Riverhead officials approve revised Town Board meeting rules

Riverhead town officials approved an amended version of the Town Board’s meeting rules for audience members on Tuesday, which includes reducing the general public comment period from five minutes per speaker to three, prohibiting signage or posters and more detailed expectations regarding decorum.

Councilmembers Kenneth Rothwell, Denise Merrifield, Bob Kern and Joann Waski voted in favor of the resolution. Supervisor Tim Hubbard was absent from the meeting due to a family matter.

Going forward, signs, signboards, posters, banners and similar visual displays as well as the distribution of flyers will not be permitted in the Town Board meeting room. The revised rules state that “such instruments serve to distract, disrupt and/or obstruct viewing of the meeting, and given the opportunities to speak before the Town Board on a variety of matters, do not substantively contribute to the business of the Town Board.”

As for public comments on Town Board resolutions, audience members will only be allowed to speak once for no more than three minutes. There is however no set time limit on comments at public hearings, but each speaker will be limited to one appearance at the podium.

Mr. Hubbard will be able to use his discretion to “uniformly limit the duration of comments,” at public hearings, an authority which will be reserved for heavily attended hearings where, “time limitations serve to conduct the hearing in a timely and efficient manner” the document reads.

The amended meeting rules also stipulate that speakers and board members must refrain from making, “personal, impertinent, slanderous, vulgar, inflammatory, threatening, and/or profane remarks,” and “racial, ethnic, and/or sexual slurs, at any time, directed to any person, are prohibited.” Those who make such remarks or are deemed disruptive due to, “loud outbursts, shouting, threats or other disruptive conduct” will receive a warning. If the disruption persists, the Town Supervisor or Town Board majority can order that person to leave the meeting, and if they fail to comply, law enforcement may be employed to conduct the removal.

Barring such disruptive behavior, any criticism of Riverhead Town policies, procedures, programs or services, as well as acts or omissions of the Town Board, would not be considered improper or grounds for ejection from a meeting. 

The last time the Town Board rules were updated was in 2019 and the revision before that occured around 2012. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the use of virtual conferencing, which Supervisor Tim Hubbard said at the work session that “most town governments have stopped using all together.” In a previous version of the revised rules presented at a Jan. 30 work session, the Town Board considered limiting opportunities to comment via videoconferencing, but that stipulation was removed from the latest amendment following widespread public criticism.

Several people spoke against the amended rules on Tuesday, specifically on the banning of signs at Town Board meetings. Cindy Clifford of the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association noted that the signs are helpful for those in the audience who are afraid or hesitate to speak in public.

“To ban signs completely, to prohibit residents from being able to express their views and know that they are seen, that should be every resident’s right,” Ms. Clifford said, adding that the, “concern for them not blocking views, you could simply require that signs be limited to the back of the room — that’s not a hard request to be followed.”

Ms. Clifford also urged the board to consider restricting comments to Town of Riverhead residents only, citing a recent Scott’s Pointe hearing where a majority of the speakers were from outside the community. John McAuliff, a local public advocate, agreed with Ms. Clifford’s concern about meetings being dominated by speakers who live outside of Riverhead. He added that the banning of signs goes beyond the Town Board’s concerns about visual obstruction during meetings.

“I think the issue of signs is described in the resolution as having to do with visibility or disruption, [but] I think it has to do with the visual politics of what’s going on,” Mr. McAuliff said. “When you’re trying to push something through and oftentimes you’ve generated this opposition that shows up in signs — the last thing you want is to have an article in the Riverhead News-Review or RiverheadLocal, which has as the graphic of that article a bunch of people from Riverhead with signs up because that’s the most interesting news visual of a particular board meeting.”

Kevin Shea, a Baiting Hollow resident who is running for Riverhead Town Board in November, joined the meeting via Zoom and expressed the need for signage at Town Board meetings, as visuals such as signs and flyers enhance public discourse by summarizing complex issues, provide key talking points and facilitate more informed discussions.

Signs also provide an alternative means of expression to those with disabilities, language barriers or other difficulties that may hinder verbal participation, Mr. Shea said.

Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard said prohibiting signs in town board meetings was ruled constitutional by the Federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Kingston, N.Y. in 2023, meaning it is not a violation of First Amendment rights.

Following the unanimous approval to the resolution, Toqui Terchun, president of the Greater Calverton Civic Association, criticized the decision and called the vote an “unsatisfactory and disappointing understanding of freedom of speech.”

“You’ve now made your vote, so that has a consequence,” Ms. Terchun said on Zoom to the council members. “We now have legislation in the Town of Riverhead where residents’ voices are being restricted.”

Mr. Rothwell disagreed with the idea of limiting comments solely to Riverhead residents, as there are projects that impact people outside of Riverhead’s borders and “they have a right to come to speak.”

“Voices are not restricted — that podium is open to one and all, so is my email, so is my phone,” Mr. Rothwell said. “We’ll always be open to hear from every residents inside the town or anybody outside.”