Newburgh council to reaffirm 2017 fair and welcoming stance, curb ICE cooperation

Members of the Newburgh City Council are moving to reaffirm and strengthen the municipality’s existing “fair and welcoming” community resolution that was originally adopted in 2017, with a proposed update drafted by Councilwomen Giselle Martínez and Ramona Monteverde that is described as adding stronger language against cooperation with ICE.

The publicly available excerpt of the council item is truncated and ends at the fragment “would inc,” so the full draft text and precise anti-ICE language are not yet available in city records included in the packet. The research notes do not list a meeting date, agenda item number, or a vote schedule for the proposed update, and no on-the-record statements from Martínez or Monteverde appear in the provided excerpts.

Municipal planning materials produced for Newburgh provide the context cited alongside the council action. A Swagit/Granicus excerpt lists planning efforts titled “Design Charette, 2008,” “Plan-it Newburgh Sustainable Master Plan, 2015,” “City of Newburgh Zoning Update, 2017,” “Newburgh Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP), 2018,” “City of Newburgh Re-thinking Heritage Tourism Plan,” and “City of Newburgh Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) applications.” One line in that packet also reads “Revitalization Program (LWRP), 2017 Locally adopted in July 2017,” creating an apparent discrepancy between the 2017 and 2018 LWRP references that requires verification.

The LWRP text included in the excerpt states that “The LWRP Waterfront Revitalization Area (WRA) study area fully encompasses the BOA with 537 acres,” and that “The BOA is located primarily in the WRA sub-area B, with some parts of sub-area C.” The excerpt further says “The LWRP calls out significant vacant and underutilized land as a result of Urban Renewal,” that “many waterfront area sites will need environmental cleanup prior to development,” and that “Minimal flooding risk exists along the shoreline and WRA, however, heavy rainfall causes sewer overflow into the Hudson River, and sewer capacity increases will be 7 needed in new development.” The numeral “7” appears inline in the sewer sentence in the excerpt and should be checked against the original LWRP for formatting artifacts.

Table 2-1 in the planning packet lists steering committee members alphabetically by last name with names and affiliations as provided: William Barham - Local Real Estate Broker; Ali Church - City of Newburgh Director of Planning & Development; Steven Gross - Orange County Economic Development Director; Ray Harvey - NAACP/Community Representative; Jill Marie - Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh; Jason Morris - City of Newburgh Engineer; Omari Shakur - City of Newburgh Council Member; Lisa Silverstone - Safe Harbors of the Hudson; Ralph Staples - Strategic Economic Development Advisory Committee. An ellipsis in the table indicates additional members are not shown in the excerpt.

Key gaps remain: the full 2017 “fair and welcoming” resolution text is not reproduced in the excerpts, the draft update by Martínez and Monteverde is truncated, and the packet does not expand the BOA acronym. Until the council posts the draft language and a meeting agenda, the scope, legal effect, and implementation mechanisms of the proposed anti-ICE language cannot be assessed; verification of the LWRP adoption year, the 537-acre WRA figure, and the sewer capacity phrasing is recommended for any follow-up reporting.