Attorney Paul Wolf has long fought for government transparency, and his latest effort includes suing the Erie County Legislature for denying his request to publicize calendars for legislators.
Wolf filed a request under New York State’s Freedom of Information Law in December 2025 to obtain work schedules for Erie County legislators — who each earn a base pay of $65,000 a year — due to concerns he had about how effectively they had been fulfilling their roles to serve the county’s taxpayers who fund their salaries.
“In my opinion, as far as I can tell, county legislators don’t do much,” Wolf told BTPM NPR. "Their meetings are very brief, there's not a lot of substance at their meetings, so I was curious to see [if] maybe there's more that they do."
Days after Wolf submitted his FOIL request, he received a response from a clerk for the Erie County Legislature stating that none of the 11 legislators maintained a schedule or calendar related to their official duties.
Wolf said he doesn't believe that's true. Following the denial of his request, he invited all of the legislators to an event, but two of them — District 1 Legislator Lawrence Dupre (D) and District 10 Legislator Lindsay Lorigo (R) — said they couldn't attend due to scheduling conflicts.
"Right there, it goes to show you that it appears that at least two of them keep a schedule, and I suspect more," Wolf said. "It seems to be a united effort [among] Democrats and Republicans here to state that they don't have calendars."
Now, Wolf is suing in State Supreme Court to compel the Legislature to conduct a proper search and disclose any responsive records.
District 5 Legislator Jeanne Vinal (D) said she does have a working calendar as an attorney, but not one that tracks her legislative work. She said none of her fellow members that she knows of have schedules as legislators, and neither did her predecessor.
“I don't maintain a separate calendar just for the public. I mean, it's not like Congress or president or whatever,” Vinal said. "It's considered a part-time job, so people are all working on that aspect."
With regards to Wolf’s FOIL request and subsequent lawsuit, Vinal said she agrees with his stance that elected officials should make transparency a priority.
“I'm glad he's taking such an active approach in being a watchdog on government. We need more people like him to do that,” she said.
Vinal said she’d even be willing to speak with Wolf to get his opinion on what things would be best for the public to know.
“Some people look at criticism as a negative, but it's not," she said. "He raises a good point, and the fact that we aren't doesn't mean we shouldn't be.”
Wolf, however, said he doesn't know what progress a conversation would encourage if legislators don't already have schedules in place to share with the public.
"I don't understand how an attorney who has a busy law office and works as a legislator does not keep a calendar of meetings and appointments," he said.
Wolf is currently waiting for his case to be assigned to a judge.
