City Council operates according to the city charter and municipal code, but also follows self-appointed Rules of Council that address things like courtesy and decorum.
All “public bodies” in Ohio are required to conduct business in meetings that are open to the public (with some exceptions; see below). State law also requires advance notice with when and where the public body will meet.
The city uses a system called Legistar to publish all filed legislation, meeting dates, agendas and minutes.
Visiting City Hall
Cincinnati City Hall is located Downtown at 801 Plum Street. The building is open to the public on weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Parking is available nearby at public garages and lots, and at metered street parking. A Red Bike station and a bus stop are located right in front of City Hall.
The main entrance on Plum Street requires navigating several stairs. A wheelchair-accessible entrance is located on Ninth Street, around the corner from the main entrance.
When you visit City Hall, you’ll be asked to sign in with your name and purpose for visiting; you’ll also go through a metal detector and your belongings may be passed through a security scanner.
City Council meetings
City Council’s nine members meet weekly on Wednesdays, in Council chambers at City Hall (801 Plum Street).
Council takes a summer recess, typically from mid-June until the beginning of September, and meets only once during that time — usually the first week of August. The mayor can call a special session of City Council during the recess to address a specific issue.
Meeting notices are published on Legistar; you can also contact the Clerk of Council (clerkofcouncil@cincinnati-oh.gov) to request email notifications for each agenda and meeting notifications.
City Council meetings officially begin at 2 p.m., but the public comment portion starts at 1:30 p.m. and can continue past the 2 p.m. meeting start (at the discretion of the mayor).
City Council also meets in committees; right now there are six, but that can change with each new mayoral term. Some committees meet weekly, while others meet every other week.
All Council meetings take place in Council chambers on the third floor of City Hall. There are a few exceptions — a committee will sometimes meet out in the community, and at least a couple public hearings about the city budget are always scheduled in one of the neighborhoods.
How to speak in a City Council meeting
Each meeting has a public comment portion where anyone can speak. You do not have to be a Cincinnati resident, and you are not limited to addressing a topic on the agenda.
Public speakers are called in the order of registration. Each person has up to two minutes to speak. Public comment is generally considered one-way, meaning Council members and the mayor will not answer questions.
To speak in person: Fill out a speaker registration card, located on the right of the dais as you enter the room; someone from the Clerk of Council office should be there to answer questions.
To speak virtually via Zoom: You must register in advance on the city website; the deadline is 2 p.m. on the day before the meeting, or by 9 a.m. the day of the meeting if your comments are related to a public hearing item.
How to watch City Council meetings virtually
All meetings are broadcast and livestreamed on CitiCable; most are also livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
Meeting videos are uploaded to the CitiCable archive, generally a few days after the meeting. Videos livestreamed to YouTube and Facebook are usually available immediately after the meeting ends.
Council committees — where the action is
Most debate about legislation happens in committee; Council members can ask questions, hear arguments and propose amendments before deciding how to vote.
Items like motions and ordinances must get an affirmative vote from a majority of committee members before it can go before full City Council. Sometimes that will be a roll-call vote, where each member says “yes” or “no.”
For most routine items, the committee chair will say, “Without objection, we’ll put item XX on for passage.” Unless another member asks for a roll-call vote at that point, the item will move forward to full Council.
A few committees include all nine members of Council, so if an item passes out of committee with majority support, it’s unlikely that item will fail the final City Council vote.
That means public feedback is usually most effective at this stage in the process — by the time an item makes it to full Council, we usually know how the vote will turn out.
Some committees have only three or four members, so passage out of committee doesn’t necessarily indicate it will get a five-vote majority of full Council.
Committees also are a place for Council to learn more about a topic or concern, even if there’s not an ordinance or motion up for consideration. Committee chairs will invite internal or external presenters to share information; it could be an update on a city project, or an organization asking for city funding. Sometimes the only items on a committee agenda are presentations.
What is an executive session?
As explained above, state law requires public bodies to meet publicly — but state law also allows a private meeting for one of several very specific purposes.
Council must declare the reason for a private meeting, called “executive session,” and a majority of Council must vote affirmatively to begin an executive session.
Council declares the reason for an executive session by listing the specific Ohio Revised Code number, which you can find online.
The most common reasons cited in Cincinnati are:
- To consider the employment, dismissal, discipline or other personnel-related topic of a public employee who is not elected. The name of the public employee does not need to be disclosed
- To meet with an attorney concerning pending or imminent court action (i.e., lawsuits filed by the city or against the city)
- To prepare for, conduct or review negotiations or bargaining with public employees concerning compensation or other terms of employment
Other acceptable reasons include:
- To consider the sale or purchase of property
- To consider matters “required to be kept confidential by federal law or regulations or state statutes”
- To consider security and emergency response protocols for a public body or office, if discussing it publicly could jeopardize the security
- To consider trade secrets (this applies specifically to a county hospital, municipal hospital or joint township hospital — it’s not relevant to Cincinnati City Council)
- To consider confidential information related to marketing, business strategy, trade secrets or personal financial statements of an applicant for economic development assistance, or to negotiations with other political subdivisions regarding requests for economic development assistance.
City announcements and memos
Announcements from city administration are published on the city website: cincinnati-oh.gov/cityofcincinnati/news
You also can find a list of social media accounts affiliated with the city’s various departments on the city website.
The city manager often sends memos to City Council with various updates on topics; many of those “FYI Memos” are also published publicly on this web page. You can search the archive for memos from previous city managers as well.
Not all administrative memos are published publicly, including any that include "privileged" information from the city law department.
How to contact public officials
You can email all nine City Council members at CityCouncil@cincinnati-oh.gov.
You can find a list of each member’s individual email, office phone number and office location on the city website.
You can contact the mayor’s office by calling 513-352-3250. You can find the mayor’s email address on the city website, as well as direct contact information for the mayor’s staff.
You can call the city manager’s office at 513-352-3243.
Communications with public officials (voicemails, emails, written letters, etc.) are subject to Ohio’s public records laws.
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