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

Voting Rights
Tamir rice age 12 who was murdered by the Cleveland police we need to lower the voting age to 12, six or really actually zero ! Cleveland should I thought adopt ranked choice voting and allow all residents regardless of the immigration status to vote. We had a cinemas defund War & prison. We awesomeness explain putting rights to those were currently in prison.
Polyamorous seeking 4 Brotherhusbands
Pro Palestinian advocates
I think Cleveland as a City should not make proclamations about things such as this. We should focus on us and what can bring us together. I see how all the council people are respectful to each other. If only all of us acted that way. I know the protesters have their own thoughts, but I do not believe they have The City of Cleveland as their main concern. They can't impose their will on others.
Cleveland first!
Barbara Starr
Public Transportation
The flats east bank do not have any public transportation since the rapid closed. Can the B Like Trolley add a stop or 2 in the flats? In the winter it is difficult to walk up the hill to the stops on west 9th Street.
Brenden K.
Black History
I remember playing softball for Chesterfield playground, around 1962 and on our way to play Glenside, we were called all kinds of niggers by grown-ups and kids. At that time that area was mostly white. During1964 and 1965, Busing was a big issue. I remember Black children bused to elementary school in Murray Hill. These Black children were not allowed to eat lunch with the white children and also one day the Black children, parents and school officials were assaulted by the People in Murry Hill. Also, Black children going to Collinwood High School were assaulted by grown White men as they got off the bus to attend school. Some of these Brothers and Sisters, I knew personally, and some were my friends. Some of us were Drafted, some Volunteered and some died in Vietnam for a country that did not protect us a children. I REMEMBER .
Vernon A. Kittrells Jr.
Public Comment
The public comment on display in this city has been abhorrent. People using the microphone or shouting from the gallery with calls for violence, threatening council members, erasing Israel from the map. Where has decency gone?
Matt Johnson
City Budget
Cleveland stubbornly remains one of the poorest big cities in the United States, after decades of lavish public subsidies to the private sector to stimulate economic activity that would somehow “trickle-down” to poor people in the city.

Why is endemic poverty in Cleveland not the city’s number one budget priority?
Arthur Hargate
Council President Griffin
There are now pictures circulating online of Council President Griffin posing with Alexander Popivker, a person known for anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hate crimes. This was at a meet and greet event. It causes me great, deep concern.

This past Monday, Popivker was was charged for felony aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation due to his actions at Cleveland State.

This individual is dangerous - with the help of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, he circulated a heavily edited video doxxing two CSU students. He has destroyed/stolen property, intimidated and threatened students on campuses across our region. Most recently, he has been permitted to speak during public comment and shouting vague threats at Palestinians members of the public while doing so.

This person should not be permitted a platforms.

Take steps to ensure that EVERYONE is safe in our communities - this includes Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian communities.
Anonymous
Community police commission, CPRB
Greetings Council Members, Ladies and Gentleman in the audience, my apologies for my absence. My name is LaTonya Goldsby, President of Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, one of the authors of Issue 24, now Charter Section 115.


I write to you this evening during black history month to discuss the importance of civilian oversight and why you should be more engaged with the Community Police Commission. This council is responsible for appointing three members to the police commission and should be evaluating their performances as commissioners; those commissioners that you have appointed to the police commission terms will be ending this year, so you should begin the process of considering new appointments. I encourage you to have a more transparent and open process when you begin your new selection.


It has taken residents of Cleveland 100 years to establish police accountability and civilian oversight of the Cleveland Division of Police, that’s longer than most of us have been on this earth. Black History in America and locally here in Cleveland has taught us that police need to be held accountable for their actions and not given a slap on the wrist for violating police policies and procedures, the consent decree, or Charter Section 115. These systems of accountability and oversight are in place to improve community-police relations and the quality and integrity of our law enforcement agencies. A violation of either of these violates residents' trust in their police department's ability to keep them safe in their community.


Right now the CPRB is still reviewing cases of police complaints without an updated manual reflecting the changes under Charter Section 115, after two years of implementation. This is a direct violation of Judge Oliver’s amendment to the consent decree. I encourage you to attend their meeting tomorrow at 9 am right here in city hall and ask them about their manual of operations. Lastly, in order for true democracy to work, politicians have to listen to their constituents. I hope your ears are open and receiving the messages from the voices that put you in your seats. We deserve more than “Taxation without representation”. Thank You Good Night.


Citizens for a Safer Cleveland

LaTonya Goldsby,

President
LaTonya Goldsby
Empty buildings
Can they be used to House homeless people
Raymond bolden
Public Comment
I recently saw an interview by Council President Blaine Griffin in which he claimed he could restrict the topic of public comment so that no one would be able to bring up the topic of a Ceasefire Resolution or ban public comment altogether.

Given this council just voted on new rules for public comment I would have thought the Council President would be familiar with the rules, but since he's not let me share a few lines:

"The presiding officer's enforcement of these Rules and Procedures shall be viewpoint neutral."

"The Council applies these Rules and Procedures to all speakers and does not discriminate based on the identity of the speaker, content of the speech, or viewpoint of the speaker."

There is also nothing written rule stating council can unilaterally suspend public comment. Given that City Council is already facing a lawsuit for violating the First Amendment during public comment, attempting to once again do so by either barring the public by speaking on certain topics or removing public comment altogether when there is no power granted for them to do so would seem to be ill advised.
Riley Petro