This is an update to David Cutting’s previous letter “Theft by City Hall“
If the Clarksville Gas & Water Department (CGW) had been upfront and honest, there would be no need for a lawsuit to force the promised return of deposits. If Judge Shelton had followed standard court procedures and issued a default judgment when the duly served defendant Mayor Johnny Piper or his counsel did not appear, the case would have ended then. If City Attorney Lance Baker would right the wrongs, rather than defend immoral actions by the city through his superior knowledge of the law, we would not need an attorney.
However, with the publicity generated by Clarksville Online publishing my letters to the editor, we now have a volunteer. A federal attorney who feels that we can win this case. We are grateful to him. This is good news for all consumers served by CGW. We will seek to establish a legal precedent, and tell municipal bureaucrats that they can no longer be able to tell residents that “The city can do whatever it wants.”
Now we are looking for witnesses and other victims. For the witness we need people who can testify that they paid a service deposit to CGW and later had it refunded back. We also need other consumers who had their deposits seized, even though they had always paid their bill in a timely manner. It is now appropriate to move to convert this suit to a class action, which will benefit all of the victims of this “theft” by City Hall.
