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 89.3 takeover
I would like to express my strong support for the emergency ordinance proposed by Council Member Harsh and others regarding WCSB 89.3.

As a doctoral candidate and instructor in the music department at CWRU, my work is all about convincing undergrads that sharing musical experiences is worth making time for. College radio embodies those values in ways that we in the academy can only aspire to. CSU and Ideastream have taken away access to on-air radio experience and meaningful technical and leadership work for its students and can only promise the possibility of internships at Ideastream. How can an internship possibly offer experience at the level of responsibility and leadership developed by working at the student-run station?

I am also a performer of classical music in Cleveland, which means that I and my colleagues directly benefit from Ideastream's coverage of shows and their cultivation of a local audience for our music. The former WCSB was a vital part of cultivating local audiences for many other genres of music (including jazz!) and the loss of that platform for local musicians is devastating.

Please demonstrate to CSU and Ideastream that their standing in the community depends on their service to the people and culture of the city. These institutions cannot exist without us and must be held accountable to our interests.
Jonathan Goya
The transfer of WCSB's broadcasting to IdeaStream
At a time of increasing media consolidation, when the spread of false information from AI and other means is becoming more prevalent, and when political actors on the left and right increasingly seek to intimidate the media, it is imperative that we protect independent, locally based media outlets. The student-led broadcasting of WCSB served not just those attending CSU, but the broader community. As a nonprofit broadcaster WCSB was able to offer a heterogeneous programming mix that served multiple audience segments in our community across both the airwaves and internet. For some segments, WCSB was their sole representation on the broadcast dial. So it is especially troubling that administrations of two nonprofit entities, CSU and IdeaStream, colluded to silence WCSB in seeming violation of the very missions of those entities, i.e., to serve the public good and earn the public trust through a dedication to truth. It is important that City Council call out what their actions truly are: a self-serving backroom deal that comes at the expense of the broader community in which they operate.
Tom Hudak
WCSB
WCSB is a vital resource for those in Cleveland and beyond! Their diverse programs offer informative, wide-ranging music and voices that entertain and educate. It is imperative that control of this station be returned to the students. We miss this station very much.
Andrea Vetter
WCSB getting sold out
It's CRIMINAL! Not only what Laura Bloomberg, & Kevin Mitchell, et al, did. But the way they did it was WORSE! And she calls herself an Educator?! A station that was Staffed, Managed, & Operated by the Students, former & current, that had never been more popular than now. And, was turned over to a corporate entity, now desperate for funding, due to Gov't funding cuts, and poor programming choices. The loss of the ethnic programming, is perhaps the MOST tragic factor, here. All so she could get a seat on Ideastream's board? Pathetic!!!
Michael T. Gurchik
WCSB TAKEOVER
I find it so disheartening that 2 people who are not Cleveland natives (Kevin Martin, CEO of Ideastream, and Laura Bloomberg, President of CSU,) spearheaded this takeover of a beloved Cleveland institution, WCSB. There was no respect for Cleveland in this decision. As the City of Rock n Roll, I am disgusted that these people were allowed to destroy something so “Cleveland,” and with ZERO input from current students, Alumni, community members, and countless people who dedicated their time, energy, and passion to WCSB. As a CSU alumnus, I will no longer donate my time, money, or energy to support this current administration. GIVE US BACK WCSB!!!
Sarah Jenkins
WCSB 89.3 takeover
It is a shame what CLEVELAND STATE and IDEASTREAM did to the takeover of 89.3 Student run radio programming. It has depleted a very diverse spectrum of the north east ohio community and beyond. The radio station provided diversity to the community change peoples lives and offering them an alternative to the world of pre programmed terrestrial radio. RETURN THE STATION TO THE STUDENTS. It was in great hands for 49 + years!
Junior
The takeover of WCSB by Ideastream.
The takeover of WCSB by Ideastream destroys a longstanding cultural institution which provides real value to Cleveland residents. We cannot standby and allow this to happen. At a time when the very core of our cultural institutions is being attacked at all sides, Ideastream has decided to make things worse, not better, by replacing programming which serves our community with bland elevator music. We must not let this continue.
Matthew
WCSB
WCSB, having contributed to the public good for decades; and having received tax free funding, is a unique asset to the regional north-east Ohio community. Untethered from the corporate overlords that actively work to censor speech and homogenize tastes, WCSB strove to give Clevelanders the best of radio based free speech. Please work to pressure Ideastresm to restore WCSB to its former chaotic-good glory.
Stephen Faulstich
WCSB
As a now 20+ year resident, WCSB was there in many pivotal moments in my journey in transitioning from transplant from the northeast into a Clevelander. I have friends who have throughout the years hosted shows on WCSB, I found out about many artists and musicians, and my musical palate was opened by the wide variety of music being played on the airwaves throughout the years. WCSB impacted and helped the local music scenes as well, of which myself and my friends directly benefitted from their support be it by hosting bands at the halloween ball, or someone playing our songs on the radio. To see a resource like that be so abruptly ripped away from the community is really disheartening. And for what? All those diverse voices ripped away in favor of big money donation to airing one singular voice (that already had representation on the airwaves, even on WCSB).

WCSB should be brought back as it was before fracking money and Ideastream decided that those voices were to be stripped from the air. Ideastream and Cleveland State University should be absolutely ashamed of the disdain in which they have treated the community, and ashamed for boxing them out entirely.
Joe Spagnuolo
WCSB emergency resolution
I am writing to express my support for the resolution to request the return of WCSB to a student-run radio station.
As a native Clevelander and CSU graduate, I felt the takeover of WCSB by IdeaStream to be a terrible loss for students, the hardworking volunteers who made the station so special and irreplaceable, Northeast Ohio music fans, and college radio in general!
The erasure of this cultural institution with 50 years of history, with no input from the community or students, and not even any acknowledgement of the loss this would be to so many, was a travesty!
Paul M.