Jim Boffetti from the state’s Attorney General’s office has stepped back into the role of interim Rockingham County Attorney for the second time in a year.
When the Attorney General’s office suspended Rockingham county attorney Jim Reams last November, Boffetti stepped in on an interim basis. And now about a month after returning to his old job running the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau, Boffetti is back in Reams’ vacated office.
That’s because Reams – who was reinstated by a judge in May on a technicality – decided to retire earlier this month as part of a settlement. He chose retirement rather than be tried for employment discrimination and financial mismanagement in court.
Boffetti says employee morale at the Rockingham County Attorney’s offices is high these days:
I think they were happy to have this phase of this transition over, and I was happy to come back and to support them, and to let things calm down so that what has to get done here gets done.
An election will be held in November for the next permanent Rockingham County Attorney.
