"Glendale is fighting in court to keep documents about negotiations over the Phoenix Coyotes secret.

City officials want the documents to remain confidential until they finish talks with a potential future team owner over use of city-owned Jobing.com Arena.

Glendale's attorney promised Thursday, though, that the city would make the documents public before the City Council voted on any new lease so that taxpayers could weigh in before the ink dried.

Deputy City Attorney Nicholas DiPiazza faced off in Maricopa Superior Court against the Goldwater Institute, which is suing Glendale for denying the conservative think tank's request for city documents related to Coyotes negotiations.

Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf's $148 million offer to buy the Coyotes hinges in part on reworking the arena lease agreement with the city. It is the only bid that would keep the team in Glendale.

The city says it would lose millions of dollars if the team left.

The institute is worried that Glendale could agree to a deal with Reinsdorf allowing the bankrupt Coyotes to pay lower rent, security fees or ticket revenues to the city. It fears Glendale taxpayers will be left on the hook for $180 million the city spent in 2003 to build the arena.

Goldwater won an aggressive court battle last year against Phoenix over so-called "public subsidies" to a mall developer.

Glendale officials maintain they would help a new team owner find ways to increase Coyotes revenue but wouldn't sacrifice the city's portion of the proceeds.

Nevertheless, revealing documents about ongoing negotiations could harm taxpayers' interests, DiPiazza argued.

"When people know what your cards are, it ruins the card game," he said.

"In the future everything will be made public," DiPiazza added. "We will be accountable.""