A member of the public used the citizens’ comment period at the Oct. 27 Huber Heights City Council meeting to criticize Ohio annexation laws and the council’s enforcement of a shorter public-comment time limit.

The speaker, who identified himself in the record as Jeff Mortford of Miami County’s Bethel Township, said he had previously had five minutes for comment but was limited to 60 seconds under new enforcement. ‘‘You have continued to unjustly cut my public comment time from 5 minutes to 90 seconds,’’ he said, later acknowledging the limit as 60 seconds and stating, ‘‘That would be 60 seconds if you didn't come with new information.’’

Mortford criticized state annexation statutes and developers from outside the area, saying the laws ‘‘deny slash omit any and all abilities as citizens living in rural townships … of individual controls slash vote’’ and asserting that developers step into rural areas ‘‘uninvited and unwanted by the local community.’’

Meeting staff interrupted the speaker when his time expired and reiterated the time limit. The council did not take action on the points raised during the meeting; no response from councilors beyond enforcement of the time limit was recorded in the transcript.

The exchange occurred during the citizen-comment portion of the agenda; the council later proceeded to administrative business and adjourned. The citizen’s remarks were recorded in the meeting minutes and the audio/video recording available from the city.