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Thread: Lawyer fees in stadium lease talks called secret

  1. #1
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    Lawyer fees in stadium lease talks called secret

    Lawyer fees in stadium lease talks called secret

    Denise Jewell Gee

    A team of nine attorneys from the law firm Nixon Peabody is helping Erie County negotiate a new lease with the Buffalo Bills, but staff for County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz won't disclose the attorneys' hourly rates.
    The law firm contends that it's a "trade secret," but the head of a state office responsible for advising the public and local governments on the open records law believes that the information should be revealed.
    "I think that the denial is unjustifiable," said Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the state's Committee on Open Government.



    Read the Full Story in Buffalo's #1 News Paper


    Poloncarz and County Attorney Michael A. Siragusa earlier this year chose Nixon Peabody from among 13 law firms that submitted proposals to serve as legal counsel to Erie County as it negotiates a new lease for Ralph Wilson Stadium.
    Just curious. Anyone think Nixon Peabody ever donated to Mark's campaign?

    "We intend to disclose every penny of taxpayer dollars that will be paid to Nixon Peabody. However, we can't release the hourly rates because the responding firms have claimed that doing so would damage their competitive position in the marketplace."
    What skin is it off our community's teeth if we know how much an hour we are paying for this service?

    And this sums it up.

    That's laughable. Trade secret, eh? How about it's tax dollars paying you. LOU BORDONARO, BUFFALO, NY

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    It sure seems wrong the fees are not going to be disclosed. But our new count exec is more concerned about making the law firm happy than following the law on full disclosure.

  3. #3
    It's public information. The county's just stalling. It will be like pulling hen's teeth to get it, but eventually the information will be made available. I love it when politicians run on open government and then violate freedom of information laws.

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    Well I for one am extremely curious as to what they do charge.

  5. #5
    Member Mr. Lackawanna's Avatar
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    Why is Poloncarz hiding this issue? I thought he would be an honest Politician.
    Russia didn't make me vote for Trump, Hillary did.

  6. #6
    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    It's all bull sh*t. If a law firm wants to keep rates private and as a 'trade secret'...that's fine. They just need to not work with the public sector.

  7. #7
    Member nogods's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by leftWNYbecauseofBS View Post
    It's all bull sh*t. If a law firm wants to keep rates private and as a 'trade secret'...that's fine. They just need to not work with the public sector.
    At one end of the spectrum there are obvious trade secrets that are protected from disclosure even though one is selling a product or service to a public entity. For example, Coke would never be required to disclose its raw material costs or its formula simply because it sold cola products to the county.

    At the other end you have the right and the need of the public to know that payment of tax dollars to 3rd parties is the correct amount. How would we know that the actual payments made to NH are correct if we don't know the hours billed and the hourly rate?

    So I think the trade secret argument has some validity but gets trumped by the needs and right of the public to know the specifics in this case.

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