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Council members demand answers after multi-neighborhood power outages
Summary
Council members criticized Cleveland Public Power for outages and poor communications after a holiday-weekend outage affected Collinwood and Glenville; members asked for a strategic plan, a hearing with utilities staff, and faster resident communications.
Council members pressed for answers after widespread power outages and service problems that left residents in parts of Collinwood and Glenville without power over a holiday weekend.
“Residents could not get through to Cleveland Public Power,” Councilman Michael Polensek said, describing multiple reports of families unable to celebrate Passover or Easter and people seeking hotels to obtain electricity. Polensek said the outages and a lack of public information were unacceptable and called for a reassessment of priorities and investments in the utility.
Other council members backed a follow-up: one described phones “blowing up” with constituent reports and said the director of public utilities had taken calls and agreed to engage with residents at a neighborhood meeting. Councilman Brian Casey, who said some residents were out of power for more than four days and reported severe flooding, urged a strategic plan and facilities assessment to be presented to the mayor.
Speakers called for a public hearing with utilities staff to review causes, communications protocols and the timeline for strategic investments. Council members repeatedly framed the issue as the product of decades of underinvestment that now requires targeted capital and operational fixes to restore reliability and resident trust.
The council did not adopt formal remedial legislation during the session; members asked staff for a hearing and pledged follow-up oversight.
