Curran replaces Kasschau with Chiara as acting county attorney

                                                                                   

County executive Laura Curran and John Chiara (from a Nov. 2018 Curran tweet)

Nassau Deputy County Executive John Chiara, who has been serving as acting county attorney since County Attorney Jared Kasschau announced his resignation last month, is now formally the acting county attorney.

County Executive Laura Curran made it official on June 1, the day after Kasschau left the county, and submitted her letter to the county legislature on Thursday.

So what do we know about Chiara, who has been the deputy county executive in charge of "compliance" since Curran took office in Jan. 2018.

We know that Legis. Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury) shut him down hard in June 2019 when he was arguing in favor of a proposed half-million dollar contract for the Manhattan-based technology firm Exiger LLC to be the "integrity monitor" for the new $50 million police training academy.

"As a person who spent a decade as a prosecutor," Chiara began in answer to a specific question from Bynoe about vendor disclosures.

Bynoe cut him off. 

"So let's not get off the topic," Bynoe said. "I'm going to help you to not get off the topic. Help you very very much...I don't want to hear all that."

Though the topic was disclosure, one of the things Chiara did not disclose when lobbying the legislature for the $497,500 contract was that the son of Exiger's co-founder had contacted him more than a year earlier about the possibility of getting work from the county.

Chiara did not disclose that he had worked with the son, Eli Cherkasky, from 2006 through 2015 when they were both assistant district attorneys in the rackets bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

He did not disclose that both he and Cherkasky worked under Daniel Alonso, an Exiger managing director and general counsel, when Alonso ran the Manhattan district attorney's office as the chief assistant from 2010 through February 2014.

A Curran spokesperson said Chiara had disclosed those connections verbally even if there was no record of them. She also said only vendors, not county employees, were required to fill out contract disclosure forms.

But Chiara was supposed to be monitoring ethics and disclosures.

This is what Chiara told Newsday when Curran announced in December 2017 that she was hiring him to to enforce new ethics and procurement reform policies.  He said his job was to  “end the pervasive culture of corruption that has squandered millions of taxpayer dollars” and ensure “there is one set of rules for everyone.”

Curran pulled the Exiger contract from consideration in July 2019 after lawmakers questioned whether the county had given the firm preferential treatment.

She said she would rebid the contract, but never resubmitted it.

Yet, the police commissioner testified during last fall's budget hearings that the police academy was 80 percent completed.

Without a $500,000 integrity monitor.

Hmmm.

Curran also designated Robert Cleary to take over Chiara's compliance duties. Cleary was originally appointed by former Republican county executive Ed Mangano to be the county's procurement compliance director. 

Here is Curran's letter: