University at Buffalo Law School students are joining a local open government group to sue Niagara County, seeking to overturn the county's long-term sealing of financial disclosure statements filed by its officials.
The Buffalo Niagara Coalition for Open Government has been dueling with Niagara County for the statements for a while. Last year, the county released the 2019 statements but refused access to those for 2013-2018. County Attorney Claude Joerg said before 2019, county officials had an expectation of privacy in what was in the statements.
The law students from a school training clinic helped prepare a lawsuit to be filed Tuesday.
"Who has a clinic devoted to transparency in government," explained President Paul Wolf, "and when I explained this to them, they couldn't believe it and they said absolutely, we want to be a part of this. And if the lawsuit is successful, which I expect it will be, the UB Law School can ask for attorney fees, which county taxpayers will have to pay."
Wolf said Niagara is the only county that has such a rule. He claims that is a violation of the state's Freedom of Information Law.
"Niagara County is unique that back in 1996, they passed a local law that said the annual disclosure forms that county legislators and county employees fill out, keeping them confidential, can only be seen by the district attorney, the sheriff and their Ethics Board," Wolf said.
Wolf said his group has to go to court because the law has no enforcement.
"The only enforcement mechanism is that a citizen or an organization has to get a lawyer. You can't go to the attorney general," he said. "In Massachusetts and other states, the attorney general actually has the authority to investigate and fine people for violating the law. That's not the case in New York. The remedy is you got to get a lawyer and fight it."
That's why Wolf calls the lawsuit the "last resort" in trying to open government to the people. He called release of the 2019 financial statements a half-reform.
Joerg did not want to comment on the lawsuit since he has not seen it.
