NEWBURGH – The City of Newburgh’s budget that takes effect on New Year’s Day includes firefighter and police officer layoffs to balance the spending plan.
Fifteen cops were to be given their pink slips, but Mayor Torrance Harvey said Tuesday the police department cuts will not be as deep as originally planned.
“We had some layoffs that were expected, but then the city manager and I discussed that and he was able to bring some of those positions back so that the layoffs in the police department isn’t as many numbers as we had anticipated as when we voted on the budget,” he said.
Three officer positions will be saved, the mayor said. That came about as a result of current officers resigning to take jobs in other departments and three who were among those to be laid off will back-fill those now vacant slots.
There were also 16 firefighters to be cut, but because of retirements, a couple of them will also be saved.
The issue has been overtime expenses in both departments that have been as much as double the budgeted amounts.
