CLEVELAND, Ohio – For the first time in nearly a century, Cleveland City Council intends to soon let members of the public speak at its formal meetings.
Council President Kevin Kelley said Wednesday the council’s legal staff has nearly completed drafting legislation to change council’s meeting rules to create a comment period.
“There’s a high likelihood we will be amending our council rules at our August meeting and then going live in September,” Kelley said.
Historically, members of the public have not been allowed to speak that the public meetings of the full body of City Council, which are largely ceremonial sessions – other than during a brief period in the 1920s when the city was under a city manager form of government.
The public is allowed to speak at committee meetings where the council does most of its work. Allowing public comment at committees, though, is at the discretion of the committee chairs.
Clevelanders for Public Comment, a citizens group, has pressed the council to begin allowing the public to have a voice at the meetings. Its members have argued that allowing people to speak at the full council meeting would heighten citizens’ interest in their city government and promote greater transparency and accountability.
The organization prepared a draft ordinance that would codify the comment period.
The comment period likely will look like this:
- Speakers would be allotted two to three minutes during a 30-minute period early in the council’s regular meeting.
- Residents would have to sign up ahead of the meeting to speak and would be heard on a first-come first-serve basis.
- Those who don’t get to speak would be given priority at a subsequent meeting.
Members of City Council agreed in May to instead change the council rules, a simpler process than enacting an ordinance. The rules changes are similar to the proposals made by Clevelanders for Public Comment.
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July 15, 2021 at 04:38AM
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Cleveland City Council nears decision to allow public comments for first time in a century - cleveland.com
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