City Internal Auditor Stan Sewell told City Council members on Tuesday that EPB and the city are "close" on the amount owed by the utility to the city on street light overbilling.
Mr. Sewell said the city computed the amount at about $1.2 million, while he said EPB's auditing firm, Mauldin and Jenkins, has it at $1.5 million for an 89-month period that was audited.
Mr. Sewell indicated he was not convinced that the city owes EPB certain billing offsets.
He said EPB now says it should have been adding five percent to certain charges. He said, "Other TVA distributors don't really seem to be doing that. TVA never flagged EPB for not adding the five percent in the past."
Mr. Sewell said if the five percent is added that might amount to $532,000 over some seven years.
The auditor and other city officials said progress has been made by a working group of leaders from both the city and EPB on getting the street lighting billing straightened out.
However, Assistant City Attorney Phil Noblett said that might be temporarily stalled. He said attorneys filing a lawsuit for Global Green Lighting President Don Lepard are asking to be at the table for the talks.
Mr. Sewell said the EPB auditors "got erroneous information" from EPB that caused them to significantly raise the amount owed to the city.
He said it is difficult to keep up with 26,000 street lights, but he said EPB's earlier numbers were considerably off. He said the city was being billed for numerous sodium vapor lights that were not in service.
He stated, "If I was running that particular department (EPB street lighting), I would feel a little embarrassed."
Councilman Larry Grohn said he and other council members, as well as citizens, "want to see this issue put to bed. It's like a disagreement between cousins."
Joe Ferguson, EPB board chairman, said the utility also wants it settled. He said the working group is making substantial progress.