page_title: Newburgh, New York
section_title: Government
hierarchical_section_title: Newburgh, New York / Government
caption_attribution_description: US Post Office in Newburgh, NY, USA
context_page_description: Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York within Orange County. With an estimated 2019 population of 28,177, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area, which belongs to the larger New York megacity. Located 60 miles north of New York City, and 90 miles south of Albany on the Hudson River within the Hudson Valley Area, the city of Newburgh is located near Stewart International Airport, one of the primary airports for Downstate New York.
  The Newburgh area was first settled in the early 18th century by the Germans and British. During the American Revolution, Newburgh served as the headquarters of the Continental Army. Prior to its chartering in 1865, the city of Newburgh was part of the town of Newburgh; the town now borders the city to the north and west. East of the city is the Hudson River; the city of Beacon, New York is across the river and it is connected to Newburgh via the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge. The entire southern boundary of the city is with the town of New Windsor. Most of this boundary is formed by Quassaick Creek. In May 2016, the city requested help for its PFOS contaminated water supply under Superfund.
context_section_description: Newburgh has seven elected officials, a mayor and six city council members, four elected by ward to four-year terms, staggered so that the mayor and two at-large councilmembers are up for re-election one year and four others, by ward, two years later. It was anticipated that in November 2007, Newburgh voters would decide on whether to split Newburgh into eight wards and elect one councilmember from each ward. The Newburgh City Council voted to disallow this referendum from appearing on the ballot pending further public input.
  In 1915 it became one of the first American cities to delegate routine governmental authority to a city manager. The mayor accepts all legal process and often serves as the symbolic head of the city, but other than that has no special powers or role. The city manager, who appoints all other city officials subject to council approval, serves at their pleasure. Since the position was created, there have been 33 managers who have served an average tenure of 2.7 years, with John Fogarty holding the longevity record at eight years in the 1950s. His term ended with his dismissal, as did eight others.
  In January 2009, Jean Anne McGrane, the first woman to hold the position, was fired for, among other issues, withholding an unfavorable federal report on the city's mishandling of two HUD grants from the city council in the midst of the consideration of a $6 million bond, the 2009 city budget and the 2009 CDBG funds.
  The city has had five mayors and eight city managers (five if two who served twice are counted only once) since 2000. Two subsequent acting city managers, after McGrane, quit. Richard Herbek, the third acting manager, took the job months later. He resigned in 2013 amid reports that he had misrepresented an encounter with a prostitute the year before. The (former) police chief, Michael Ferrara, replaced him on an interim basis. Michael G. Ciaravino was appointed City Manager of Newburgh on May 19, 2014 by unanimous vote of the City Council.
  A recurring complaint has been that, rather than taking direction from council, some city managers have exploited divisions among members to turn it into a rubber stamp for their policies and actions and render themselves unaccountable. There have been proposals to change the situation by assigning council members to or eliminating the city manager's position. But they have been perceived as politically motivated, and thus have not been adopted. Newburgh is in the 18 Congressional District.
  In April 2018, Judy Kennedy who was elected Newburgh's mayor in 2011, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 73 leaving the office vacant until her successor Torrance Harvey was appointed the following month.
caption: Newburgh U.S. Post Office, 2007
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