EMMITSBURG, Md. – The board of commissioners voted 3-2 on Jan. 3 to reduce the amount of time for individual public comment at town meetings from eight to four minutes per agenda item.

Mayor James E. Hoover and commissioners Christopher V. Staiger and Glenn Blanchard voted in favor of the time reduction. Commissioners William B. O’Neil, Jr. and Arthur Elder voted to retain the eight-minute time limit.

The change currently applies only to town and committee meetings. The board could waive the four-minute time limit for public hearings.

Mayor James E. Hoover said previously, “Eight minutes is an excessive amount of time.” He suggested reducing the public comment time for regular meetings, but extending individual time during hearings.

The allocated time limit was changed from three minutes per speaker per issue to eight minutes over two years ago when Patrick Boyle was president of the board of commissioners.

Boyle told the board at the Dec. 19 meeting, “I said two years ago I wanted (to go from three to) five minutes,” adding that some residents wanted 15 minutes. “We compromised on eight minutes.”

Board President Christopher V. Staiger, who had asked at the Dec. 19 meeting that the issue be placed on the agenda, said he had received comments that eight minutes was too long. Staiger said he would support a reduction to three or four minutes.

“My concern was the eight minutes … is an extraordinarily long amount of time,” Staiger said. He added, “When there is a limited number of speakers, it’s not a burden. My fear is if we get back to issues garnering more attention, you could spend an hour and a half.”

Before Boyle’s board changed the limit to eight minutes, speakers during public comment periods could even pass their time on to another speaker. That practice also ended when the eight-minute limit was imposed.

Commissioner Glenn Blanchard reported contacting the Maryland Municipal League (MML) which told him that three to five minutes per individual for public comment was typical. Blanchard said the shorter time would compel speakers to be more to the point, “If you have three or four minutes … it makes it (the comment) more specific.”

Boyle blamed the lengthy meetings primarily on the commissioners. “Yes, there are people who have gotten up here and spoken for eight minutes, but I find commissioners pontificating on issues that should take five minutes. In the end, you have not said a damn thing you couldn’t have said in five minutes.”