State rules Newburgh may not use county police chief civil service test results

NEWBURGH – The position of police chief in Newburgh remains in limbo.
The state Civil Service Department has ruled that the Orange County police chief exam and city exam are not equivalent because of different minimum qualifications. “Our review found that the announced minimum qualifications for police chief in Orange County are not as rigorous as those established for police chief in the City of Newburgh,” Maria Kenneally of the Office of Commission Operations and Municipal Assistance in state Civil Service Department, wrote in a letter to the county Department of Human Resources.
The issue arose when the city administered an open competitive police
chief exam earlier this year with all four top scoring candidates expressing
no interest in the job. Interim Chief Daniel Cameron did not take that
test, but instead took the county civil service police chief exam and
scored 100 percent.
But, the state found that “although the two exams have the same
test plan, the passing standard for police chief in Orange County is lower
than the passing standard in the City of Newburgh,” Kenneally wrote.
That is because the type of exam given in Newburgh is for departments
that have “a greater number of officers overall and the organizational
structure of this type of department is more complex.”