After serving for more than 28 months as acting city manager, the “acting” designation was removed from Rick Herbek’s title Monday night.

The Newburgh City Council unanimously approved a one-year contract for Herbek at a salary of $150,000 with no benefits. A condition of the contract is that he will move to the City of Newburgh and establish residency within 120 days.

Asked how he felt about this development following Monday’s meeting, Herbek said he was “pleased.”

“There remains a lot of work to do to get the city on track,” he said.

Herbek has openly campaigned for the job, on several occasions listing his accomplishments during council meetings. Monday night, a list of those accomplishments was available on a table outside the council chambers.

The hiring of Herbek was governed by a Charter change approved by voters in November. Strong new rules were instituted giving the City Council three basic options in the hiring of a city manager.
1) They could go through a formal process that would call for a national search;
2) They could hire a manager for a maximum of two years;
3) They could reach agreement on a contract not to exceed two years.

The council opted for the third option. Part of the revised Charter change requires that the hiring or firing of a city manager must be on a super majority vote – that is four members of a five-member council.

When the second part of November’s Charter revision takes place – expanding the City Council to seven members – a super majority would require five of seven votes. That expansion is to take place in January 2014 when four of the seven members of the council will be elected from wards that are to be established during the next year. Two council members will continue to be elected at-large, as will the mayor.

Although Herbek had been hired on the premise that he wouldn’t be a candidate for the permanent job, that premise was eventually abandoned – at one point on a decision made by Herbek, who said that pursuing a city manager at budget time would have been too disruptive.

Herbek came under fire a number of times during his 28 months in office, the most severe in November 2010 when the then-City Council approved a tax rate increase that left taxpayers clamoring for Herbek’s removal, or at a minimum, a takeover of city business by the state Legislature.

The compromise came with the approval of the City of Newburgh Fiscal Recovery Act that resulted in state oversight of city business by the state comptroller. That act remains in effect today.

On Monday night, the mood in the City Council Chambers was remarkably calm. Only a few residents continued to call for a different outcome than hiring Herbek.

That wasn’t to be.

Councilwoman Gay Lee apologized to Herbek for misjudging him.

Lee said that while she was campaigning, anyone who asked her would have been told that she was in favor of firing Herbek.

“Once I talked with the New York State Comptroller, I changed my mind,” she said. The comptroller urged her to stick with Herbek, stressing how serious the city’s situation is.

Mayor Judith Kennedy agreed with Lee, saying that she, too, was in favor of recruiting a new manager following a national search.

“We were very much in favor of an interviewing process,” she said of her attitude prior to her election. “It still would not be a bad idea [in the future.]” she said.

“This is a critical time in the city’s history,” she said Tuesday morning during a brief telephone interview.

“We need to get on with the business of running the city as a business,” she said.

By ALLAN GAUL
agaul@tcnewspapers.com