Today (Dec. 15, 2016), the Erie County Legislature passed a resolution that seeks to repeal a contract with Buffalo Commercial Real Estate (CBRE), a commercial real estate brokerage service, after a significant error with its RFP (request for proposals) review was brought to light, during meetings of the Finance and Management Committee. The company, which handled the process to lease space for the County’s Department of Social Services’ Family Wellness programs, is accused of failing to properly post bid information and thus did not conduct a fair or accurate analysis. CBRE receives a larger fee paid by taxpayers depending on the cost of the lease signed by the County.  Their incorrect analysis to the county originally recommended a more expensive lease space based on incorrect figures presented to county officials.

“The errors made by CBRE Buffalo are significant and they basically botched the entire process. I don’t believe that they should be paid for the services rendered due to these egregious mistakes. The errors made created many hardships for Erie County and the private landlords who were bidding to lease a significant amount of space to DSS. I understand that the County Executive as well as other county officials are unhappy with what transpired. CBRE failed in their contractual obligation to the county, and they failed taxpayers,” said Chairman John Mills. “Because of this, the Legislature has submitted a resolution that repeals the resolution awarding CBRE the contract and opposes any payment of brokerage fees, which would be paid for by the landlord. ”

The County Executive previously has placed full blame on CBRE and stated “To put it mildly, I’m not happy with how this whole thing was handled, the county had no involvement in the broker’s handling of the request for proposals.”

The resolution, which can be viewed here, asks the County Attorney’s Office to pursue any methods necessary to recoup any past or future fees associated with the broker.