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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Impaneling the members of the Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls
Dear City Council,

Thank you for your hard work.

I am writing you to ask you to impanel the members of the Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls.

It has been almost one full year since the Bibb Administration and Cleveland City Council promised not only to pass The Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls (Ordinance No. 373-2022), but to give voice to Black Women through empower empanelled members aiming to change the liveability metrics for Black Women in Cleveland. As the recent report - Project Noir - demonstrated, Black women experience grave inequities in healthcare, workplaces, education, and other institutions are arenas of life. It is critical that we impanel members on this Commission to examine and address these inequities, so that Cleveland can become a city where all Black women and girls can thrive.

Thank you.

Katie Clonan-Roy
Katie Clonan-Roy
https://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/sites/default/files/373-2022-commission.pdf
This commission was authorized a year ago and yet has empaneled no members. This administration is behaving the same way toward woman that previous ones have. Decisions about and for women continue to be made by those that are not. The outcomes for women in cleveland is the worst for any city in the country. We must fix this at the city and county level. Seat and empower the committee now!
Dick Cahoon
The Euclid Beach Trailer Park Residents
In this day and age of thinking out of the box, it’s disappointing not to see more creative solutions to the needs of the residents of the Euclid Beach Trailer Park.

I do not understand why this plan did not include a study of similar projects that have successfully addressed the housing needs of communities with similar economic challenges in the USA, Canada and worldwide.

It seems obvious that the area is rich in diversity, natural resources, and open spaces that could serve all.
Ruth Flannery
Medicare for All Resolution
Thank you for considering the Medicare for All Resolution. City Council is considering helping to pay off medical debt of thousands of residents at this time. This is a great step, and fortunate that there is funding available from ARPA.

In normal times, people are left on their own to figure out whether to pay for housing, food and medical care. This is not just an issue with seniors, it is everybody. We need universal healthcare, and it is possible, but more importantly it is humane.

I am asking that all members of City Council support the non-binding resolution and stand up for the health and well being of all citizens in Cleveland.
Diane Morgan
About manager 's should not put owners money in there bank account it is not right at all problems mailing me my mail an paycheck.
It goes for anyone that steals money it is wrong an watch out for black mailers too me I have a badge that I won as a lawsuit for a real reason blaming me for something that is not true.
Clayton Boyce
Menthol ci
I can't believe you are even addressing this matter. Seriously,with all the other issues in Cleveland your concerned about the flavor of cigarettes that will be available in surrounding cities. So hurt the little ma and pa stores in Cleveland. You should be ashamed to even mention this with all that is going on in Cleveland.
Ellen Steele
Flavored Tobacco Ban
The National Hookah Community Association (NHCA) brings together, and serves as the voice of, hookah producers, distributors, sellers, lounge owners, consumers, and community members who support the preservation of hookah’s cultural traditions. We are writing to request that as you consider a ban on flavored tobacco products, you acknowledge the cultural significance of hookah to minority and immigrant populations as well as the lack of youth access to, and use of, the product. California took a historic step just last month by enacting a statewide ban on flavored tobacco products, which exempted hookah, for these reasons. NHCA has worked with California, and with many other state and local governments including Colorado, Columbus, Denver, San Diego, San Jose, Los Angeles, and others, to include exemptions for hookah in recent flavor ban legislation.

Hookah is a small category in the tobacco space, making up only roughly 0.005% of nicotine product sales. However, hookah is an important cultural practice to many and one that has existed for centuries, originating in the Middle East and India. Today, a broad cross-section of immigrants in the U.S. from around the world enjoy hookah at home and in lounges as a centerpiece for cultural, business, and social gatherings. Hookah is widely used by Middle Eastern, Armenian, Turkish, East African, Indian, Persian, Indonesian, and other minority immigrant citizens. Hookah lounges across the country have come to serve as safe gathering places for many diverse ethnic and religious communities. Despite the importance of this social practice and tradition, NHCA members continue to find that many policymakers are often unfamiliar with hookah, its practice, and its community.

NHCA fully supports efforts to eliminate youth access and usage of tobacco products, including hookah. Hookah is unlikely to be used or consumed by youth for many reasons. Hookah water pipes are expensive, several feet tall, not easily concealed, and the setup for use is a lengthy process. Lounges that offer hookah are restricted to of-age customers, preventing teens from accessing the product. Recent research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that of those middle and high school students who reported using tobacco, just 1% used hookah in the past 30 days, ten times less than the number of teens or youth who vape.

Shisha, the product used in hookah, is a combination of tobacco and a sugar substance such as honey or molasses, and the total product is only comprised of approximately 15% tobacco. As has been the practice for hundreds of years, hookah is, by nature, a flavored product. Unfortunately, noble efforts to address the teen vaping epidemic by banning flavored tobacco also would result in the ban of ALL hookah.

A ban on hookah would not only eliminate this important cultural practice for many U.S. citizens, but could also shutter many small, independent, and minority owned businesses. Many of these businesses serve as community gathering places for immigrant populations in cities across the country. Many hookah users are part of religious or ethnic populations that already face discrimination. Eliminating this cultural practice would make many feel as though they are misunderstood and targeted as an outsider by lawmakers and regulators.

We ask that you do not target this important cultural practice and shutter minority and immigrant owned businesses. Please grant an exemption hookah for both retail and lounges from the scope of any flavored tobacco ban legislation.

National Hookah Community Association
Christopher Hudgins
Burke Lakefront Airport
I am a 30 year resident of Cuyahoga County. Prior to moving here, I lived in New Haven, CT and Baltimore, MD. In CT, I often drove to the West Haven waterfront on the Long Island Sound, where I'd have dinner, shop, and walk along the shoreline. In Baltimore, I lived there during the development of the Inner Harbor. I worked in a restaurant, shopped, and attended festivals there. When I moved to the North Shore, I foolishly expected the Cleveland waterfront to have similar, or even better, retail and tourist development. Boy, was I wrong. Over the years, I've often lamented how sad and inadequate the shoreline of Cleveland remains. Proper expansion would yield a lot more revenue than the Burke Airport. It would become a tourist destination, just like the Inner Harbor. Retail and dining would thrive, if built to be user friendly year-round. Hotels & residences would command top dollar. Tax revenues would be huge. This should have been done many years ago. Not another decade should go by. Please don't let the monied few, who utilized prime real estate for private planes, deprive Cleveland of a potential crown jewel to be enjoyed by all.
Ramona Bause
Pressing Issues Regarding Transit Equity
First, I want to praise City Council for the efforts in the past year towards decriminalizing fare evasion. I am an Ohio resident who was born and raised in Cleveland, and while riding the Healthline as a black man, I faced harassment from transit police to present my pass, and witnessed other, always black, riders being "escorted" (read: manhandled) off the bus over failure to prove that they paid. I know firsthand and secondhand that this punitive system has only hurt everyone it impacts. To celebrate Transit Equity Day coming up, and the concept of transit equity as a whole, I request for the members of City Council to give up use of their cars for one week and only rely on transit. From transit police to poor sidewalk clearance during the winter to reduced bus lines, I think the only way to truly understand what needs to be done to restore the RTA to what it was 30 years ago is to experience its current deficits directly. Even if this request is too much for ask, I trust and believe that City Council always acts with the best interest of the city of Cleveland and will consider the thoughts and experiences of its residents who have the most to gain and the most to lose in their policymaking.
Michael Harney
Transit Equity Day (February 4th) & Try Transit
Dear Cleveland City Council,
I am a resident of the Tremont neighborhood and am writing as an individual in my personal capacity to encourage you to join in celebrating Transit Equity Day on February 4th, 2023, which is observed each year in honor of the life and legacy of Rosa Parks on her birthday. I also encourage you to commit to the Clevelanders for Public Transit Transit Equity Day challenge by committing to ride public transportation for a week beginning that day. Experiencing public transportation first-hand is an important way to build understanding and empathy about the ridership experience, and to break down the "windshield bias" that develops from only experiencing life from behind the windshield of a car. When you try transit, you may also find yourself walking and biking more to get to/from bus or train stops as well - giving you more perspective about sidewalk and bike lane/trail conditions as well. There are great resources to learn about improving transit - two excellent books are Better Buses, Better Cities by Steven Highashide, and Human Transit by Jarrett Walker (who has a long-running blog by the same name: https://humantransit.org/)
My family moved to Cleveland in May 2022, and we are thankful to be able to share one car while meeting many of our transportation needs by walking, biking, and using transit. We appreciate all of the efforts by the City of Cleveland to make walking, biking, and transit safe and convenient options, and we know there is more work to do. Thank you for efforts on Complete and Greet Streets, and Vision Zero.
Sincerely,
Andrea Hamre, PhD
Tremont Resident
andreahamre.wordpress.com
Andrea Hamre