Comments from CPL's Public Administration Librarians on searching the City Record

Comments from Public Administration Librarians on searching The City Record Per Elaine Herroon--Head Librarian.

While searching the City Record for an ordinance, the patron may have the ordinance number they are looking for and the date of passage. Some City Records have included after the regular index a number index. All ordinances passed for that year are found in numerical order.
The page number in bold print listed next to the ordinance number indicates the final date of passage.

If viewing a numerical index, different years in one index can be found by looking at the numbers after the dash. The numbers after the dash is the year it was passed ex: 729-09 (year is 2009) However, the earlier years of the Cleveland Proceedings did not use dashes but 5 digit numbers.

However, some patrons do not have the ordinance numbers or date of passage and only have the subject and a range of possible years. This type of search involves looking through the index under various headings.

Other searches are legislative histories of laws found in the Cleveland Codified Ordinances.
For example, if a patron were interested in 343.01 Local Retail Business District passed Ord. No. 729-09. Passed 7-1-09, eff. 7-8-09 The patron would look up 729-09 and continue to look up ordinance numbers mentioned until they arrive at the beginning. Some legislative histories are involved--some go back just a few years.

Being able to search the City Record both by word and ordinance number will be helpful.

Patrons have also asked about files, minutes, and resolutions. If patrons want to view them they have to visit City Council. Perhaps these items might be included in the future?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxCVUBXDnxnRTXpSZEZrMlVqdldvNGlISUNJaFZESXJlR1Zn/view?usp=sharing The last few pages of the attachment are from a book that show the location of ordinance numbers in the Cleveland City Record and the matching numbers from the 1951 sections to the the 1976 sections and reverse. Would you also like this online for public viewing? Would you need to ask permission from someone?

Believe the ordinances started using the dash followed by the year system in 1938 in the Cleveland City Record.

Note that ordinance numbers often appear three times in the record: once in the ordinances section, once in the index organized by ordinance number, and once in the index organized by ward number.