Cleveland City Hall
Cleveland's Fair Employment and Wage Board has its first chair after more than two decades. Credit: Jeff Haynes / Signal Cleveland

Cleveland City Hall is hosting meetings across the city over the next two weeks about the 2025 city budget.ย 

In a news release on Tuesday, Mayor Justin Bibbโ€™s administration said it would use public input from the meetings to โ€œfine tuneโ€ next yearโ€™s spending plan. The meetings will give an overview of the budget process, the city said. Residents can ask questions and give feedback. 

The dates, times and locations are: 

  • Wednesday, Oct. 23: Cudell recreation center, 6-7:30 p.m. 
  • Thursday, Oct. 24: Frederick Douglass recreation center, 6-7:30 p.m. 
  • Monday, Oct. 28: Thurgood Marshall recreation center, 5:30-7 p.m. 
  • Wednesday, Oct. 30: Gunning recreation center, 5:30-7 p.m. 
  • Thursday, Nov. 7: Estabrook recreation center, 6-7:30 p.m. 
  • Monday, Nov. 11: Collinwood recreation center, 5:30-7 p.m. 

Meanwhile, Cleveland City Council is devoting the next couple of weeks to special hearings on city operations. Those hearings serve as a setup for the 2025 budget process. 

The city releases its annual budget proposal, known as the mayorโ€™s estimate, at the beginning of February. Council holds hearings on the spending plan and typically passes it in March. 

Budget debates in recent years have focused on the cityโ€™s struggle to hire workers to vacant positions, particularly those on the police force. 

This yearโ€™s budget laid out the cityโ€™s plans for spending more than $2 billion, of which $780 million covered general city staff and services.

Government Reporter
I follow how decisions made at Cleveland City Hall and Cuyahoga County headquarters ripple into the neighborhoods. I keep an eye on the power brokers and political organizers who shape our government. I am a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and have covered politics and government in Northeast Ohio since 2012.