If you could resurrect tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer and have him script a government meeting, then it would probably look and sound an awful lot like the London City Council meeting Monday night.
The London City Council members introduced a measure wanting to remove Mayor Randall Weddle from office over a slew of accusations.
Weddle fired back with accusations of his own.
There was yelling and shouting from the audience. Believe I heard a few boos in there too.
Lawyers have been hired.
The only thing it needed to be an episode of the Jerry Springer Show was somebody being accused of impregnating someone else’s girlfriend or wife and a couple of fist fights. (Who knows, maybe that is coming next month…LOL.)
The meeting was without a doubt entertaining.
More importantly though, it was without a doubt an EMBARASSMENT to this whole region.
If the City of London’s intentions are to make this whole area look redneck and dysfunctional, then mission accomplished. One of my co-workers used to be a teacher. I am sure she would give them an A plus with a smiley face on their report cards in these subject areas.
Monday’s meeting was essentially just more of the same from London as at least most members of the city council and the mayor have seemingly feuded for months and maybe longer.
In terms of which side is right and which side is wrong in this fight, I suspect it is a little of both. (Personally, if I lived in London, then I would vote to clean house during next year’s elections for mayor and city council and start fresh with a bunch of new officials.)
Am I saying that elected leaders should not disagree? Absolutely not.
It is alright for government officials to disagree. There is nothing wrong with that. It is even healthy, but it can and should be done without things turning into a circus.
Sure, occasionally someone in attendance might throw out a curve ball here at a meeting – such as showing up with say a book taped to their chest for instance to talk about the need for better security (seriously it happened but only once) – but overall, the Corbin City Commission, Williamsburg City Council and Whitley County Fiscal Court meetings are held in a professional manner. There aren’t people yelling and screaming from the audience. Our elected officials aren’t yelling and screaming at each other. For the most part they calmly discuss stuff at meetings.
If anyone is interested, you can view Monday night’s London City Council meeting on The City of London’s Facebook page.
Now to briefly touch on another subject before I conclude this column.
My story last week doing a deep dive on the Corbin City Commission’s fiscal year 2025-2026 budget drew a few comments on Facebook. I just wanted to take a take a minute and clarify a couple of things.
While the budget for the Corbin Arena is down $999,000 compared to the prior fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2025, it is still approximately $3.4 million. This is pretty significant. In regard to a social media comment that it “was doing good” with concerts and things, summertime tends to be the slow time for the Corbin Arena.
Former Arena Manager Kristi Balla told me one time that many concert acts tend to play at outdoor arenas during the summer months, which leads to a slow down for indoor concert venues during those months.
The story also notes that the Corbin Police Department budget has dropped the last two fiscal year.
During the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the Corbin Police Department was budgeted to receive $2,653,070, which was $561,791.67 less than the 2023-2024 fiscal year. This fiscal year, the police department budget is set at $2,580,704, which is $72,366 less than last fiscal year.
I was speaking with a Corbin City Commissioner Monday, who noted that there is a pretty simple explanation for this year’s budget drop. In part, money was budgeted last fiscal year for purchase of equipment, but the police department got grant funding to purchase some of it.
In addition, not all the funding set aside for personnel was spent last fiscal year as the department has frequently not been fully staffed.
It is a statewide problem. Police departments across the state are having trouble finding certified police officers. Part of this is due to fewer people wanting to go into police work.
Another major factor is a 2022 Kentucky law requiring school resource officers on all school campuses in Kentucky or at least the law greatly encourages school resource officers on all campuses even if they aren’t everywhere.
This has left several city and county level police department shorthanded as officers have left those departments to take jobs as school resource officers, which are often better paying. The school resource officers’ jobs are also frequently seen as being a lot less stressful and more enjoyable too.
The Corbin Police Department is budgeted to have 21 full-time officers but has frequently not been fully staffed in recent years. Corbin Police Chief Rusty Hedrick noted that at one point in the past year the department was down five officers. Just last month the city commission accepted the resignation of two police officers and a third already had their retirement planned for the end of July.
As it was told to me, the police department budget for this fiscal year was set closer to what the police department actually spent last fiscal year.
