The City of Newburgh Council made its intentions clear during a work session on Thursday night that they will move forward with creating a new Fire Commissioner position to oversee the Fire Chief. During a recent public hearing, one of Newburgh’s Bravest was forced to fend off Mayor Torrance Harvey’s attempts to silence him while opposing the idea. See two videos below.
Council members agreed to move forward and vote on whether to amend the City Charter to include a Fire Commissioner. The vote will take place during their regular session tomorrow night.
The controversial move has drawn backlash from firefighters and citizens who demand adequate fire protection before a new administrative position is created. This is an election year for some City Council members. Harvey, a Democrat, will face Republican John Giudace, a former long-time City of Newburgh councilman, for the mayoral seat (story here).
The issue of understaffing at the City of Newburgh Fire Department has been a hot topic for well over a year. Many residents have bombarded City Council meetings and instructed the city government to provide them with adequate fire protection. Throughout the last year, not one single citizen spoke out in support of having less fire protection. Still, the city government has remained defiant and will instead appoint a new boss to oversee the fire chief while both of the city’s fire stations are nearly empty during normal shifts.
“I’m happy about the process and the potential of recruiting a Fire Commissioner,” Harvey gushed last night. “I think it’s a great proposition, and it has and will continue to have my support.”
Council members have previously expressed their support of creating the new position recent meetings. Over the last year, Council members have repeatedly stated that the minimum staffing levels are dictated by a labor/management agreement between the City of Newburgh and the Local 589 firefighters’ union. Contract negotiations are still underway.
The Newburgh News obtained a copy of the most recent contract on file with the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). The now-expired contract sets a “minimum” staffing level, but there is no language prohibiting the city’s management from exceeding the “minimum” to comply with the public’s demands for better fire protection.
The City of Newburgh Fire Department currently operates with one Assistant Chief and six firefighters, two of whom are dedicated to driving, operating pumps, and operating the aerial ladder. With another two firefighters on the roof ventilating the fire, this leaves only two firefighters crawling through an inferno to rescue victims and fight the fire – with the nearest help from neighboring fire departments sometimes 10 to 20 minutes away.
On February 27, 2023, the City Council held a public hearing to listen to the public’s input about changing the City Charter to include the new Fire Commissioner position. Corporation Counsel Michelle Kelson and City Manager Todd Venning both explained that the Council already adopted the budget in November, which includes the new position.
“The main role is to add some additional leadership positions and responsibility to the fire department to address specific areas that the council brought up last year before the budgetary process,” Venning said.
During the public hearing, City of Newburgh Fire Department Lieutenant Dany Camacho spoke out against the Fire Commissioner post, but the mayor interrupted Camacho twice and attempted to silence him. The member of Newburgh’s Bravest continued to voice his opinion (see the video below).
Camacho, who said he has 16 years on the job with the Newburgh Fire Department, observed, “For the members of the fire department, safety is our number one priority.” He pointed out their “daily goal is to protect life and property for the citizens of the City of Newburgh.”
When Camacho said the fire department had a minimum of ten firefighters on duty prior to the city reducing staffing levels in January 2022, Harvey interrupted. “I’m asking you to make a public comment particularly about this particular item, not about grievances from the fire department, so I’m going to ask you respectfully and politely to please address the public hearing item that we are talking about or I’m going to ask you to have a seat.”
Camacho tried to explain to Harvey, “In order for me to do that, I felt it necessary to describe –,” but the mayor cut him off again.
“Sir, we don’t want to hear about grievances,” Harvey declared. The mayor again told Camacho to limit his comments to the commissioner topic, even as Camacho attempted to explain that a commissioner is not necessary right now.
“Yes, all of this is pertaining to that,” Camacho tried to rationalize with Harvey. However, Harvey shook his head no. Camacho motioned with his index finger, indicating ‘wait a moment,’ as he prohibited the mayor’s censorship attempts and continued to speak.
“We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve reduced the amount of people on the street who are actually in there doing work and getting into these buildings, so we find it hard to understand the value of a fire commissioner,” Camacho continued. “It is our opinion that adding another administrative position does not add to that margin of safety as mentioned before.”
Camacho suggested the funds being used to pay a new fire commissioner could be better used to fund firefighters to respond to emergencies. “It is difficult for us to see in terms of safety the value of adding an administrative position of fire commissioner,” he stated, while explaining that a commissioner does not enter a building that is on fire. “They’re not doing the work that needs to be done to save a life and property.”
Last month, the City of Newburgh Fire Department was called to an overnight fire on City Terrace with reports of children trapped inside (story here). Their nearest help was coming from West Point and Stewart Airport, leaving Newburgh firefighters to fend for themselves. City of Newburgh police officers had to help perform tasks normally done by firefighters.
A resident whose name was unintelligible during the public hearing said the City of Newburgh does not need another administrative position. “It needs another fire department house,” he explained to the Council.
“Last year, there was a big fire on Lander Street and it was like, no trucks,” the resident recalled during the public hearing. He was referring to a fatal building fire in which only a handful of City of Newburgh firefighters were on duty as a mother died and others jumped out of windows to save their own lives (story here).
“The City has to fund more trucks or the infrastructure to avoid fires in the future,” the resident said.
Harvey’s attempts to silence Camacho were significantly toned down from previous meetings following the mayor’s explosive outbursts.
Following the fatal Lander Street fire last year, a mob of angry residents raged at a July 11, 2022 council meeting demanding adequate fire protection. Several times during the meeting, Harvey erupted in angry tantrums and censored residents from blaming the City Council (see the video below). During subsequent meetings, Harvey also threatened to eject residents from meetings if they continued to blame the Council.
Some later claimed that silencing citizens during the meetings violated their First Amendment rights to redress their government officials.
