSU? There are many questions and the deal struck by the 2 entities should be null and void. CSU’s president should be brought before the city to answer questions.
Christine Nottage
WCSB
I am deeply troubled by the abrupt takeover of WCSB 89.3FM by Ideastrem Public Media. I cannot imagine life in Cleveland without our beloved college radio. These past two weeks have been extremely trying while we all attempt to understand the reason for this harmful decision. Public media works best when it represents a broad cross-section of the community it exists to serve. It is impossible to imagine that the broad range of voices, previously accessible on WCSB and now silent, are being properly represented in this deleterious arrangement. The failure to address or even acknowledge the diverse communities impacted by this change is ignorant and downright callous. This is an affront to Civic engagement and further erodes an already strained relationship between the media and the public at large. If allowed to stand, this will be worse than Art Modell moving his football team to Baltimore. Thank you for your consideration!
Charles Hayden
The reinstatement of WCSB
Please consider giving back WCSB back to the students.

Cleveland deserves a radio station, our radio station, that reflects its people — not a corporate handoff. Recently, Cleveland State University turned over control of WCSB Radio, the university’s long-running student-led station, to Ideastream, a move that is being universally lambasted. This decision silences one of the most authentic and diverse voices in our city— no doubt, and important reason for the shift.

While WCSB may have been operated under the university’s umbrella, it has always been far more than a Cleveland State thing— it’s a Cleveland thing. It’s been a vital part of our cultural ecosystem — a space where students, community members, and local artists shared ideas, music, and, perhaps most importantly, perspectives that couldn’t be found anywhere else. WCSB’s programming wasn’t just student radio; it was Cleveland radio — raw, local, and real.

Replacing that with a corporate-run feed, even under the banner of “public media,” is a loss for everyone. The student DJs and producers who ran WCSB weren’t just learning media — they were curating the city’s sound, from underground jazz and global music to grassroots reporting on issues that actually matter. Cleveland’s jazz scene, in particular, deserves to be represented by passionate local curators — not a distant organization more concerned with branding than community.

Furthermore, it should be noted that countless artists have used WCSB as their entry point to our city. More times than I can count, I heard an exciting artist on WCSB before catching their show at Happy Dog or Little Rose.

What are we allowing to happen?

I urge (and hope) the City of Cleveland and Cleveland State University leadership to do the right thing, and give WCSB back to the students and by extension, the people of Cleveland.
Adam Steinmetz
WCSB
This station and it's diverse programming aren't just important to Cleveland but to those of us who listen online. The loss of the great student shows and especially the varied ethnic communities is a loss that can't be balanced out with smooth jazz. Literally no one but the parties who made this deal I secret wants this.
Jayson Shenk