Newburgh seeks residents for charter review commission, deadline July 17

Newburgh residents interested in how City Hall shares power have until July 17 to apply for a nine-member charter review commission that could recommend changes affecting the mayor, the City Council, the city manager and future elections. Only city residents can serve, and the review is being framed as a chance to revisit who controls appointments, oversight and day-to-day government in Newburgh.

The city said the mayor and each council member will appoint one member and one alternate, and the council will appoint two additional members to complete the commission. People can apply online, pick up a paper application at the City Clerk’s office at 83 Broadway in Newburgh, or submit a letter of intent that answers the same questions found in the application. Questions go to the City of Newburgh Corporation Counsel’s Office at 845-569-7335.

The stakes are high because Newburgh still operates under a council-manager form of government the city says has been in place since 1917. In that structure, the mayor is ceremonial, the council serves as the legislative body, and the city manager is the full-time chief executive appointed by the council. The city says the 2011 charter review strengthened that system, but the latest debate has reopened complaints that too much practical power sits with an appointed administrator rather than elected officials.

That argument helped drive the council’s 4-3 vote on May 25 to create the commission through Local Law A-2026. Mayor Torrance Harvey, along with council members Omari Shakur and Robert McLymore, opposed the move. Support came from Ronald Zorilla, Tamika Stewart, Ramona Monteverde and Giselle Martinez, who said the charter should be revisited because the current setup makes it hard for council members to get things done when they are not aligned with the city manager.

Newburgh’s current City Council has seven part-time elected members: the mayor, two at-large members and one representative from each of the city’s four wards. Any commission recommendations could reopen questions about whether the mayor should be full-time, whether a city manager should be easier to remove, and whether the ward system should be adjusted again. If the commission follows the path of the 2011 review, some changes could ultimately be placed before voters.

That history matters in Newburgh. The 2011 charter review, which the city says met every two weeks beginning in January 2011 and held open meetings, included 11 resident citizens and one alternate at the start, though it functioned as a nine-member body for most of its work. It produced the ward system and a districting commission, and it helped shift the council from a five-member at-large body to the seven-member structure now in place.

The city’s broader government structure adds to the significance of the review. The charter also governs departments that answer through the city manager’s office, including the Department of Law, headed by the Corporation Counsel, as well as institutions such as the city court and civil service commission. Newburgh’s existing Citizens Advisory Committee, made up of residents from the city’s wards and districts, already gives local voices a formal role, but the charter commission could become the more consequential forum for deciding how Newburgh governs itself next.