A Suffolk County Supreme Court judge will allow the Town of East Hampton to cover its legal fees with revenue from its airport. The town is defending itself from a lawsuit that accuses it of ignoring environmental regulations when East Hampton Airport was briefly shut down, to later reopen it as a private facility.
To avoid using taxpayer dollars, the town has instead been using airport user fees to pay its legal council.
The judge denied the litigants — who are private jet companies and Hamptons aviators — for a motion that would have required the counsel to return any money that came from the airport fund after May 2022.
He cited a Federal Aviation Administration rule that says that airport revenue can cover legal costs as long as the fees support airport operation.
