There is much for you to know about the circumstances that were present before, during and after the sale of the golf course, which was given the nickname Muni many years ago.  You will soon get that information here.  After extensive research and review of all the documents involved in the sale of the Muni, I concluded that many things were done unethically, inappropriately and contrary to law.  Therefore, on September 16, 2005, I filed a voluminous lawsuit against Mayor Doherty, the City of Scranton and the Scranton Municipal Recreation Authority challenging the legality of the sale of the Muni.  In my view, it belonged to the people and was not ripe for sale by Mayor Doherty, or by any other mayor.  That's because The Muni was, what is legally known as, a formally accepted dedicated public park.  Public parks that are formally accepted as dedicated public parks enjoy such legal status forever. There are laws that protect dedicated public parks from being sold by corrupt administrations. One of them is the Public Trust Doctrine of 1915, a powerful common law doctrine. That doctrine should have protected the Muni from sale, but it didn't. The city's Law Department, headed by Atty. Farrell, allowed the sale.  We must find out why he did that. Atty. Hickey was the solicitor for Council at the time. He allowed the sale, too. Why? This lawsuit will accomplish getting those answers, one way or the other, and the return of the Muni.

     By clicking on the link below, (The Lawsuit) you will be able to review the lawsuit in its entirety.  It's long, and perhaps you're not interested in reading it, so here's a breakdown of what happened.

1.  Mayor Doherty wanted to sell the Golf Course to the DeNaples family.

2.  Legislation was introduced and passed by the previous council that put the Golf Course up for bid in December of 2003.

3. Bids were received from three prospective buyers, all of which were just over three million dollars and about $100,000.00 apart.

4. The lowest bidder was the party that Mayor Doherty wanted to get the golf course, a law firm from Pottsville, so the bidding process didn't work out.

5.  To get around the bidding process, he used a ploy that allowed him to sell the golf course at an auction to the highest bidder.

6.  That ploy was to declare that there was an emergency and the golf course had to be sold immediately because of the emergency.

7.  An emergency, by definition in the Home Rule Charter, is something that places the public at high risk of injury, or could cause a public catastrophy.

8.. The risk that was cited in the Emergeny Certificate that was issued was that the potential purchasers of the golf course would need to time get ready for the upcoming season. It's on file in the City Clerks office.

9.  Mayor Doherty didn't sign the Emergency Certificate because he knew how bogus it was, so he had Ray Hayes do it, who is the Deputy Mayor, as well as the Public Safety Director.

10. An auction was held at the golf course and low and behold, the party that was the lowest bidder in the bidding process ended up being the highest bidder in the auction process, which was the lawfirm from Pottsivlle.

11. The final bid was for 3.45 million dollars, and the deed was transferred.

12.  However, the deed lists the selling price at 1.5 million dollars.

13.  The proceeds from the sale were supposed to be put in a trust to be used for public parks, but it never got there.

14.  No one knows where the money went or where it is because the mayor, nor anyone else in his cabinet, will say what happened to the money.

15.  Shortly after the deed was transferred over to the law firm from Pottsville, the golf course property was transferred again to its new owners, the DeNaples family.