NEWBURGH – Speaker after speaker told the Newburgh Coty Council Monday night that the city does not need a police and fire commissioner as proposed in City Manager Todd Venning’s 2026 budget.

Residents called for more rank-and-file police and firefighters with the roughly $400,000 in salaries and benefits the two new positions would carry.

After well over an hour of public comment, six of the council members agreed that there is no need for the commissioners. Councilman Omari Shakur was the lone member who did not state his position one way or the other.

Speakers included the recently retired Fire Chief FJ Spinelli, the firefighters’ union president and several firefighters, as well as Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson (D, Newburgh), a former member of the city council, all of whom oppose

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