City Lawsuits and Attendant Legal Fees

How does a politician, like a mayor, make the taxpayer's money unprotected? Not easy to do, because it is the people who actually have to do that for him. Two things are needed. First, a mayor with an interest in making the taxpayer's money unprotected, and the ability to cause conditions to exist that will provoke lawsuits and various legal actions. Second, a council that is either strong enough in numbers to support whatever the mayor is doing to cause the conditions to exist that will provoke lawsuits, or a council weak enough in numbers that it will not have the power to stop the mayor. In a council of five members, a majority vote is 4 to 1. Therefore, if the mayor is doing a thing that the council does not approve of, the council will have the voting power to override the mayor. 3 to 2 doesn't cut it.

Therefore, when there is a mayor who wants to provoke lawsuits so that his crony white-collar lawyer friends can feast on the taxpayer's money like vultures on a dead buffalo, and the council is helpless to stop him without a four member voting bloc, a lot of legal action is going to occur. That legal action will generate a lot of legal fees, and those legal fees will get distributed among all the players in the game of "screw the taxpayers"; they work and they'll refill the till eventually.

The City of Scranton uses a lot of law firms because it is absolutely buried in dozens upon dozen of lawsuits generated from one kind of administrative incompetence or abuse, or another. Many of them are generated from the Bureau of Licensing and Zoning, and I mean many. The mayor generates a ton of legal expenses alone through his refusal to "sit at the table with the city unions" and hammer out agreements that will work for everyone. As Dave Gervasi, of the Fireman's Union has repeatedly explained, Doherty would rather go to arbitration than negotiate. And, the city gets it's ass kicked in practically every arbitration it gets tangled up in, costing the city far and above what it would have spent in negotiating with the union without arbitration. That is absolutely inept and incompetent leadership and mismanagement of city business and taxpayer money. That's Doherty, through and through, anti-labor, anti-blue-collar and anti-working man. Why? Because he's a silver-spooner, better than the rest of us, because he didn't have to do anything but sit back and have everything handed to him. More power to him, I say, but no mayor is going to turn his back on the blue collar class and move on to greener political pastures. Never happened before, it won't happen now and will never happen in the future.

The forced arbitration requires the city to call out the dogs, the special interest lawyers to represent the city. And, there it is. The payday that Doherty wants for his boys, apparently. So much legal work gets filed on behalf of and against the city that it is mind boggling. The county courthouse has legal actions against the city that would be stacked to the ceiling a half dozen times if they weren't shelved. The public never hears about it because the Scranton Times will not make public all the legal action against the city as it develops.

HAVE YOU READ ABOUT ANY OF THE LAWSUITS FILED AGAINST MIKE WALLACE, THE NEW ZONING OFFICER? CERTAINLY NOT, HE'S A DOHERTY CRONY, A PUPPET ON A STRING WHO DOES WHAT HE'S TOLD TO DO AND WHEN HE'S TOLD TO DO IT, INSTEAD OF GOING BY THE BOOK TO BE FAIR TO EVERY HOMEOWNER AND CITIZEN. WALLACE WASN'T EVEN ON THE JOB SIX MONTHS AND THE CITY WAS SHELLING OUT LEGAL FEES FOR HIS NUMEROUS SCREW UPS.

The Zoning Office and the Bureau of Inspections are the most mismanaged and out of control offices in the city. And, Doherty does nothing about it. It's been run like a sinking ship since Doherty took office. He's taken no pride in the performance of that office whatsoever, because it's either his personal gift shop or a weapon. That's why the office generates so much legal activity. A good mayor would have a handle on that office, for no other reason than to stop the flow of legal action against the incompetent and unqualified people who work there. That's often tapped as his little "gift shop" for his high brow white collar KOZ friends. Depending on who you are, you can either be denied a permit to screw in a light bulb or you can build a home without a permit. It's an office that is run on favoritism or prejudice. They're not bashful to screw anybody.

If a corporate CEO pulled that kind of hush-hush no-bid awarding of huge contracts, after he was immediately fired there would be a complete investigation into how many other times it happened. Problem here is that Doherty can't be fired, at least not until Election Day. He's the abuser and the accuser all in one. What's he going to do? Accuse himself of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds? Fat chance, and I mean "fat", like in "fat" no-bid contracts to legal firms.

Practically everything that Doherty touches turns into a legal problem that involves his chronies. The South Side Complex sale is involved in litigation, and who's right in the thick of it? Councilman Pocius and CECO. Here's Pocius, a Councilman for the City of Scranton and he is also doing business with the city of Scranton as CECO. That's such an unethicial conflict of interest, but it's up to Doherty to make sure that such conflict of interest is eliminated. You can't be a councilman and think it's ethical to do business with the city. You already represent the taxpayers, or you're supposed to, so how can you also represent a firm that will be paid by the taxpayers? You can't. Well, you shouldn't, but Doherty saw no problem with it.

That brings us to the next lawsuit against the city, caused by Pocius and Hazzouri for making applications for benefits that are not allowed by the Home Rule Charter. Yet, even though the city has been sued, these guys won't back up. They want the retirement benefits and don't care if the taxpayers have to carry the burden of paying the legal fees involved in opposing the lawsuit against them. Grossly unethical, selfish and inconsiderate, especially given the fact that Doherty has us buried so deep in debt we won't see black for a decade, two decades if he's re-elected.

What's that like, to be an invisible man on council, not having your own mind to speak or permission to vote for something unless Chris says it's okay? Just sitting there like a fixture in a window, with a sold sign hanging around your neck. Not my style. No part of me is for sale, especially my backbone. I wouldn't recognize myself without it. Of course, some men have none to begin with, like these rubber-stamper councilmen.

That's all we need is for Doherty to have the city checkbook and four puppet councilmen dancing to the tune he plays and when he plays it. We wouldn't know what hit us. Literally, because we'd never know what was going on. The councilman puppets would stay silent, Doherty would stay silent and without question, the Scranton (some) Times would stay silent. We'd be fed more than ever the bullshit that the city is doing great and the economy is turning around.

For sure, we'd never know anything about lawsuits like the one relating to the Complex, the Councilmen and the pool fees.

Then there is the case of Pennsylvania American Water Co. at Lake Scranton. After 9/11 it was federally mandated that utilities have security. The water company contracted with the city to have police on site 24-7. The contract called for PAW to pick up the tab for costs and labor using Scranton city police officers during their off-duty hours, costing the city absolutely nothing; and, in fact, giving police officers an opportunity to earn more money. I guess Doherty's crony lawyers were whining for more money, so Doherty 'cancelled' the contract and pulled the police officers off Lake Scranton. Needless to say, Doherty had to go to arbitration with PAW and lost! Of course! You can't just cancel a contract...or did Doherty's crony lawyers conveniently forget to tell him that? That fiasco cost the city a settlement in the amount of...now hold on...check the zeroes...$1,000,000.00! Yep! ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Ouch! Who payed there? The water company, the working police officers, and the taxpayers. Who benefitted? The crony lawyers. Who else?

You know what? Go to the Office of the Prothonotary some day. There are computers in there listing all the cases on file. Just click 'City of Scranton' into the browser. Then pull up a chair and watch page after page after page of listings of lawsuits against the city. And most of them due to nothing more or less than reckless, irresponsible and incompetent administration and leadership by Chris Doherty. He's out of touch with his own people in City Hall and further out of touch with the people paying his salary.

LEGAL FEES HAVE RUN INTO THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS UNDER THE DOHERTY ADMINISTRATION DUE TO LEGAL ACTIONS THAT ARE PROVOKED BY THIS ADMINISTRATION SO THAT LEGAL FIRMS, DOHERTY'S CRONY FIRMS, CAN GET IN LINE AND AGREE TO DISAGREE UNTIL THE LEGAL FEES ARE HIGHER THAN THE AMOUNT IN QUESTION IN THE LAWSUIT. IT'S ALL IN BLACK IN WHITE IN THE COURTHOUSE.

DID YOU EVER HEAR THE PHRASE, "IF YOU'RE NOT THE PREDATOR, YOU'RE THE PREY"? IT'S A PHRASE SHARED BY LAWYERS. THEY THINK LIKE PREDATORS. DOHERTY THINKS LIKE A PREDATOR, TOO. HIS FAVORITE FOOD IS THE WORKING CLASS. THE PREY OUTNUMBER THE PREDATORS IN THIS CITY. THE BLUE COLLAR MEN, WORKING WOMEN AND MILITARY FAMILIES OUTNUMBER THESE WHITE-COLLAR PREDATORS BY 4 TO 1.