An outside attorney hired to determine whether East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert violated an ethics rule by accepting contributions from local developers in 2017 has concluded that a citizen’s complaint is “without merit.”
East Ridge resident Laura Seneker filed a complaint in May alleging that Lambert set a special-called council meeting on June 2, 2017, “for no apparent reason,” pushed through a vote that authorized $4 million for infrastructure improvements on Interstate 75 Exit 1, and then 12 days later received $5,000 in campaign contributions, $3,000 of which came from developers working on that project.
Seneker said that behavior violated a 2006 ethics ordinance that says city officials may not accept any money or gifts that “reasonably may be interpreted as an attempt to influence his decision,” and asked for outside counsel to evaluate her complaint.
But Dunlap, Tennessee, attorney Stephen Greer, who was hired by East Ridge in June, said Seneker’s allegation was “unfounded.”
In a July 17 letter released Thursday to the public, Greer said he met with Lambert and East Ridge City Manager Scott Miller to discuss the complaint in detail, reviewed documents, council minutes and laid out four main points for why Seneker’s complaint was “without merit.”