Cleveland City Council

Cleveland City Council
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
President	Kevin J. Kelley, Democratic since January 2014[1]
Structure
Seats	Total seats: 17
Political groups	Democratic (17)
Elections
Voting system	Single-member districts
Last election	November 7, 2017
Next election	November 2, 2021
Meeting place
Cleveland City Hall 601 Lakeside Avenue, Room 220 Cleveland, OH 44114
Website
Cleveland City Council Website

Map of the 17 wards of the City of Cleveland, in effect since 2014.

Cleveland City Council is the legislative branch of government for the City of Cleveland, Ohio. Its chambers are located at Cleveland City Hall at 601 Lakeside Avenue, across the street from Public Auditorium in Downtown Cleveland.^[2] Cleveland City Council members are elected from 17 wards to four-year terms.^[3] In Cleveland's mayor–council (strong mayor) form of government, council acts as a check against the power of the city executive, the mayor. Its responsibilities include "monitoring city departments, approving budgets, and enacting legislation to improve the quality of life [for the citizens of the city]."^[3] The current President of Council is Kevin J. Kelley.^[1] Patricia J. Britt serves as the Clerk of Council.^[4]

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. 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.^[2] By 1885, the city's legislature had grown to 50 representatives.^[2] 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 in 1902, council membership grew again to 32.^[2]

After gaining municipal home rule from the state in 1912, Cleveland's city government, led by Mayor Newton D. Baker, drafted a new municipal 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 corruption. Those who favored a large council elected by ward considered it more democratic, since it made councilmen answerable to their constituents."^[2]

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's 50-member council."^[2] 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.^[2]

In November 1981, as part of Mayor George Voinovich's effort to streamline city government, Cleveland voters approved reducing council to 21 members.^[2] 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.^[5] City Council approved a redistricting plan in March 2009,^[6] reducing the number of wards to 19 at the start of the 2010–2013 term.^[7] Thereafter, the number of wards was tied to the population identified in the decennial United States Census.

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.^[8] Council voted to amend the boundaries on April 17, 2013.^[9]

Current council[]

The members of Cleveland City Council are listed below in the order of the ward they serve.^[10]

Ward	Neighborhoods[10]	Council Member[10]	In office since	Party	Ward Map
1	Lee–Miles (Lee–Harvard and Lee–Seville), parts of Mount Pleasant and Union–Miles		2017	Democratic	show Map
2	Union–Miles, parts of Mount Pleasant		2017	Democratic	show Map
3	Downtown, Ohio City, north Tremont, north Cuyahoga Valley, part of Stockyards		2016	Democratic	show Map
4	Buckeye–Shaker and Mount Pleasant	Marion Anita Gardner interim[a]	2021	Democratic	show Map
5	Central, Kinsman, parts of Broadway–Slavic Village		2021	Democratic	show Map
6	Fairfax, University Circle, Buckeye–Woodhill, parts of Broadway–Slavic Village and Union–Miles		2017	Democratic	show Map
7	Hough, St. Clair–Superior, Goodrich–Kirtland Park (Asiatown)		2017	Democratic	show Map
8	North Collinwood, parts of Glenville and South Collinwood	Michael Polensek	1977	Democratic	show Map
9	Glenville, part of University Circle		2001	Democratic	show Map
10	South Collinwood, Euclid–Green, parts of Glenville and St. Clair–Superior		2017	Democratic	show Map
11	West Boulevard, parts of Edgewater, Cudell, and Jefferson		2020	Democratic	show Map
12	Broadway–Slavic Village, south Tremont, south Cuyahoga Valley, parts of Brooklyn Centre and Old Brooklyn		2005	Democratic	show Map
13	Old Brooklyn, part of Stockyards	Kevin J. Kelley, President	2005	Democratic	show Map
14	Clark–Fulton, parts of Brooklyn Centre, Stockyards, and West Boulevard		2017	Democratic	show Map
15	Edgewater, Detroit–Shoreway, Whiskey Island, part of Cudell		2020	Democratic	show Map
16	West Park (Jefferson and Bellaire–Puritas)		2015	Democratic	show Map
17	West Park (Kamm's Corners and Hopkins)		2019	Democratic	show Map

See also[]

• Mayor of Cleveland
• Cuyahoga County Council

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Cleveland City Council (official website)
• Current Cleveland City Ward Maps, Northern Ohio Data and Information Service (NODIS), Levin College of Urban Affairs (Cleveland State University)
• Mary Ellen Kollar, Cleveland City Government, with historical ward maps of Cleveland, The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Case Western Reserve University)