If you’ve ever been to a Southold Town Board meeting, you might notice that members of the public are able to talk at length without being asked to stop. This practice is in stark contrast to other neighboring municipalities, which generally have strict time limits on public speaking.
But it turns out, Southold does have a time limit on the books — it’s just quite generous and never enforced.
Back in 1993, the board adopted a policy of limiting comment on items that are on the agenda to 5 minutes, and in 1994 the board established a limit of 10 minutes at public hearings.
But no limit was ever instated on the general public comment session, at the end of town board meetings, where several people have taken to speaking at length at recent meetings, often doubling or tripling the length of the meeting after the formal business of the board had ended.
Many of those comments at recent meetings have come from neighbors concerned about a proposed chicken farm on Ackerly Pond Lane (which has since been reconfigured as a fruit and vegetable farm). An application for a barn at that farm is currently pending before the town’s Planning Board and the Town Board in Southold cannot interfere with the actions of its land use boards.
The Town Board debated whether to enforce time limits on speaking at its Sept. 22 work session, before landing on a very Southold solution — asking people nicely to respect other peoples’ time.
“The county has a three minute clock, and a sign up sheet,” said Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski, a former Suffolk County Legislator. “We’re concerned that we have people speaking so long, with so much repetition in their speeches, that it discourages people from going (to the meeting)…. Right now, I don’t think we’re welcoming if people are talking a lot. We want constructive comments.”
Other members of the board also had strong feelings about public comment.
“I think our role as listeners is paramount. Receiving information from the public and the public having the opportunity to directly speak to us — there’s nothing more powerful,” said Fishers Island Justice & Councilwoman Kate Stevens. “That’s a sacred relationship we have to preserve and respect.”
But, “there can be a democratizing impact of putting on a time limit,” she added. “In practice it facilitates more dialogue. I’m a proponent of at least trying it.”
By law, municipalities are allowed to set a minimum limit of three minutes for speakers from the general public, and five minutes from subject matter experts, said Town Attorney Ben Johnson, who added that, if the town were to enforce the limit, it would be advisable to have a visible timer clock that was reset for each speaker, so the public could see the rule was being enforced equally.
In March of 2025, the Riverhead Town Board lowered its limit on general public comment from five minutes to three minutes, though it has no limit on speaking at public hearings. Both Southampton and East Hampton towns limit public comment to three minutes.
Councilman Brian Mealy, who also serves on the board of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, said the BOCES board has a comment participation card that it gives to prospective speakers, which has information about the board’s public speaking policy on the back.
Councilwoman Alexa Suess said she thinks having public comment cards would be an obstacle to public participation.
“I would be in favor of a loose five minute time limit,” she added. “Five minutes, I think, is very fair.”
“It is important for people to go on the record publicly,” said Councilwoman Anne Smith, who added that she thought three minutes was too short.
Greenport Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips was at the Southold Town work session to discuss a proposed regional transportation study, and she also shared her perspective.
“It’s up to the person leading the meeting to make that decision” in the village, she said. “Recently, at some of our board meetings, I have watched people who wanted to speak get up and leave. It’s an opportunity for the community to hear other views and have the board make a sound decision. But we’ve had people in the past who could turn the meeting completely away from its purpose, and I find that discouraging.”
“We’re not tired of hearing from people, but we thought we weren’t hearing from other people if people spoke for a long time,” Mr. Krupski announced at the start of the board’s regular meeting that evening. “We don’t have a clock. We would rather people were concise and organized and gave us their thoughts, and then you can also email us or contact us in many other ways. We would like to see that people respect that, and respect each other.”
The general business of the meeting lasted about thirty minutes, after which the board took public comment on a range of issues from several people over the course of the next 45 minutes.
Benja Schwartz of Cutchogue spoke for 15 of those minutes, primarily about the town’s development rights easement at the Ackerly Pond Farm.
— Beth Young
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