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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Genocide of Palestinians
As the weeks pass by, 7,000+ Palestinians have been murdered by Israel and every country that has financially backed them. This includes the state of Ohio who has sent millions upon millions of dollars to Israel. Cleveland has continued to either be silent in this genocide, or you have politicians who have been in CLEAR support of the Genocide. State Rep. Max Miller commented on the situation saying “you can put a nice parking lot where Palestinians live”. This is horrifying and I demand Cleveland takes a FIRM stance AGAINST Israel and stops funding this genocide.
Emily Farr
My taxes paying for an ethnic cleansing
I am horrified to know that the money I pay in taxes is funding the genocide that’s happening to Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli state. The fact that Cleveland has not made a firm stance against this genocide proves that the people representing the people of Cleveland have been bought out. It is absolutely deplorable. The death of Palestinians is on the hands of Cleveland if this continues. The Palestinian people are protected under international humanitarian law and their rights are currently being violated while the U.S. government sits back and continues to provide military, financial, and unwavering moral support to the Israeli government.  This genocide of the Palestinian people while the world watches in silence is one of the most unspeakable acts I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. The city of CLEVELAND is sitting back. Do something.
Emily Farr
Public Comment
This comment should be for Cleveland issues and not for foreign or issues about statements. Been trying to sign up for 3 weeks and everytime it's full because if foreigners signing up for comment that isn't Cleveland related. Fix this problem!
John
Cleveland does NOT stand with Israel
At this point it's appalling that city council and the mayor are ignoring us. When you make a sweeping, controversial statement, especially when it's about literal genocide, you need to expect pushback. It's weak of you all to just roll your eyes and act like we're the ones out of line when we want our voices heard. I know council already doesn't do anything and doesn't listen to people who don't donate thousands of dollars to campaigns, but at least pretend to listen. Get it together, y'all.
Milo Schumann
Cleveland Tax Payer Support of Genocide
I do not support the colonial state of Israel. It keeps me up at night that my tax payer dollars are being used to kill children. Do not speak on behalf of the City of Cleveland if you cannot speak for all- and more importantly those being exterminated from their homes.
Will Grimm
Palestinian Genocide
I am calling that Council President and my ward representative Blaine Griffin rescind his statement of support for Israel and rather denounce the genocide of Palestinians by Israel and US funding. I will never support my tax dollars going to an apartheid state and am appalled by the silence of council on this issue, ignoring the thousands of Palestinians and their allies here in Cleveland. You have the power to support your constituents and yet you don't. You continually threaten to, and in some cases actually, shut down public comment. You have the power of the purse, choosing where to receive money from and where to send money. We will remember who spoke out against a genocide and those who didn't.
D Dickinson
Supporting Israel while it commits genocide
The mayor and council should have way more important things to worry about in the city of Cleveland than supporting a foreign country that is currently committing genocide on the Palestinian people. Your actions threaten the safety of your own residents that you were voted in to represent. Instead you alienate them and open them up possible harm and ridicule for being Palestinian. You all should be ashamed and turn and immediate corner and support a ceasefire and an end to the killing of innocent people.
Brian
Palestine/City Council Response
I and 7 other community members made public comment on Monday demanding Mayor Bibb and Council President Griffin to denounce the genocide in Israel. Neither bothered to be present at Council. The response given by Council members after we left was appalling. Councilman Polenesk called to have non-residents barred from speaking. Well I am a resident and I oppose this. When city officials make public statements that affect the lives and safety of the tens of thousands of Palestinians who live and work in the Greater Cleveland area, they have a right to come to Council to make comment. The city government saw fit to send an army of police to Beachwood for a pro-Israel rally on Monday October 9th. Clearly city officials are ok with spending tax dollars for use outside of Cleveland, so to say that non-Clevelanders can't speak at Council is hypocritical.

Councilman James derided us for leaving in the middle of session. It is frankly disgusting to suggest that Palestinians should be forced to sit and listen to a public comment where they lie that Hamas beheaded infants, a claim that has been retracted and debunked, in order to sate the decorum of your session. I watched the rest of your session on Youtube. You approved ordinance after ordinance with no discussion unanimously. This is what you insisted we sit through?

It has only been a few years since public comment has even been allowed at city council in decades, an unimaginable fact on its own, and now we can see why. It is an undemocratic political machine that pushes back the minute is challenged.
Riley Petro
Cleveland Elected Representatives are Complicit in the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
The city of Cleveland and all of its elected representatives, need to make a clear and unambiguous call to an end of the genocide being waged against Palestinians by the terroristic settler-colonial regime of Israel, and an end to the U.S. aid for the state sanctioned massacres by Israel.

Despite Palestinian-Americans in Cleveland, who this council represents, being targeted with violent hate crimes while their families in Gaza are killed, their representatives choose to stay silent or to support Israel with their genocidal vision. Their representatives refuse to see their humanity, listen to their voices, or stand up for who they claim to represent due to their own self-serving interests or lack of courage and compassion. Instead of unequivocally calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the genocide against Palestinians, an end to Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine, representatives only show support for Israel’s efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.

By continuing to support or stay silent about Israel’s terror, Cleveland’s representatives fail not only their constituents, but as well as their own humanities.

We hold you responsible to act against ongoing warcrimes now. The U.S. and the city of Cleveland is complicit in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Ajdin Kulić
Gaza Genocide
I am ashamed that our city leaders will not condemn Israel and the atrocities that they have inflicted on the Palestinian people. You know that this is not a war. This is a genocide. I am disgusted with our country and Cleveland. We will continue to fight for the freedom of Palestinians with or without you. But we don’t forget who stood on the wrong side of history. You have blood on your hands.
Krista Shingary