Cleveland City Council is the

legislative branch A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the authority, legal authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with th ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

for the City of Cleveland,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. Its chambers are located at Cleveland City Hall at 601 Lakeside Avenue, across the street from

Public Auditorium Public Auditorium is a multi-purpose performing arts, entertainment, sports, and exposition facility located in the civic center district of downtown Cleveland. The building features two large performance spaces: the 10,000-capacity Public Hall ...

Downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The economic and cultural center of the city and the Cleveland metropolitan area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square, Cleveland, Publi ...

. Cleveland City Council members are elected from 17

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

s to four-year terms. In Cleveland's mayor–council (strong mayor) form of government, council acts as a check against the power of the city executive, the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

. Its responsibilities include "monitoring city departments, approving budgets, and enacting legislation to improve the quality of life or the citizens of the city" The current President of Council is Blaine Griffin. The council Majority Leader is Kerry McCormack, and the

Majority Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline (that members of the party vote according to the party platform rather than their constituents, individual conscience or donors) in a legislature. Whips a ...

is Jasmin Santana. Patricia Britt serves as the Clerk of Council.

History

The structure and membership of city council have fluctuated throughout Cleveland's history. Established in 1802, it initially included three trustees, and when Cleveland was incorporated as a city in 1836, it had three

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...

. After the annexation of Ohio City in 1854, "the revised city council expanded to 11 wards, with 2 trustees elected from each," or 22 representatives in total. By 1885, the city's legislature had grown to 50 representatives. Cleveland's 1892 Federal Plan, which strengthened the powers of the mayor, reduced the size of council to 20 members, but after the plan was ruled unconstitutional by the

Supreme Court of Ohio The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, ...

in 1902, council membership grew again to 32. After gaining municipal

home rule Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...

from the state in 1912, Cleveland's city government, led by Mayor

Newton D. Baker Newton Diehl Baker Jr. (December 3, 1871 – December 25, 1937) was an American lawyer, Georgist,Noble, Ransom E. "Henry George and the Progressive Movement." The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 8, no. 3, 1949, pp. 259–269. w ...

, drafted a new

municipal charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the granting of a charter ...

. In developing the charter, the size of council proved to be the most contentious issue. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Cleveland History'', "those advocating a small council elected at large maintained that it would be more efficient, less expensive and would eliminate local

machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

corruption. Those who favored a large council elected by ward considered it more democratic, since it made councilmen answerable to their constituents." The final charter adopted in 1913 introduced a system with 26 wards each represented by a single council member. Due to the city's continued expansion, council grew to 33 members by 1923, making it "second in size only to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

's 50-member council." In the 1920s, during the brief council–manager experiment, the number of council members was reduced to 25. When the mayor–council system was restored in 1931, the city had 33 council members again. In November 1981, as part of Mayor

George Voinovich George Victor Voinovich (July 15, 1936June 12, 2016) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Ohio from 1999 to 2011. He previously served as the 65th governor of Ohio from 1991 to 1998 and as the 54th mayor of Clev ...

's effort to streamline city government, Cleveland voters approved reducing council to 21 members. In November 2008, during the tenure of Mayor Frank G. Jackson, Cleveland voters passed a charter amendment linking the size of City Council to the city's population. City Council approved a

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

plan in March 2009, reducing the number of wards to 19 at the start of the 2010–2013 term. Thereafter, the number of wards was tied to the population identified in the decennial

United States Census The United States census (plural censuses or census) is a census that is legally mandated by the Constitution of the United States. It takes place every ten years. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790 United States ce ...

. Population decreases identified in the 2010 Census resulted in the elimination of two wards, reducing the number of members to 17. In March 2013, City Council approved new ward boundaries that went into effect in January 2014. Council voted to amend the boundaries on April 17, 2013.

Current council

The members of Cleveland City Council - all from the Democratic Party - are listed below in the order of the ward they serve.

Committees

As of , City Council has 11

standing committees A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

References

External links

Cleveland City Council
(official website)
Community Fact Sheets: Cleveland Neighborhoods and Wards
The Center for Community Solutions, Cleveland

Northern Ohio Data and Information Service (NODIS), Levin College of Urban Affairs (

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

) *Mary Ellen Kollar
Cleveland City Government
with historical ward maps of Cleveland, The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

) {{Authority control Government of Cleveland Ohio city councils 1802 establishments in the Northwest Territory

History

Current council

Committees

See also

References

External links