Chuck Cutolo

Chuck Cutolo, a resident of Westbury, N.Y., was born in 1951 and grew up in Albertson and East Williston, N.Y. He is a graduate of Hamilton College, where he majored in Government, and of Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He worked for seventeen years on Capitol Hill, including almost twelve years as legislative director for former Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) Prior to working for Senator Levin, Chuck also served as a legislative assistant for Congressman Lester Wolff (D-N.Y.), the Democratic Study Group, and Congressman Joseph L. Fisher (D-Va.), who was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. The two achievements during his time on Capitol Hill that Chuck is the most proud of were coordinating the efforts to extend unemployment benefits during the depth of the 1982 recession and coordinating the efforts to authorize and fund the Center for Advanced Technologies, which is an education and job training institution located in Detroit, Michigan. In commenting on Chuck’s work in the United States Senate, Senator Levin stated, “The reason democratic government succeeds is that there are enough Chuck Cutolos who bring supreme integrity to their work and who honor the people of this Nation by serving them.”

Returning to Nassau County, N.Y. in 1994 for family reasons, Chuck did a brief stint in the Office of Public Policy for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. In 1996, he began working for the Democrats on the Nassau County Legislature, in the capacity of minority counsel. He became majority counsel in 2000 after the Democrats won control of the Legislature in the election of 1999. In announcing in December of 2001 that he would be leaving the Legislature, Chuck stated that “after six years of working for the County Legislature, including the last two of which have been like a two-year bobsled ride, I think it is time to move on. I’d like to think that I’m a little bit wiser; I know that I’m a little bit grayer; and, hopefully, the Legislature is a little bit better for my having worked here.” In commenting on Chuck’s leaving the County Legislature, Newsday editorialized that “his hard work and integrity made him an antidote to cynicism about public servants” and that he “excelled in finding common ground with Republicans.”

Most recently, until his retirement, Chuck was the General Counsel for Governmental and Media Relations for Nassau Community College. He is currently a member of the advisory board for the Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy & International Relations at Hofstra University. Chuck has been married to Denise Pratesi since 1985. He is the author of Notes From The Hidden Years: Reflections on Spirituality, Politics and Other Stuff; Parables…And Other Stuff From Life; Telling Stories Of Untold Feelings…And Other Stuff; and of LEGISLATING: A Study Guide and Working Manual.