diff --git a/libsigner/src/runloop.rs b/libsigner/src/runloop.rs
index e7518371d..c3fa35768 100644
--- a/libsigner/src/runloop.rs
+++ b/libsigner/src/runloop.rs
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ pub trait SignerRunLoop<R, CMD: Send> {
         mut event_stop_signaler: EVST,
     ) -> Option<R> {
         loop {
-            let poll_timeout = Duration::from_millis(128); //self.get_event_timeout();
+            let poll_timeout = self.get_event_timeout();
             let next_event_opt = match event_recv.recv_timeout(poll_timeout) {
                 Ok(event) => Some(event),
                 Err(RecvTimeoutError::Timeout) => None,
diff --git a/stacks-signer/README.md b/stacks-signer/README.md
index e8d4d719f..b3c287d9e 100644
--- a/stacks-signer/README.md
+++ b/stacks-signer/README.md
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ Generate the necessary files to run a collection of signers to communicate via s
 - `--private-keys:` A path to a file containing a list of hexadecimal representations of Stacks private keys. Required if `--num-keys` is not set.
 - `--network`: The network to use. One of "mainnet" or "testnet".
 - `--dir`: The directory to write files to. Defaults to the current directory.
+- `--timeout`: Optional timeout in milliseconds to use when polling for updates in the StackerDB runloop.
 
 ## Contributing
 
diff --git a/stacks-signer/src/cli.rs b/stacks-signer/src/cli.rs
index 7409edc7a..5614c4219 100644
--- a/stacks-signer/src/cli.rs
+++ b/stacks-signer/src/cli.rs
@@ -142,6 +142,9 @@ pub struct GenerateFilesArgs {
     /// The directory to write the test data files to
     #[arg(long, default_value = ".")]
     pub dir: PathBuf,
+    /// The number of milliseconds to wait when polling for events from the stacker-db instance.
+    #[arg(long)]
+    pub timeout: Option<u64>,
 }
 
 /// Parse the contract ID
diff --git a/stacks-signer/src/config.rs b/stacks-signer/src/config.rs
index cf23adc00..5bfe5d002 100644
--- a/stacks-signer/src/config.rs
+++ b/stacks-signer/src/config.rs
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ use std::{
     time::Duration,
 };
 
-const EVENT_TIMEOUT_SECS: u64 = 5;
+const EVENT_TIMEOUT_MS: u64 = 5000;
 
 #[derive(thiserror::Error, Debug)]
 /// An error occurred parsing the provided configuration
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ struct RawConfigFile {
     pub signers: Vec<RawSigners>,
     /// The signer ID
     pub signer_id: u32,
-    /// The time to wait (in secs) for a response from the stacker-db instance
+    /// The time to wait (in millisecs) for a response from the stacker-db instance
     pub event_timeout: Option<u64>,
 }
 
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ impl TryFrom<RawConfigFile> for Config {
             signer_key_ids.insert(signer_key, s.key_ids.clone());
         }
         let event_timeout =
-            Duration::from_secs(raw_data.event_timeout.unwrap_or(EVENT_TIMEOUT_SECS));
+            Duration::from_millis(raw_data.event_timeout.unwrap_or(EVENT_TIMEOUT_MS));
         Ok(Self {
             node_host,
             endpoint,
diff --git a/stacks-signer/src/main.rs b/stacks-signer/src/main.rs
index ff9d7840d..4c091c35d 100644
--- a/stacks-signer/src/main.rs
+++ b/stacks-signer/src/main.rs
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ use std::{
     net::SocketAddr,
     path::PathBuf,
     sync::mpsc::{channel, Receiver},
+    time::Duration,
 };
 use wsts::Point;
 
@@ -162,6 +163,7 @@ fn handle_generate_files(args: GenerateFilesArgs) {
         args.num_keys,
         &args.db_args.host.to_string(),
         &args.db_args.contract.to_string(),
+        args.timeout.map(Duration::from_millis),
     );
     debug!("Built {:?} signer config tomls.", signer_config_tomls.len());
     for (i, file_contents) in signer_config_tomls.iter().enumerate() {
diff --git a/stacks-signer/src/utils.rs b/stacks-signer/src/utils.rs
index e45ac56b5..d4b5f5126 100644
--- a/stacks-signer/src/utils.rs
+++ b/stacks-signer/src/utils.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+use std::time::Duration;
+
 use p256k1::ecdsa;
 use rand_core::OsRng;
 use slog::slog_debug;
@@ -15,6 +17,7 @@ pub fn build_signer_config_tomls(
     num_keys: u32,
     node_host: &str,
     contract_id: &str,
+    timeout: Option<Duration>,
 ) -> Vec<String> {
     let num_signers = signer_stacks_private_keys.len() as u32;
     let mut rng = OsRng;
@@ -65,7 +68,7 @@ pub fn build_signer_config_tomls(
         let id = i;
         let message_private_key = signer_ecdsa_private_keys[i].to_string();
         let stacks_private_key = stacks_private_key.to_hex();
-        let signer_config_toml = format!(
+        let mut signer_config_toml = format!(
             r#"
 message_private_key = "{message_private_key}"
 stacks_private_key = "{stacks_private_key}"
@@ -77,6 +80,16 @@ signer_id = {id}
 {signers_array}
 "#
         );
+
+        if let Some(timeout) = timeout {
+            let event_timeout_ms = timeout.as_millis();
+            signer_config_toml = format!(
+                r#"
+{signer_config_toml}
+event_timeout = {event_timeout_ms}   
+"#
+            )
+        }
         signer_config_tomls.push(signer_config_toml);
     }
     signer_config_tomls
diff --git a/testnet/stacks-node/src/tests/signer.rs b/testnet/stacks-node/src/tests/signer.rs
index 2928be753..571eb5f43 100644
--- a/testnet/stacks-node/src/tests/signer.rs
+++ b/testnet/stacks-node/src/tests/signer.rs
@@ -176,6 +176,7 @@ fn test_stackerdb_dkg() {
         num_keys,
         &conf.node.rpc_bind,
         &contract_id.to_string(),
+        Some(Duration::from_millis(128)), // Timeout defaults to 5 seconds. Let's override it to 128 milliseconds.
     );
 
     // The test starts here