NEWBURGH – An effort by Mayor Judy Kennedy to rescind a Newburgh City Council resolution to begin a search for a new city manager turned into another shouting match between council members during Thursday night’s workshop session.
In a matter of weeks, two new members will join the council replacing Gay Lee and Cedric Brown, but they engaged other council members who support current Manager Michael Ciaravino in debate that led to raised voices by Lee and Brown, who often interrupted their colleagues as they were talking.
Councilwoman Jeannie Abrams said Washington and Albany want to see stability in the city before they lend their support.
Ciaravino’s current contract as manager expires in May of the new year and unless a new manager is named, he would remain on unless there are five council member votes to replace him. As it stands now, there are only four votes in the seven-member council to do that.
In one exchange, Councilwoman Karen Mejia, who supports Ciaravino, was
interrupted by Lee and Brown.
Mejia said there should be “no standoff” going into the new year. Lee interrupted her a number of times leading Mejia to ask, “Can I finish? I don’t interrupt when you guys are speaking.” Brown chimed in saying if four members of the council do not want an item to be on a council agenda, they can block it. “If we have four votes, we determine we don’t want it,” Brown said.
In the end, there were enough votes Thursday night to block the resolution to cancel a city manager search from being voted on during next Monday’s regular council meeting.
Ciaravino sat quietly at the table as the debate about his future raged on.
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