EPB Say Latest Report Shows Offsetting Costs Cancel Out Their Overbilling To The City Over The Past 7 Years

CHATTANOOGA,TN, (WDEF)-EPB say they gave accountants Mauldin and Jenkins thousands of  documents including TVA rate documents, process information and city of Chattanooga power bills going back 7 years.

Their report shows that EPB overbilled the city 1.5 million dollars.

Harold DePriest, CEO of EPB,"This is not some drama pitting us against the city, both we and the city want are going to have the same goal in this, the city will want to pay only for what they used and nothing more, we have the same goal we want them to pay for what they used and nothing more"

However  they say when factoring in services they underbilled including maintenance charges they only actually over-billed 17000 dollars.

City Council’s Larry Grohn says there needs to be more clarity on one of those under-billed services, line loss, which comes to just over 600,000 dollars.

"That 5% power shortage charge is only for metered lights, the vast majority of the city’s lights are not metered, that in itself means it should not even be included"

EPB claims they are being slowed down while trying to work with Mayor Berke’s team due to a lawsuit by Global Green Lighting CEO Don Lepard.

Harold DePriest, EPB CEO,"A lawsuit by one individual, its not by the city of East Ridge or Redbank, this is one individual, we think it is without merit."

Lepard says EPB had plenty of time long before his lawsuit was filed to deal with the city’s overcharging confusion.

Don Lepard, Entrepreneur and CEO of Global Green Lighting, "When we say the continuous of the reporting of the offsetting charges we just felt that it was necessary for us to bring forward what we knew and that is that there is no offsetting charge, there was an over-charge."

EPB added this latest report while differing to city auditor Stan Sewell’s they say shows transparency and accountability on their part.

Mayor Berke declined to comment on camera or discuss the topic in-depth but added he would welcome more conclusions not just reports.