ECIDA approves new legal counsel
Board’s vote affirms Harris Beach, drops Hurwitz & Fine
The Erie County Industrial Development Agency chose law firm Harris Beach as its general counsel, a switch that supporters say will better equip the ECIDA for an enhanced role in economic development.
The board backed the change on Monday by a vote of 13-5. The roll call was taken by secretary Robert P. Fine, whose firm, Hurwitz & Fine, is being replaced as general counsel after 18 years.
Harris Beach represents 26 other industrial development agencies around the state, including Niagara County’s, and has expertise in economic development matters that the agency will need, said County Executive Chris Collins, a board member who advocated opening up the agency’s legal and other professional services to bidding.
Some other board members had previously opposed even putting the legal work out to bid, arguing that the agency benefited from its long relationship with Hurwitz & Fine because of the law firm’s knowledge of the ECIDA’s issues.
Monday’s vote came after a lengthy and at times contentious debate. Amherst Supervisor Satish Mohan, a board member, pressed Collins on speculation about whether Collins had influenced the choice of Harris Beach in order to reward a campaign supporter.
Collins denied that, noting he did not serve on the ECIDA committee that voted 4-1 to recommend Harris Beach as the choice to the full board. And Harris Beach was the unanimous recommendation of ECIDA staff members who had extensively evaluated and interviewed the applicants, he said.
Collins acknowledged Harris Beach had contributed to his political campaign. But so did Hurwitz & Fine and some other law firms, he said. Collins insisted such contributions do not influence his decision-making process.
“This was a red herring brought by those who want to maintain the status quo,” Collins said. Mohan ended up voting against the motion authorizing a contract with Harris Beach; the same motion covered the choices of law firms that will provide other types of legal services to the agency, as well.
R. J. Stapell, managing partner of Harris Beach’s Buffalo office, was traveling on Monday and could not be reached to comment.
Collins said Harris Beach was well suited to help the ECIDA at a time when the state’s Empire Zone incentives program is facing a possible overhaul and the ECIDA has taken on more responsibility in business retention and expansion efforts.
“They’re a firm that has the experience at their fingertips,” he said after the meeting. Collins cited a recent example: the ECIDA used Harris Beach to work on a complex agreement with NRG Energy that averted a potentially massive immediate dropoff in taxes collected by the county, the Town of Tonawanda and the Kenmore-Tonawanda School District.
Collins and Al Culliton, the ECIDA’s chief financial officer, praised Hurwitz & Fine for its work with the agency over the past 18 years.
After the meeting, Fine said: “I’m honored to have had represented the ECIDA for 18 years and extremely proud of the excellent and creative legal services we provided.” He declined to comment further on the selection process.
Harris Beach will have a seven- year contract with the ECIDA and will be subjected to annual performance reviews.
In other ECIDA business, the board approved incentives of up to $781,000 to support an expansion of a Cheektowaga facility leased by FedEx Ground Package System. The incentives were awarded to the building’s owner, Monmouth Capital Corp.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments