Holmes
NEWBURGH – The city administration in Newburgh is awaiting the
results of a civil service exam given in March that may lead to the appointment
of a permanent police chief.
The city is on its third temporary police department leader in the last couple of months.
While three candidates who take a civil service must pass it in order for a list to be certified and for the city manager to appoint a chief, Councilwoman Cindy Holmes said she was told four people took the test, two left in the middle of it because it was too difficult and the other two completed it.
Holmes doesn’t want to wait any longer given the high crime rate in Newburgh. She is proposing alternative leadership.
“I will ask the civil service commissioners to make a position for a police commissioner,” she told Mid-Hudson News. “We need some permanent person that qualifies under the civil service rules to lead our city as chief or commissioner.”
In February, Holmes sent a letter to “blacks in law enforcement” seeking qualified applicants to apply for the police chief’s job. “As a city council member for the last four years and an African-American woman and mother I have witnessed the need our city has for a law enforcement leader who understands and can relate to our impoverished community whose residents are two-thirds minority,” she wrote.
Holmes wrote that the city needs “someone who will be able to reach our young people and be a role model for them and stop the shootings and killings of o0ur young. It is a good opportunity for change and a new strong African-American police chief would be welcomed and admired by all.”
Sunday night, Holmes told Mid-Hudson News she didn’t care what the chief’s ethnicity is, as long as the person is qualified for the post.
