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

Filter By

Wcsb
WCSB was one of the reasons I chose to attend CSU. Such an incredible platform that allowed true freedom through music. I’m ashamed that Ideastream would allow something like this to occur.
I once believed that there was a part of society that held the rights of voices dear.
Ideastream perpetuating this and for no good reason makes me realize everything and everyone must be broken.
Lidia Trempe
The takeover of WCSB
Thank you to the Council for consideration of this topic, as it gives me hope that the college, student run radio format that I made part of my daily routine, might have a chance to return. The mishandling of this not only damages the Universities reputation but gives the average listeners less in a time when we need more.
My thoughts center around two things that I am certain were not in consideration upon making this decision. The charitable donations each year to THE STATION . Money donated for continuation of the station and programs that people listening all over the world added to over the years. What must they be thinking right now?
Secondly, so many listeners no longer with us have donated music collections to the station, now sitting empty and unused. Is that forever now, as I'm sure JAZZ NEO has no use for them? What would it take to organize the programming separately so we can take a step forward rather than ten steps backwards as this has become a multi-faceted argument about much more than Cleveland and music.
Traci Morrison
Ideastream’s attempted erasure of WCSB
I would challenge anyone to find a civilian who would prefer the narrow jazzneo to replace the ever-changing, honest, expansive, unceasingly describable WCSB. It would be history for jazzneo to stay, but not a moment the people of Cleveland (or globally) will celebrate.
PR
WCSB's programming content transfer to Ideastream
The buyout of WCSB by Ideastream is a tragedy for the university, for Cleveland, and for the community of independent media producers and consumers. I have no idea what the university president is seeking. Ideastream is now filling WCSB's air time with rebranded of 1980s adult easy listening, now known as "smooth jazz"; we can travel to suburban shopping mall elevators to hear that music. I have talked with no one yet who wants to listen to it voluntarily on high-quality FM. The allocated broadcast radio spectrum is a priceless and irreplaceable part of our lives; internet "radio" channels do not substitute for it because their listenership can be monitored cheaply and easily. Live radio listeners cannot be monitored without effort and expense that are considerable even to a wealthy government seeking to know who is consuming the content of the free press.

This year, The Voice of America was silenced. Three other college radio stations were shut down this year (KTRU, KSVR, WSC), plus university student newspapers have, incredibly, been ordered "not to report news." I would have thought that Cleveland's public university was above that. It still has the chance to be. Please return student control to WCSB.
David Kazdan
Ideastream hijacking and stealing WCSB
Thanks to the Cleveland City Council representatives who have spoken out passionately in support of WCSB. Please continue to do so so that WCSB can be restored to its rightful place in Cleveland independent radio. Thanks in advance.
Michael
WCSB
Hello Council, I just want to add my voice to the chorus begging for the return of WCSB. The student led radio station means so much to so many people in our region. Please help idea stream to see the sense in just bringing it back, since it is clearly what the people want. Please and thank you.
Anna Lee Rindskopf
The Ideastream Takeover of WCSB
Hello,
I was incredibly eager to learn at WCSB and it quickly became what I wanted to with my life. Then it was completely stripped away from me after just 2 weeks. This once in a lifetime opportunity was the hobby and livelihood of many people that were here long before me. I was only here for only a couple of weeks and already felt like I was about to be apart of a group that I'd be able to call family. Laura Bloomberg sold us out for a resume detail and a bunch of ad shout-outs over the radio for Cleveland State. We are more than that. They were worth more than that. Laura claims she opened opportunity by stripping away programming from every corner of the music space and replacing it with jazz. Smooth jazz to be precise; a genre so disconnected and despised by the rest of the jazz world for being completely uninspired and going against the original purpose of jazz. She took away an entire community on National College Radio Day. And she took it away right before the 50th anniversary of WCSB. Nobody knew of this; this was all done behind our backs. Nobody at the station was ever told about this and this was in the works for months, maybe even longer. This was devastating to me as I wanted to pursue music in some form in my lifetime. I was given this amazing path in life. It is gone now. But, there is still hope. Please help us bring back 50 years of history and give the station back. Thank you for your time and please give Cleveland back our station.
Nathan A. Webster
XCSB Student Radio
I grew up in Cleveland, spending 30 years in North Collinwood, and music and radio were a huge part of my life and identity. Cleveland State’s radio station helped launch the careers of many of the legendary WMMS disc jockeys who defined an era of Cleveland rock radio. The station’s success — and its impact on our city’s culture — came directly from those CSU roots.

So why take that legacy away from today’s students and the generations to come? CSU’s radio program is more than a class or a club — it’s a creative outlet, a training ground, and a vital part of Cleveland’s cultural story. Cutting programs like this at our downtown university doesn’t strengthen the institution — it weakens it. Fewer opportunities mean fewer students, less community connection, and a diminished reputation.

Cleveland State should be investing in what makes it distinctive — not dismantling it.
Barbara Sandon Norris
WCSB
I urge the council to pass, unanimously, a resolution condemning IdeaStream and Cleveland State University for ruining a fine student-operated radio station on the eve of its 50th anniversary.
Vern Morrison
IdeaStream takeover of WCSB
I lived in old Brooklyn from 19-22 and during that time I became a regular listener of WCSB. From the Jazz and Blues radio show on Sunday mornings followed by Aounds of Beautiful Slovenia to the ILL Nation Monday afternoons through to my favorite radio show Highs in the 60s on Saturdays. I listened to WCSB more than 15 hours a well and have continued listening since moving out of Cleveland. Student run radio is the only place to hear diverse music from around the world.

What CSU and IdeaStream did was simply unbelievable. They took the station away in the middle of a semester with no warning. DJs with decade old audiences couldn’t say goodbye or make arrangements to move their shows elsewhere. Student DJs being led out of the studio with a police escort? Simply unacceptable.

Whatever can be done to get WCSB back in the hands of the students and community that built it for nearly 50 years should be done. I hope city council is successful in taking action.
Evan Belfiore