Request a Proclamation

The Office of the Mayor welcomes the opportunity to honor individuals or organizations whose achievements focus on civic, humanitarian, or charitable contributions that have made a significant impact on the quality of life in Syracuse, New York. Proclamations are honorary, non-legally binding documents. Requests concerning divisive political issues, personal conviction, preference to specific ideology/religion, commercial advertisement, and any issue contrary to the values of the City of Syracuse may be denied.

Requests should be made 4-8 weeks in advance. Proclamations may only be requested by residents of the City of Syracuse or organizations within the city of Syracuse at a limit of one per year. Use the information provided to prepare your proclamation request.

The Mayor reserves the right to deny, without comment or reason, any proclamation request received by the Office of the Mayor or the City.

Online

Guidelines

Step 1.Proclamation Purpose/Title

It's important as you begin to draft your proclamation request, to clearly state what is the purpose of the proclamation. The purpose usually results in the name of what you (or for whom) you are proclaiming a designation.

Step 2.Proclamation Draft

Writing a proclamation is not easy. The statements in a proclamation are ceremonial and written in "whereas" statements. If you are comfortable writing the "whereas" statements that you'd like us to reproduce, save them to a word file and share that file with us. You can find resources on the format here: How-to-Write-a-Proclamation.pdf(PDF, 89KB)

Allow Time

Proclamation requests are reviewed with the Mayor's team weekly.
After review, a staff person will follow-up with the main contact person to confirm how the Office can accommodate presentation of the proclamation.
You will receive a draft of the proclamation for review. It is important that you respond to the review email quickly.
Once approved, the Office will need time to frame and prepare the proclamation. The Mayor will need time to sign it. You will be contacted once its ready for pickup.

Begin the proclamation request process at least 1 months in advance of your requested receive date, especially if you are requesting the proclamation be delivered as part of an event.

Step 3.Proclamation Presentation

The proclamation request form asks you to detail how you want to receive the proclamation. Solidify your event details before submitting your proclamation request. In instances where a delegate or the mayor is being requested to read or present the proclamation, a change in in event date, time, or location may cause the Mayor or a delegate to not be available for the presentation.

Step 4.Publicizing Your Event

The City of Syracuse cannot publicize your proclamation event on your behalf. In some instances, proclamations are declared for programs and ceremonies of which the City is a partner or host and does publicize a ceremony. In all other instances, it is the responsibility of the event coordinators making the request to notify members of the media, community groups, neighbors, and other stakeholders.

Submit Your Proclamation Request