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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City streets and plowing
Good evening Councilman and Councilwoman Mayor Bibb and constituents of the City of Cleveland
My gripe and complaint has to do with city streets our school districts and and just Everyday People the main city streets of the city of Cleveland are passable the side streets as of today Monday have not been cleared if meteorologists are projecting ice to be for Tuesday January 23rd my issue is what's going on with the plowing of the current snow on all the side streets we may be from Cleveland but the false verification to believe that citizen should kill themselves to get out of there driveways or pull off the streets when it's icy is unconceivable and disrespectful we pay taxes many households are several persons paying taxes until the city of Cleveland and yet we can't function as Citizens safely the other issue has to do with schooling this Council and the mayor place people on the board to the Grimace of parents we typically hate your board members cuz they're ill-equipped to comprehend basic one two three however when the weather is unbearable for people who have to walk which is typically the students of the city we shouldn't have to haggle and and pray that by 6:00 a.m. school will be closed you all feel like you may not can do anything but you can you have a conversation with the CEO that y'all helped with the search and reminding him that citizens are also students and they shouldn't have to be harmed and trying to get to and from school now back to my original gripe before this new snowstorm which isn't snow ice storm kicks in or the city streets going to be clear snow because right now if it begins to freeze with the rain and it already still has snow you're looking at treacherous driving situations treacherous walking situations for your citizens that are the viable reason of the city without people you don't have a city make it safe start protecting us and do something about it and thank you to all the men and women who are actually out plowing and taking care of the streets just need them to get to the side streets because the storm happened Friday it's Monday side streets should be clear already.
Sabrina Otis
Utility bills extra charges Dominion and ecspecially Cleveland Public Power
I know that Heap is available for some assistance with a ridiculous poverty rate for a single fixed income senior.
My concerns is for example Dominion's Energy Charges is more than the actual basic charge, and with Cleveland
Public Power how the Energy Adjustment Charge is more than actual current charges. Cleveland Public Power
also does not accept any outside assistance for lower electric bills. Please figure out what assistance could lower
and help seniors on fixed income with these high bills. P.s. why couldn't no one apply for medical bills debt assistance.
Andre Blanton
Genocide and depravation of rights in palestine
I am deeply concerned about the ongoing situation in Palestine, addressing both the current humanitarian crisis and potential corruption among government officials. It's crucial that we prioritize our values over personal gains.
Evan McDonald
My neighbor
I have been trying to get help for 5 years with this situation. I have been passed around from person to person, inspectors, called literally everyone. My neighbor does not have utilities, does not take care of yard/ house, has pee buckets outside ( and other things) .I had mold growing on my house . We can not sleep because his car runs all the time. I truly believe his exhaust smell even made my son sick. We could not be outside to enjoy anything because of the smell , flies. We NEED HELP. I am desperate at this point . I am on disability, I do the best I can with things. I can not afford to move , but I am NOT the problem, HE IS !. We once again are asking for HELP! Let’s NOT pay pass the buck again with his . How would you feel about this ? You can’t enjoy outside ? The smell , the nois car running all hours ? I am begging for help.
Chris
Public Comments
I dislike the changes to public comments during council meetings. Limiting comment to 3 minutes and requiring basic decorum is not unreasonable, but limiting it to 10 individuals in a city this size is unreasonable and curtails the spirit of democratic participation.

Online comments such as this are a pacifier and I seriously doubt are all that monitored and responded too in a timely manner. Please bring back more open comment periods during council meetings. If other municipalities can do it, so can Cleveland.
Lori Thorrat
What is up with Cleveland Public Power cost of energy adjustment?
What is up with Cleveland Public Power cost of energy adjustment? Can we get a little bit my transparency with the bill I thought that cost was never approved by council also it is unfair and just to the people what are plans to regulate this better and what about the people and original law suit.
Brianna C Anderson
Genocide in Palestine perpetrated by Israel.
Demand a ceasefire now. Condemn the war crimes and genocide in Palestine.
How can you claim to represent your constituents when no one has called for a permanent ceasefire and condemned the war crimes being committed on the Gazan and Palestinian people. Barra Abu Elaish was a student with me at Cleveland Heights High School, She was a human being with a life. She was an exchange student, a doctor, a friend , a community member. She volunteered at Fairfax elementary school.She was murdered in a airstrike in Gaza. That equipment was helped funded by your tax dollars. Where is your humanity? She was not the person to have come to the USA, to have learned from our educators and to bring that knowledge with them to help other humans living is horrific conditions. You Have failed your own community members From your Palestinian and Jewish member especially. If you stay silent it shows us that you approve of this level of violence in innocent people. It is utterly shameful that you can not see what has happened and is happening and not condemn these atrocities. I will not vote for you again if uou cant do the bare minimum of your jobs. You will face scrutiny and public shame for aligning yourself with colonization an ethnic cleaning. Over 20,000 children and young adults are dead in three months. How desensitized to violence are you that you have not stood out against this? Listen to the voices of your constituents, sign a resolution demanding a ceasefire.
Josephine S Sicking
Worried about pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah groups in local colleges
As a mother of five boys, all in school age, I am extremely worried about the radicalization of the local youth, specially on campus, by the hands of groups like SJP, that have been supporting acts like the massacre that happened in Israeli on October 7th, when thousands of Israeli, Jewish, Arab civilians and of other ethnicities and nationality were brutally slaughtered, raped, or kidnapped by Hamas and their supporters. I ask that the City Council apply the IHRA definition of antisemitism to the local schools and in the city hall as well. The IHRA definition of antisemitism has already been instituted in Ohio by an executive order of governor Mike Dewine, so I s as m wondering why it hasn’t been put in practice yet.
May the New Year bring real peace which can only come through exposing evil and putting an end to terrorism, here as much as in the Middle East.
Sarah N Gammone Popivker
Residents First Bill
I wholeheartedly support this bill. It will provide better quality of life for tenants and neighborhoods alike, by strengthening requirements for property upkeep and mandating that a local person be responsible for each property. It's well past time that rental properties were no longer allowed to be controlled solely by remote, unreachable slumlords.
Denise A Donaldson
County Jail and medical help
My son is currently in the county awaiting trial in January and has been there since June of this year. I would like to know why they are not given proper medical attention. My son has been in pain for almost a week. We have contacted the associate warden and corporals and have filed complaints with ODH, joint commission, and patient relations with MetroHealth. My son has not eaten nor drank anything in 4 days. I am concerned with sepsis infection, which could lead to death. Why are your inmates being treated lower than dogs? Isn't our justice system that they are innocent until proven guilty? My son's innocence will soon be proven if he is not taken from me for lack of medical attention. I was treated so badly by the COs and Corporals when I called in to help my son. One SRT is trying to help my son, and I commend him. I fear retaliation, and I cry almost every day and every night. To know that you have proof of his innocence and yet can do nothing about it because of the legal system, he is made to sit in pain in jail. Mayor, what are we doing to ensure fair treatment in your jails? Right now, I see none.
Tracey Davis