EPB Board Chairman Joe Ferguson, right, and CEO Harold DePriestEPB announced today that it will hire accounting firm Maulden and Jenkins to audit its operations amid questions about the accuracy of the utility's streetlight bills to taxpayers.
The move comes in response to mounting pressure for the city-owned utility to prove that mistakes relating to more than 6,000 mercury vapor lights didn't add significantly to taxpayers' bills.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, who appoints EPB's board, requested that the utility complete its own audit by July 1, even as the independent city auditor is already working to untangle the confusion.
It's unclear why Berke requested an additional audit, when the city's own internal auditor is already analyzing EPB's data. City auditor Stan Sewell's audit is in fact an analysis of an existing EPB audit that it presented to city council two weeks ago.
That would make this the third consecutive audit of EPB's streetlight operations.
Pick up a copy of tomorrow's Times Free Press for more.