KY city accused of overcharging residents, businesses for trash pickup
A resident and a business owner are suing the city of London after they say it’s been overcharging for trash pickup for years and using the overcharged funds for other city operations.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by James Phelps and Keith Higginbothom, a business owner in London, claims the city’s past two budgets have established more than $1.5 million per year in trash pickup overcharges to fund other parts of the city.
Phelps and Higginbothom are seeking refunds for the excess garbage fees charged over the last five years, an order to stop the transfer of excess garbage funds to non-garbage expenditures and an order setting garbage rates based on actual service costs, the lawsuit says. They also asked for the lawsuit to proceed as a class-action lawsuit.
The suit, which names Mayor Randall Weddle and unidentified London City Council members, is the latest in a string of recent controversies in the town of about 7,500 people.
City police came under intense scrutiny last winter when they shot and killed a man while trying to serve a warrant at a different house.
A few months later, Phelps, a longtime critic of Weddle, and his brother sued the London mayor for defamation after he repeatedly claimed they were part of a pedophilia ring.
And Weddle was impeached and removed from office by the London City Council in September on misconduct or willful neglect charges. Weddle appealed the impeachment, and later that month, a special judge presiding over the case reinstated Weddle as mayor.
The council appealed the order, but Weddle has remained in office in the meantime.
On Wednesday, Weddle and the council attempted to hold a special meeting to have second readings of multiple controversial ordinances, but the meeting was canceled because of potential Open Meetings Act violations. Council member Judd Weaver angrily disagreed with the decision to cancel the meeting, and he and four other council members ended up convening the special meeting afterward without the mayor.
Another special council meeting was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the London Community Center.
Where did the alleged overcharged garbage funds go?
The lawsuit claims overcharged garbage fees were used for citywide electricity, professional fees, insurance, public relations and fire and police department salaries. Professional fees include paying City Attorney Larry Bryson, who failed to uphold the law, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims Weddle is hiring more police officers than he’s approved for, using the overcharged garbage fees.
Weddle did not immediately respond to a request for comment that was sent Friday morning.
The first ordinance that established rules and regulations for trash pickup says the service is not a revenue measure and bans the option for private trash collection. The ordinance has been amended and repealed several times since its creation in 2000, but the enactments contain identical language about trash pickup being a nonrevenue service, according to the lawsuit.
For the 2020-21 fiscal budget, about $3.3 million was set aside for trash collection. The current fiscal budget includes more than $7 million for the service, according to the lawsuit.
“Garbage fees are egregiously more than necessary to provide the service and being used for purposes not set forth in the ordinance,” the lawsuit says. “Furthermore, garbage customers, both residential and commercial, are unlawfully subsidizing defendant London operations.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
