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Date Posted: Sunday, October27, 08:24:pm
Author: the u
Subject: the city charter

from the mid hudson times:

https://www.timeshudsonvalley.com/stories/the-city-charter,146861

The city charter
Posted Friday, October 25, 2024
By Christine Bello, Newburgh

After reading your article about the proposed hefty raises for the city council, I can’t help but wonder if the administration has read our City Charter. Several years ago, we conducted a Charter Review that concluded we needed more representation from every quadrant of the city. As a result, the Ward System was created, ensuring a representative on the city council would be elected from each of the four wards. However, it was never specified that the representatives elected from those wards were to serve their particular areas solely; they were simply elected from those areas to ensure all concerns were highlighted. If the opposite were true, the ward representatives would have a less weighted vote regarding the city budget and tax rate. Yet, their votes carry as much weight as any representative elected at large.

The Ward System was meant to provide more representation, not less. The way the administration seems to be interpreting this is that each resident has one ward representative and three at-large representatives, totaling four representatives in city government, when in fact we should have seven. This is evident in the proposed salary scale. Our City Charter states that each representative has equal authority. If each representative has equal authority and equal workload, each should be paid the same stipend.

Furthermore, regardless of whether you agree with the raises or not, the proposed raises which are nearly double what the charter dictates as the current stipend, do not reflect well on the city council. It’s always troubling when the government struggles to find funds for initiatives that would benefit the city’s businesses and residents but has no issue finding funds that benefit themselves.

Our City Charter is equivalent to our city’s constitution. I don’t believe it can be changed by the State or Federal government, but only by the people of the City of Newburgh. This proposal seems to give the appearance of less authority to ward representatives and more authority to at-large representatives due to the pay discrepancy. It appears inconsistent with the original meaning of “equal authority” for each council member. This is more than an amendment to an existing policy; it represents a complete change to the original meaning in the City Charter. I believe it should be decided by the electorate via a public referendum, not just by the seven city council members, who themselves stand to benefit from their vote.

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