A Chattanooga lighting company that supplied thousands of energy-efficient streetlights in Chattanooga has filed another lawsuit against the city and EPB, claiming that Mayor Andy Berke and EPB officials conspired to cut off his city contract and discredit his firm to help EPB and its smart grid network.
But EPB called the latest lawsuit from Global Green Lighting “frivolous,” noting the courts have rejected previous lawsuits filed against the city and EPB from GGL and its president, Don Lepard.
Last Friday, Lepard’s attorneys asked the court to drop lawsuits against EPB he filed on behalf of both East Ridge and Red Bank after EPB urged the court to force the plaintiff to pay legal expenses for what the utility claimed was a frivolous lawsuit.
But while he dropped those lawsuits, Lepard’s attorney, Buddy Presley Jr., filed a new civil suit in Hamilton County Chancery Court. In a 24-page complaint, Presley charges EPB sought to block GGL’s metered, LED lighting system because it threatened to expose billing mistakes in the past and offer a cheaper metering service than EPB’s $220 million fiber optic, smart grid.
GGL, which is owned by Don Lepard, installed about 4,600 energy-efficient LED streetlights in Chattanooga under a contract negotiated by former Mayor Ron Littlefield in 2012. But at the urging of Mayor Andy Berke and EPB, the city terminated its contract with GGL a year ago after a city review found that nearly 40 percent of the GGL lights failed to measure any power usage and others were artificially capped.