NEWBURGH – The City of Newburgh’s planned $37,000 city council retreat scheduled for next weekend at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz has not gone unnoticed by Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus.
The county executive noted there are plenty of opportunities for retreats and conferences at hotels in Orange County and no need to travel 28 miles to Ulster County, but he said the decision was up to the Newburgh lawmakers.
“We do leadership classes and seminars for our team, the legislature does their stuff, they have their caucuses, and they get together for dinner and discuss how they are going to do things or some of their priorities, and they do it on their own,” he said. “So, that’s up to the city, if they think that’s a wise use of taxpayer money, and the taxpayers allow that to happen, then so be it. That’s just not how I operate.”
The city council approved spending the $900 per single-occupancy room for the weekend in addition to spending $24,900 for a consulting firm to conduct a series of government educational discussions with council members.
