NEWBURGH – Mayor Torrance Harvey told Wednesday’s night’s session of the Newburgh City Council that while the $37,000 professional retreat for the city council last weekend was extremely educational, the late day criticism by some in the community was inappropriate.
Harvey did acknowledge the council would do it differently in the future instead of traveling to the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz at a cost of $900 per single occupancy rooms and meal costs.
“We made it known months and months in advance what we were going to be doing with this retreat and the cost, and it’s unfair for people to criticize us after we already had public hearings and meetings and had been transparent about those things,” he said. “We definitely will do it differently next time, but it’s not fair to wait until a week before we go to our training to start criticizing us.”
The retreat and its location were approved just one month prior to it being held and the entire council voted for it without discussion. There were no public hearings about it before the vote.
One councilwoman, Ramona Monteverde, said days before the retreat that had she given more thought to it, she would have voted against it.
The $37,000 expense was in addition to the $24,900 cost of a consulting firm to conduct several sessions concerning operation of city government.
