None — The mayor of East Point is part of a class action lawsuit filed against her own city. This announcement comes just two days before the election.
Mayor Earnestine Pittman said she's standing up for citizens who are struggling to pay their utility bills after a recent rate increase. On Saturday, angry citizens marched through East Point to oppose the increase.
According to the mayor, the city's water and sewer combined base rates went from $19.50 to $64.80. The mayor blamed the increases for forcing business owners to close and residents to move out of town.
On Sunday, she placed the target of their outrage directly on the five city council members who decided to override her veto of the increase. Three of those council members happen to be up for re-election.
"When your elected officials will not listen to you, then they will have to pay attention to you at the ballot box," Pittman told Channel 2's Carl Willis.
The mayor herself is named as one of the citizens behind a class action suit filed Friday against the city of East Point to reverse the higher rates. The mayor said the city deposited $3 million in utility subsidies into the general fund.
"The utilities should not and cannot by state statute be used to raise surplus money above and beyond the needs in order maintain that utility," Pittman said.
http://bcove.me/j8ua5n7e
Willis spoke to two of the East Point city council members who support the new rates. They said the increase is prudent, rational and legal.
"We went over this quite thoroughly in the budget process and early on and went through as many options as we possibly could," said council member Steve Bennett. "What we voted on was the best option we had."
Bennett and council member Clyde Mitchell brushed off the mayor's actions as purely political.
"It's not about the citizens," Mitchell said. "This is all about our mayor wanting to have power over this city."
Elections are scheduled for Tuesday.
WSBTV
