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
Filter By
Tobacco Retail License and Ordinance ending sale of Flavored Tobacco Products
Mayor Bibb and Cleveland City Council Members,
We, the undersigned organizations, ask for your support for an ordinance that ends the sale of all flavored
tobacco products including menthol and establishes a Tobacco Retail License (TRL) in the City of Cleveland.
For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted communities of color with flavored tobacco products. Products
such as menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars were intentionally developed to mask the harsh taste of
tobacco, allowing more frequent use, and resulting in higher addiction rates. The industry’s predatory
behavior has had a devastating impact. Black communities suffer the greatest burden of tobacco-related
death, with black adults 32% more likely to die from heart disease and 45% more likely to die from stroke.
Now the tobacco industry is using the same tactics to addict our children. Kid-friendly flavors like gummy bear,
grape crush and cotton candy, often used in non-combustible “e-cigarettes,” are designed to hook a new
generation of tobacco users. Nearly all (97%) youth e-cigarette users report using flavored products, and the
overwhelming majority point to flavored products as their starting point.
In addition to ending the sale of flavored products, the City of Cleveland needs better tools to enforce existing
tobacco laws. While the minimum age for tobacco sales was raised to 21 in 2015, enforcement efforts
continue to be inadequate in deterring sales to underage youth. In 2019, only 28% (176) of Cleveland’s 618
tobacco retailers received a compliance check. Of the 176 inspections performed, 66 or 38% failed inspection.
And of the tobacco retailers that failed inspection, 78% received only a warning letter.
A comprehensive Flavored Tobacco and Tobacco Retail License ordinance is needed to:
• End the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including but not limited to menthol cigarettes, flavored
cigars/cigarillos, flavored e-cigarettes, flavored smokeless tobacco, flavored shisha/hookah, etc.
• Require every tobacco retailer in Cleveland to get a license and renew annually so the city can know
how many tobacco retailers are operating in the city and more effectively enforce local, state, and
federal tobacco laws.
• Use the annual tobacco retail license fee to fund robust enforcement efforts, including at a minimum
one compliance check per retailer per year.
• Hold retailers accountable for unlawful sales to youth through graduated penalties and license
suspension or revocation for repeated violations.
Ending the sale of flavored products addresses decades of predatory marketing on behalf of the tobacco
industry directed towards communities of color, as well as recent efforts to hook a generation of youth users
with flavored e-cigarettes. Establishing a Tobacco Retail License will allow the City to better enforce laws that
keep tobacco products out of the hands of youth. Taken together, these policies give the City the tools needed
to lower Cleveland’s startling high smoking rate of 35.2% (a rate significantly higher than state and national
averages), prevent future tobacco addiction and tobacco-related health outcomes including heart disease,
lung cancer and stroke, and reduce the health disparities that confront Cleveland’s Black and Brown
communities as a result of decades of racial targeting.
Please put the health of our kids and community first by passing a comprehensive Flavored Tobacco and
Tobacco Retail license ordinance that ends the sale of ALL flavored tobacco products in Cleveland and ensures
tobacco retailers aren’t selling to underage customers. This policy will go a long way toward addressing racism
as a public health crisis in the City of Cleveland.
Sincerely,
American Cancer Society - Cancer Action Network
American Heart Association
American Lung Association
A Vision of Change
Better Health Partnership
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Care Alliance Health Center
Case Western Reserve University
Center for Black Health and Equity
Center for Health Affairs
Center for Community Solutions
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Office of Minority Health
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
First Year Cleveland
Healthy Cleveland BreatheFree Committee
Hospice of the Western Reserve
MetroHealth
Midtown Cleveland Inc.
Mt. Sinai Health Foundation
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) – Cleveland Branch
National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.
Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services, Inc.
Ohio Public Health Association
Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation
Parents Against Vaping E-Cigarettes
Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation
See You at the Top (SYATT)
Signature Health
Slavic Village Community Development Corporation
The African American Tobacco Control Leadership
Council
The Gathering Place
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's
Hospital
Urban League of Greater Cleveland
Young Latino Network
YWCA Greater Cleveland
We, the undersigned organizations, ask for your support for an ordinance that ends the sale of all flavored
tobacco products including menthol and establishes a Tobacco Retail License (TRL) in the City of Cleveland.
For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted communities of color with flavored tobacco products. Products
such as menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars were intentionally developed to mask the harsh taste of
tobacco, allowing more frequent use, and resulting in higher addiction rates. The industry’s predatory
behavior has had a devastating impact. Black communities suffer the greatest burden of tobacco-related
death, with black adults 32% more likely to die from heart disease and 45% more likely to die from stroke.
Now the tobacco industry is using the same tactics to addict our children. Kid-friendly flavors like gummy bear,
grape crush and cotton candy, often used in non-combustible “e-cigarettes,” are designed to hook a new
generation of tobacco users. Nearly all (97%) youth e-cigarette users report using flavored products, and the
overwhelming majority point to flavored products as their starting point.
In addition to ending the sale of flavored products, the City of Cleveland needs better tools to enforce existing
tobacco laws. While the minimum age for tobacco sales was raised to 21 in 2015, enforcement efforts
continue to be inadequate in deterring sales to underage youth. In 2019, only 28% (176) of Cleveland’s 618
tobacco retailers received a compliance check. Of the 176 inspections performed, 66 or 38% failed inspection.
And of the tobacco retailers that failed inspection, 78% received only a warning letter.
A comprehensive Flavored Tobacco and Tobacco Retail License ordinance is needed to:
• End the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including but not limited to menthol cigarettes, flavored
cigars/cigarillos, flavored e-cigarettes, flavored smokeless tobacco, flavored shisha/hookah, etc.
• Require every tobacco retailer in Cleveland to get a license and renew annually so the city can know
how many tobacco retailers are operating in the city and more effectively enforce local, state, and
federal tobacco laws.
• Use the annual tobacco retail license fee to fund robust enforcement efforts, including at a minimum
one compliance check per retailer per year.
• Hold retailers accountable for unlawful sales to youth through graduated penalties and license
suspension or revocation for repeated violations.
Ending the sale of flavored products addresses decades of predatory marketing on behalf of the tobacco
industry directed towards communities of color, as well as recent efforts to hook a generation of youth users
with flavored e-cigarettes. Establishing a Tobacco Retail License will allow the City to better enforce laws that
keep tobacco products out of the hands of youth. Taken together, these policies give the City the tools needed
to lower Cleveland’s startling high smoking rate of 35.2% (a rate significantly higher than state and national
averages), prevent future tobacco addiction and tobacco-related health outcomes including heart disease,
lung cancer and stroke, and reduce the health disparities that confront Cleveland’s Black and Brown
communities as a result of decades of racial targeting.
Please put the health of our kids and community first by passing a comprehensive Flavored Tobacco and
Tobacco Retail license ordinance that ends the sale of ALL flavored tobacco products in Cleveland and ensures
tobacco retailers aren’t selling to underage customers. This policy will go a long way toward addressing racism
as a public health crisis in the City of Cleveland.
Sincerely,
American Cancer Society - Cancer Action Network
American Heart Association
American Lung Association
A Vision of Change
Better Health Partnership
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Care Alliance Health Center
Case Western Reserve University
Center for Black Health and Equity
Center for Health Affairs
Center for Community Solutions
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Office of Minority Health
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
First Year Cleveland
Healthy Cleveland BreatheFree Committee
Hospice of the Western Reserve
MetroHealth
Midtown Cleveland Inc.
Mt. Sinai Health Foundation
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) – Cleveland Branch
National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.
Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services, Inc.
Ohio Public Health Association
Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation
Parents Against Vaping E-Cigarettes
Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation
See You at the Top (SYATT)
Signature Health
Slavic Village Community Development Corporation
The African American Tobacco Control Leadership
Council
The Gathering Place
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's
Hospital
Urban League of Greater Cleveland
Young Latino Network
YWCA Greater Cleveland
Barbara Bradley Blamo
Adding a hotdog cart to ward 13
I am a hot dog cart owner and interested in adding my cart to the city where not so much congested traffic is and with a menu that is affordable street food for community.
Keryn Gullett
Minority Men's Health Fair and Smoking Legislation
To discuss the upcoming 2023 Minority Men's Health Fair and the importance of the smoking legislation.
Dr. Charles Modlin
File# 367-2023
Why is our elected officials allowing certain companies to avoid the competitive bidding process file #367-2023 this is not in alignment with the process it gives the McLean Company and Wasworth an unfair advantage as millions of dollars that could go to minority contractors to provide services in this sector as well. Our government should not be creating a monopoly with vendors who should be part of the Bidding process consider this at the administrative review and do not pass this emergency ordinance.
Kay Smith
People need to be HEARD NOT SILENCED and public meetings must be open to the public.
When will the people of Cleveland be able to gather at the meeting so our voices can be heard? this is operating like a Shadow government
Kay Smith
Legislation To Authorize $1.5 million for a City Strategic Operational Plan
My name is Arthur Hargate and I live in Cleveland’s Ward 6. I am providing public comment regarding reports in the press that the Justin Bibb administration is promoting legislation in City Council that authorizes $1.5 million to be spent with an outside consultant for a 10-year operational strategic plan. I do not represent any organization and I am not being paid to provide this comment.
Voters in Cleveland (City) thought we elected Mayor Bibb to hire and surround himself with excellent people and tap existing City resources to get the City moving in the right direction fast. The City administration’s penchant to rely on expensive outside consultants is very disturbing. How many horribly expensive plans like this one proposed do we need that never get fully implemented? The City’s history with this type of planning is not very good.
The City should internalize this functionality to get continuous operational improvement over time. Mayor Bibb can lead the strategic planning himself (he is the City CEO, after all) with existing people, newly hired expertise and community input. There are many community members with exceptional expertise in this type of endeavor that could volunteer their time in oversight.
It is critical to implement much needed changes and reforms quickly and incrementally as they go. Waiting months for a minutely comprehensive, gold-plated consultant plan with myriad pretty pictures, graphs and endless slide-decks is unnecessary and a waste of limited City resources. Little or no control can be had with the recommendations the consultant will provide with no budget constraints and requiring more consulting. The consultant’s endgame is to addict the City to the consultant.
Forget the endless, obscenely overpriced study, analysis paralysis and pretty plan and do the obvious work that every employee of the City knows is needed right now. It’s not rocket-science, nowhere near as complex and complicated as it is being presented and it doesn’t take a consultant with little or no present knowledge of the City’s operations to tell the City what people on the front lines know needs to be done.
A consulting team to do this work will cost many hundreds if not thousands of dollars an hour. Projects like this are typically late in arrival, hugely overbudget and can be monumentally off-target in recommendations.
It is in the consultant’s best interest to vigorously expand its scope and embed itself in the City’s operations as a permanent fixture to provide an ever-expanding spectrum of services. Once a consulting firm like this embeds itself like a tick in the inner workings of the City, its presence, influence and on-going cost will only grow exponentially and become permanent.
Existing City managers and staff will be engaged and ultimately distracted by the consultant, often in ill-fitting, patterned investigative exercises that provide little or no ultimate benefit. It is far more efficient to engage those people directly in the project’s design, inputs and outputs, making the people that will be responsible for implementation also the agents for the plan end-product.
It’s effective, efficient, builds ownership in outcomes and enhances internal teamwork and consensus to do this type of strategic operational planning with internal resources.
A consultant-lead, grandiose operational strategic planning process right now is a waste of taxpayer money and will be a gargantuan distraction at City Hall. Internalizing and making permanent strategic operational thinking and action for continuous improvement is the most effective way to get and keep Cleveland’s operational capacity strong.
And there are many more important priorities that can be addressed with $1.5 million.
Thank you.
Voters in Cleveland (City) thought we elected Mayor Bibb to hire and surround himself with excellent people and tap existing City resources to get the City moving in the right direction fast. The City administration’s penchant to rely on expensive outside consultants is very disturbing. How many horribly expensive plans like this one proposed do we need that never get fully implemented? The City’s history with this type of planning is not very good.
The City should internalize this functionality to get continuous operational improvement over time. Mayor Bibb can lead the strategic planning himself (he is the City CEO, after all) with existing people, newly hired expertise and community input. There are many community members with exceptional expertise in this type of endeavor that could volunteer their time in oversight.
It is critical to implement much needed changes and reforms quickly and incrementally as they go. Waiting months for a minutely comprehensive, gold-plated consultant plan with myriad pretty pictures, graphs and endless slide-decks is unnecessary and a waste of limited City resources. Little or no control can be had with the recommendations the consultant will provide with no budget constraints and requiring more consulting. The consultant’s endgame is to addict the City to the consultant.
Forget the endless, obscenely overpriced study, analysis paralysis and pretty plan and do the obvious work that every employee of the City knows is needed right now. It’s not rocket-science, nowhere near as complex and complicated as it is being presented and it doesn’t take a consultant with little or no present knowledge of the City’s operations to tell the City what people on the front lines know needs to be done.
A consulting team to do this work will cost many hundreds if not thousands of dollars an hour. Projects like this are typically late in arrival, hugely overbudget and can be monumentally off-target in recommendations.
It is in the consultant’s best interest to vigorously expand its scope and embed itself in the City’s operations as a permanent fixture to provide an ever-expanding spectrum of services. Once a consulting firm like this embeds itself like a tick in the inner workings of the City, its presence, influence and on-going cost will only grow exponentially and become permanent.
Existing City managers and staff will be engaged and ultimately distracted by the consultant, often in ill-fitting, patterned investigative exercises that provide little or no ultimate benefit. It is far more efficient to engage those people directly in the project’s design, inputs and outputs, making the people that will be responsible for implementation also the agents for the plan end-product.
It’s effective, efficient, builds ownership in outcomes and enhances internal teamwork and consensus to do this type of strategic operational planning with internal resources.
A consultant-lead, grandiose operational strategic planning process right now is a waste of taxpayer money and will be a gargantuan distraction at City Hall. Internalizing and making permanent strategic operational thinking and action for continuous improvement is the most effective way to get and keep Cleveland’s operational capacity strong.
And there are many more important priorities that can be addressed with $1.5 million.
Thank you.
Arthur Hargate
60 year old Jeffrey Ivey, jailed for housing issues.
I think it is absolutely ridiculous that a 60 year old man has been jailed for the housing issues he's facing. We literally have slumlords out here putting people in unsafe homes, not taking care of their properties let alone their tenants, doing extremely illegal things here in northern east Ohio not even just Cleveland. Instead of working with him or presenting him with equal opportunities and resources for someone of his income, you put him in jail!? With murdered, rapists, actual criminals. I have known Jeff since I was 8, I am 30 years old. Jeff is such a light in the community, he is gentle, generous, loving. He hope for nothing but the best for everyone and everything. He helps when help is needed, and he actually cares genuinely about his community. To keep him jailed is the true crime. Maybe this will make you all wake up and smell the bacon and take care of our neighborhoods where slumlords run amock basically ruining people's lives and moving like the mafia. Maybe this will make you and give you the opportunity to create resources for people in his situation or that need help with their cherished family homes. It's rough out here and we need to be uplifting and helping the people in our community. We would like to trust our elected officials and judges to make better judgement on these situations. You got Cleveland ran through with opioid fiends and drug dealers giving them the drugs but this was your concern, and enough to jail Mr. Ivey rather than help him. A shame.
Falon Tripp
60 year old man stilled jailed for housing violations.
Hello,My name is Vonique Ivey,I am one of many nieces of Jeffrey Ivey ,it's so easy for a person to be on the outside making judgement on a man that isn't violent and has not done no time in jail up until Jan.due to the fact that housing violations weren't up to code.My uncle is no criminal nor is he a bad person ,I understand repairs are needed to the Morrow Family home but wasn't done so in a timely matter but to place him in jail for 90 days without bond isn't fair .Mr Ivey should have been asked questions as to why and also given more time with resources to help him with the repairs not put in jail ,1125 East Blvd is not an abandoned home it has all utilities working that my uncle pays for ,he don't have no tenants living there making complaints. A man gets put in jail for not doing repairs to his home when there are slum landlords with property that have tenants who pay rent and have many of complaints but are those landlords sitting in jail without bond ? There are so many abandoned homes that property owners just walked away from because repairs were too much for them to fix but they are not jailed,it's people committing serious crimes but not in jail they get warnings or probation,but as for my uncle Jeffrey Ivey ,he sits in jail without bond ,where is justice ? My uncle is not a bad man he is not a criminal and it's not fair for him to be treated as one. A person on the outside only sees what's on the outside but has no understanding of what's on the inside yes repairs as well but much deeper than that it's a house of generation memories of our family ,fun,food and laughter 1125 East Blvd ,is the home that keeps our family together with the memories and family traditions that my great grandmother Blanche Morrow and my grandmother Cecelia Morrow Banks started.Please free my uncle and allow him to start the process of the repairs to our family home.Thank you
Vonique Ivey
Commission for the improvement in the lives of black women and children
(1). It is imperative that the commission move forward with a sense of urgency given the length of time that it will take to impact and see improvement in the stated mission areas of the commission: health, education and entrepreneurship.
(2) Given the magnitude of the wage gap foor Black women, commission counsel participants should be compensate.
(2) Given the magnitude of the wage gap foor Black women, commission counsel participants should be compensate.
Anne Richie
Black Women & Girls Commission
Cleveland has declared racism as a public health crisis and it calls for supportive strategies and implementation steps to prevent systemic racism and address the mounting racial disparities that continue to impact Black and Brown Families. The misunderstanding of Black girls and women has lead to educational, societal, and judicial disparities which are continuously overshadowed by analyzing the negative outcomes experienced by Black Boys. As disparities highly impact black boys, black girls experience 7x more out of school suspensions, black women in Ohio are more likely to experience discrimination in health care, and black women are 2.2 more likely to die for pregnancy related causes. Ignoring the negative outcomes experienced by women due to causes stemming from racial inequity require solutions. Therefore initiating a Black Women & Girls Commission will initiate the first step in provision of strategy implementation to shift the trajectory for Black women and girls in Cleveland, Ohio.
Gloria Blevins
Submissions are accepted up to 5 hours before a hearing if time slots are available