The county executive&#8217s camp rebuffed the subpoenas. So now Erie County Comptroller

Mark C. Poloncarz has filed papers to bring the matter to court.

Poloncarz wants copies of the personal financial information that dozens of county

employees are to file each year to meet the county&#8217s Code of Ethics.

For months, aides to Chris Collins have refused to turn over the trove of documents. Now

Poloncarz, a lawyer, will ask a judge to make it happen by backing up his subpoenas.

He will argue his &#8220order to show cause&#8221 before State Supreme Court Justice Donna

Siwek on May 27.

&#8220If they had just followed our initial request, we would not have even gotten to the

subpoena phase,&#8221 Poloncarz said of the county executive&#8217s staff Thursday.

&#8220Mr. Collins likes one-person rule,&#8221 he added. &#8220But we live in a democracy,

not a dictatorship. In a democracy, we have checks and balances.&#8221

A official in the county executive&#8217s office said he tried to work out a compromise,

but Poloncarz rebuffed it.

&#8220We need to protect county employees from fishing expeditions,&#8221 said Christopher

M. Grant, Collins&#8217 chief of staff.

In February, Poloncarz trained his auditors on the Erie County Board of Ethics, one of the

quietest boards in county government. It is supposed to contain six members serving five-year

terms, each appointed by the county executive and confirmed by the Legislature.

But when do the members meet? he wondered. Do they record their decisions on ethical

matters? Do they follow the recommendations that then-Comptroller Alfreda Slominski issued

after a similar review in 1980?

And do they require personal disclosure forms from all of the county&#8217s

&#8220policymakers,&#8221 just as they require them from elected officials and members of the

county&#8217s many myriad boards?

Staff policymakers are the upper-level managers, guiding each department and a smattering

of other employees.

Following state law, Erie County&#8217s policymakers are to disclose their personal

financial interests &#8212 their sources of income, real estate, lenders &#8212 in order to

reveal conflicts that might arise with, say, companies doing business with county government.

&#8220If the board is lax in its oversight of the annual financial statements, the entire

process designed to protect taxpayer funds breaks down,&#8221 Poloncarz&#8217s chief auditor,

Michael R. Szukala, said in a court affidavit.

Collins and Poloncarz have never gotten along, true to the tension that usually exists

between county executives and county comptrollers. Throw in the potential for this comptroller

to some day run for office against this executive, and you have a feud rivaling the Hatfields

versus the McCoys.

In March, the county attorney&#8217s office told Poloncarz that he had no authority to

review the Ethics Board. It&#8217s an advisory board to the county executive, not an

&#8220administrative unit,&#8221 the legal teams said, so it is outside his scope.

Poloncarz didn&#8217t accept the opinion. His auditors issued subpoenas last month to pry

the records from Ethics Board Chairman David Mineo, Personnel Commissioner John W. Greenan and

Sue Agos-Quinn, a Personnel Department employee who assists the board.

County Attorney Cheryl A. Green then sent Poloncarz a letter saying none of the three would

respond.

Citizens can see those personal disclosures by requesting the forms through New York&#8217s

Freedom of Information Law. The Buffalo News, for example, has twice obtained the county

executive&#8217s annual disclosure forms through Freedom of Information Law requests and

posted them on the newspaper&#8217s Web site.

Grant, Collins&#8217 chief of staff, suggested Poloncarz file a Freedom of Information

request for the documents.

&#8220The county executive is willing to be open and transparent and disclose, through the

proper channels, what the comptroller is looking for,&#8221 Grant said. &#8220We have told him

that if he requests it through FOIL, we will give him what he&#8217s looking for.&#8221

Poloncarz figured that was a way to get him to relinquish the powers that county laws give

to him and his office.

Further, the subpoenas seek an array of related documents that might not be releasable

under the Freedom of Information Law, but Poloncarz believes he&#8217s entitled to them as the

county comptroller.

Finally, through the subpoenas, he attempts to force Greenan, Mineo and Agos-Quinn to

answer his auditors&#8217 questions. The Freedom of Information Law doesn&#8217t provide for

that.

&#8220This comes down to, I believe, the administration thumbing its nose at my office,

maybe for political purposes, I don&#8217t know,&#8221 Poloncarz said.

&#8220They have left me with no option other than filing this lawsuit.&#8221