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Residents press East Point council on utility bills, drain failures and budget transparency
Summary
Seventeen public speakers urged the council to delay utility rate hikes, publish financial details and act on infrastructure problems such as drainage, sinkholes and sanitation. Speakers called for audits, better notice and use of special revenues for public safety.
Seventeen residents addressed the City Council during the public-comment period on April 20, raising complaints about rising utility bills, requests for audits and transparency, chronic stormwater failures and sanitation/cleanliness issues.
Several speakers described high utility bills and meter irregularities. Pat Scott and other residents reported unexpectedly large electric bills and urged staff to investigate meters and billing. Kendall Phillips, citing open-records research, said red school-speed cameras produced $238,000 in citations from February to July 2025 and urged the city to publish full accounting of citation revenue and consider directing those funds to public-safety uses.
Neighborhood infrastructure complaints were raised by Cheryl Gray and Willie Jackson, who described flooding, soil erosion and sinkholes around Brianwood Boulevard and Greenwood Circle; Gray said sinkholes had caused injuries and asked for an inspection and long-term repairs.
Speakers also sought fiscal oversight. Multiple residents asked the council for a formal audit before raising rates or taxes, questioned credit-card or expenditure transparency, and urged that the city explore franchise-fee enforcement for trash haulers as a non-rate revenue source. A number of commenters warned that any abrupt rate increases would disproportionately harm seniors and fixed-income households.
Council response and follow-up: Council members repeatedly asked staff and the city manager for full documentation: financial variances, copies of procurement and good-faith reviews, and reconciled records of transfers between the electric fund and other funds. Council directed staff to prepare the ECG rate study results and to reconcile prior transfers; the municipal utility commission was reconstituted and will be seated to provide resident input on utilities and planned rate proposals.
What residents can expect: Staff will present the independent operating-cost analysis and rate study publicly and reconcile interfund transfers. Council asked staff to post financial variances and budget clarifications and to schedule meetings where residents can review the study and ask questions before any rate change is considered.
