A State Supreme Court justice says she will sign an order granting the Erie County comptroller most of the information he subpoenaed from the Board of Ethics, a county entity expected to watch for conflicts of interest among the county's policymakers.

Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz wants his auditors to examine the ethics board's operations but was blocked by aides to County Executive Chris Collins, who contended that the board merely advises the county executive and lies beyond the comptroller's scope.

Poloncarz issued subpoenas for the records, but the subpoenas were ignored, on the advice of County Attorney Cheryl A. Green. So Poloncarz went before State Supreme Court Justice Donna M. Siwek on Thursday seeking to have his subpoenas enforced.

Poloncarz, a lawyer, represented himself. So did David C. Mineo, the ethics board chairman who also is a lawyer. Assistant County Attorney Brian Liebenow represented Personnel Commissioner John W. Greenan, whose office provides clerical support for the ethics board.

Siwek threw questions at the three lawyers for more than an hour and emerged convinced that the ethics board is not just an advisory board but acts as an "administrative unit" that can determine whether certain employees must file personal financial disclosure forms, fine those who must but don't and refer serious violations to the district attorney.

"It is an advisory board," Liebenow said at one point but added, "It is a little different than your standard run-of-the-mill advisory board."

Siwek also indicated she could see why Poloncarz wanted to review the board because she couldn't determine from Mineo its current number of members, how often it meets and whether members are appointed as the law requires.

"It would seem to me that you are not necessarily acting the way the enacting legislation wants you to operate," she told Mineo.

The Collins team had objected most strongly to Poloncarz's wish to receive the hundreds of personal financial disclosure forms — also called ethics disclosures — that the county's policymakers must file with the board each year. The forms reveal a policymaker's sources of income in order to determine if a conflict of interest might arise with county contractors or businesses regulated by county government.

Siwek offered a compromise. She will let the ethics board block out how much money a county employee might have invested in a company and the value of their ownership stake in a company.

Poloncarz can return to Siwek for that information if he determines an employee has a financial interest in an entity with county business.

Poloncarz also agreed to let Collins officials block out the names of minor children in an employee's household.

The compromise follows the broad strokes of one that Collins officials had offered. They had agreed to give Poloncarz the documents — with those same details redacted — if he requested them under New York's Freedom of Information Law, as any citizen can do. Poloncarz did not want to set such a precedent.

At the start of Thursday's hearing, Liebenow indicated that top county officials considered the case a serious matter and that an appeal would be likely. But later, the Collins team said no appeal was necessary. They believe that they won in Siwek's courtroom because they can omit information.

"Poloncarz is getting exactly what we offered to give him in the first place," said Grant Loomis, a Collins spokesman, "full ethics disclosures with minor children and investment amounts redacted, in accordance with public information laws."

Loomis repeated the contention that Poloncarz launched his review to embarrass Collins politically. "It's been about politics from Day One, and this ruling gives him exactly what he is allowed to see by law," Loomis said.

Poloncarz also claimed victory.

"It's exactly what I said in the beginning," he said. "My office has the power to review the Board of Ethics, not only to review the disclosure statements but to see if the Board of Ethics is acting in accordance with its enabling legislation. I am just sorry it took so long."