Newburgh police chief controversy continues

NEWBURGH – There is a potential new twist in the debate over Daniel Cameron’s appointment as permanent Newburgh city police chief. He remains serving in an interim capacity since he did not take the city’s civil service exam earlier this year. While he took a similar one administered by Orange County for town and village police chiefs, the qualifications for the towns and cities compared to the City of Newburgh are not the same and the state said Newburgh could not use the county test to promote Cameron.
In the meantime, Newburgh’s three-person Civil Service Commission was short one member and City Councilwoman Cindy Holmes nominated John Powell.
Cameron attended last week’s city civil service meeting and recognized
Powell. Cameron wrote to City Manager Michael Ciaravino that he had observed
Powell once before “in manual tree cutting and trimming labor during
the time in which Lt. Peter Leach was under investigation for performing
manual labor work, while being out on disability and collecting a full
salary from the city.”
When contacted on Monday, Powell did not want to comment, but rather said if the city wants to know something, official should ask him directly.
Cameron’s letter to Ciaravino suggested he is being blocked from being named permanent chief because of the investigation he conducted against Leach, who is the brother-in-law of the civil service administrator and that Holmes has openly opposed his appointment as acting and permanent chief.
Holmes countered, saying her reasons for opposing Cameron are purely professional.
“Cameron does not want to take the test, which is special privileges,” Holmes said.  “Cameron does not want to move into the City of Newburgh, which we have a local law; you have to be a resident of the city. Cameron would not commit to five years when I interviewed him. This is not personal. This is business.”
Holmes said she never interfered with the chief selection. “It’s all about the person who they want,” she said, referring to the city manager and Mayor Judy Kennedy.