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
I have listened to WCSB since the 1980's. Even though I have lived in different states I was always appreciative that I could listen to my favorite radio station online or listen to the archives every day. I have traveled extensively and there really is no other radio station I have ever come across that delivers the diversity and amazing coolness of the music and DJs as WCSB. This station supported touring bands that came to Cleveland by announcing their shows as well as play their music. WCSB enriched not just my life, but also so many different cultures that make Cleveland so great. The Ideastream hijacking of the student run radio station is appalling and incredibly disrespectful. I am fully in support of returning WCSB back to the students and reinstate the positions of these music loving, dedicated DJs. Thank You!
Karen Curtis-Schubert
WCSB
While I love the idea of a 24/7 terrestrial radio station playing jazz, I detest what happened to WCSB. Seriously, Ideastream now has 4 stations?! The students and staff were treated terribly, and the whole deal smacks of a hostile takeover. Was there no other way to have JazzNEO on the radio? CSU and Ideastream deserve the shame they've brought on themselves, and I believe this is a rotten deal. Surely there must be another way to have Jazz NEO and WCSB (as it was) on the radio.
Daniel Morris
WCSB
I think it is vital that 89.3 remains WCSB, a student/alumni run radio station. There are few places left on terrestrial radio that truly speak to and represent the "community" that is the City of Cleveland as a whole. There is top 40 radio and then there is college radio where aside from the vast variety of genres of music you can find, you can also hear the voices from all walks of life that make up Cleveland. There is programming on WCSB that not only plays music that a lot of immigrant communities enjoy but the DJ's act as embassadors in that they will announce special events and different happenings around town that pertain to them. Fifty years strong, there is no reason why CSU should pull the plug now. It is shameful in the way it happened and honestly shocking that they assumed this would go without any pushback from its loyal listeners.
Richard Rodriguez
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