A matter of trust

"Trust us. We're from the government, and we're here to help."

Unfortunately, sometimes that's the problem, not the solution.

City-owned EPB released a report Tuesday by independent accounting firm Mauldin & Jenkins that showed it had overbilled the city for public streetlights by more than $1.5 million over an 89-month period but innocently (though conveniently) had underbilled the city by nearly the same amount. The negligible difference -- at least when you're dealing with a utility and a municipality -- is $17,049.

Now, said President and Chief Executive Officer Harold DePriest in an editorial board meeting with the Times Free Press, all that's left is for EPB and the city to negotiate a deal.

Well, not exactly since the city's Office of Internal Audit concluded the offsetting under-billing is much less than the utility claims.

And pending lawsuits against EPB from Global Green Lighting founder Don Lepard also may need to be concluded before negotiation takes place. But EPB has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuits, so that part of the matter may or may not be determined by the end of the week.

Going forward, DePriest said the public can trust the utility because it usually gets it right. That's hardly a ringing vote of confidence from the folks you trust to keep the power on when it's 10 degrees in mid-January, but he said it's all he could offer.

"Yes, we've made mistakes," he said. "Will we make more more tomorrow? Yes. I can't offer perfection."

However, DePriest said "most of the time the processes work very well." And EPB's commitment, he said, is to make whatever is wrong, right, and to "offer respect, dignity and work through to a common understanding."

Perhaps that's why the seemingly hard and fast $17,049 figure toted up by the accounting firm is just a negotiating point with the city.

"This is a starting point for discussion," said J.Ed. Marston, EPB's vice president of marketing. "It does not say this is the end of the matter."

There is, said DePriest, "wiggle room."

The issue deals with a contract the city made with Global Green Lighting in a previous mayoral administration to install more expensive but more efficient LED streetlights instead of the mercury vapor or high pressure sodium ones then being used.

EPB, DePriest said, had "nothing to do with the contract" to install the LED lights, which has now been scrapped. Indeed, he said, the streetlights are erected as a service to the city and do not "make money" for EPB.

When the city wanted the new lights in certain places, he said, the utility company had to take out still-working lights, leading to "stranded investment." That amount of money is one of the points of contention.

Another is whether the Tennessee Valley Authority authorized EPB to charge the city different kilowatt-per-hour rates for different kinds of lights.

Yet another is EPB's calculation for charges based on the hours the streetlights burn and whether such a calculation was approved by TVA.

The city did not join Lepard's suit against EPB on its behalf but believes, according to its own audit, it is owed $813,000.

Ostensibly, the difference between that and the $17,049 is DePriest's "wiggle room."

Meanwhile, residents should wonder if this kind of bad ciphering is involved in streetlights, how much more is involved in their electric bills and in the fiber-optic network the utility uses to provide phone, television and computer services.

Of course, calculations for electric bills and the fiber- optic network are made differently from those involving streetlights, but the whole mess should redouble EPB's efforts to put in precautions to record and measure more accurately -- which DePriest said it has -- and make it clear that, as the utility president said, "there is no street- light slush fund."

"I don't think this is any big contest with the city," he said. "We're not going to win, or they're not going to win. We're both going to win. But if [residents] don't trust us, we'll have lost."

EPB's future actions will determine how that plays out with those who pay the bills.

Upcoming Events