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
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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Let's get politicians who actually care about the issues the voting citizens of Cleveland care about
NO CEASE-FIRE!
Since 1948, those “poor Palestinians” have turned down EVERY attempt Israel and other parties have made to reach a two-state solution. Instead, they consistently throw their lot in with Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran, Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq, all of whom want to see Israel destroyed. Clearly, you have conveniently forgotten how Yasser Arafat turned down a most generous Israeli peace offer made by Ehud Barack and instead launched his Second Intifada.
And there’s more….
Three-quarters of Palestinians support Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, and nearly as many back a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea,” according to newly released poll results.
The survey was conducted by the independent Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), a public opinion research firm based in the Palestinian territories and affiliated with Birzeit University in the West Bank.
The Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel…no ifs, ands or buts…and yet you have nothing to say about that.
And then there is the current, most-favored mantra of the Palestinians: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” That means no more Israel and no more Jews. Well, good luck with that because it’s NOT going to happen.
Palestinian hospitals were just about run out of fuel while Hamas sat on 200,000 gallons of fuel to use for rockets to fire into Israel. Hamas tore up piping infrastructure that would have delivered water to your “poor Palestinians” and used the pipes to make rockets with which they continue to bombard Israel.
And then there’s the matter of 1,400 innocent Israelis butchered by Hamas when they invaded Israel. During that horror, a baby was broiled in an oven, with its dying mother kept alive only long enough to hear its screams.
As former President Barack Obama famously said, “Elections have consequences.” Well, the “poor Palestinians” got what they voted for.
When the Israelis left Gaza in the early 2000s, the first thing the Palestinians did was smash the greenhouses and other infrastructure the Israelis left behind. Then they voted Hamas into power. Then Hamas started lobbing rockets into Israel. Then Hamas invaded Israel and killed 1,400 Israelis, including old men and old women, raping women and dragging children into Gaza, took more than 200 hostages and continue—to this day—to fire rockets into Israel.
If the Palestinians put down their guns tomorrow, there would be peace. If Israel put down its guns tomorrow, it would cease to exist.
Hamas started this war. The Israelis will end it. Denounce Hamas. Demand the release of the hostages. But first and foremost, GET EDUCATED!
"When one of our brothers is hurting, we all hurt as well. There is no peace until there is peace for all. "
Please speak up and SHUT IT DOWN. END THIS MADNESS, DESTRUCTION, AND HORRIFIC GENECIDE.
Currently we are seeing over a million people being asked to leave their homes overnight, only for them to be bombed on their way to what they believe would be safety. We are watching all of the electricity, water, and aid being stopped going into Gaza by the Israeli military. And we are watching all of these atrocities unfold from our screens, radios, and every day conversations. And we are all asking each other, what can I do to stop this? As we say “never again.”
In this time, I continue to return to the guiding tenets of Judaism, which are to love the stranger, to treat our neighbor as ourselves. What has troubled me so deeply about this war, is the truth that everything about the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government violates the central tenets of Judaism. All of this death and destruction in Gaza is the opposite of loving one's neighbor as oneself. I am here today because I cannot stand by as my community continues to act in ways that take away the safety of millions of others. I believe in a future where hostages are returned to their families, and children are free to go to school and play outside, and hospitals are not bombed. I know that this future does not come from the continued war. I am here to encourage you, the City Council of Cleveland, to acknowledge that there are Jews around the world and here in Cleveland who stand against Hamas, but also do not stand with Israel and their bombs against Gaza. I am here to ask you to acknowledge the massive loss of life we are seeing every day in Gaza. I am here to ask you to honor the Jewish value of life, to recognize that if saving one life means saving the world, what does it mean to save a million lives?
I am asking you to join with other leaders in calling for an end to this war. The futures of Jews and Palestinians are bound together, it is not either or. When we erase each other, we erase ourselves. We will only survive together. The best way to support both our peoples is by preventing Israel from continuing on this genocidal path it is on. It is my sincere hope that the City Council will use its influence to not only call for an end to violence but also to encourage diplomatic efforts that lead to a just and lasting resolution. In doing so, we can demonstrate that even from afar, our city stands as a beacon of compassion and solidarity. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Thank you.
Submissions are accepted up to 5 hours before a hearing if time slots are available