State Attorney General Leticia James won’t offer a legal opinion on on the multiple roles of Huntington Town Attorney Nicholas Ciappetta, who also serves as deputy town supervisor and prosecutor in the new Adjudication Bureau.
He is also president of the South Huntington school board.
Newsday reported recently that because the town’s ethics board had found no conflict or incompatibility, James’ office would not step into the matter.
Town Board member Gene Cook had challenged Ciappetta’s multiple roles in a resolution raised in April, saying several residents had approached him on the matter.
Kathryn Sheingold, assistant solicitor general in charge of opinions in James’ office, wrote,“We have a longstanding practice of declining to opine when another body is authorized to and has opined,” the letter said. “As a matter of policy, we do not opine with respect to the validity of actions already taken by a local government.”
The decision was first reported by Newsday.