Scranton City Council seeks oversight of grant money
Scranton City Council will seek oversight for a pool of money Mayor Chris Doherty used to give $10,000 to Electric City Television.
As it is, Mr. Doherty doesn’t need approval to distribute funds from the federal Urban Development Action Grant program, which has since been discontinued.
That would change if council passes the UDAG legislation it unanimously requested Tuesday.
Council members were upset with the way Mr. Doherty funneled $10,000 in UDAG money to ECTV through the East Scranton Business Association. Mr. Doherty has defended the transfer as startup money the city was obligated to provide.
In 2006, council granted Mr. Doherty $577,000 in UDAG money, some of which he used to build the tree house in Nay Aug Park. Although the program was phased out, the city still receives repayments from UDAG loans it gave to various projects.
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