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.



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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