photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence's City Hall, located at 6 E. Sixth St., shown in June 2025.

Lawrence city officials said a processing error by the city’s print bill vendor has led to thousands of customers receiving the wrong person’s bill.

The City of Lawrence posted Monday morning on Facebook that it is aware of a “printing and mailing error” for utility bills dated March 16, 2026. The city noted that a bill may have been printed correctly for one customer but sent to a different customer because of an error by the city’s vendor.

Kristy Webb, the utility billing manager for the city, told the Journal-World via email that the printing vendor experienced a processing error which led to “some statements being paired with the incorrect customer.” Webb said the error only affected bills dated March 16, 2026, as the problem was caught “before the next cycle of bills” was affected.

Maureen Brady, a spokesperson with the city, said around 5,000 customers are believed to have been affected.

One of those customers spoke to the Journal-World about the issue. The customer, who wished to remain anonymous, said he received the bill on Saturday and noticed that the total came out to about $300, when his utility bill is normally “around $100.” When he looked in the right-hand corner of the bill, he realized it had a different name and address than his — even though the bill had his correct mailing address.

He said the bill sent to him was for an address about a mile from his house. He went to City Hall on Monday to address the bill mix-up, where he said the city workers told him they were aware of the issue. They also printed out his regular bill that included the correct information.

Although the resident had his questions about the wrong bill sorted out, he said he was worried about the fact that personal information like names, addresses and utility balances was sent out to random people.

“That is not information someone else should be getting,” he said.

Webb said that although “general, non-sensitive information” was included in the bills, no “sensitive or confidential data was disclosed” by the error.

Brady said that the city’s online system had the correct information for utility bills, and customers can view those bills through the city’s online customer portal at https://utilitybilling.lawrenceks.gov.

The city shared on social media that customers could get an email copy of their bill sent to them upon request by emailing utilitybilling@lawrenceks.gov.

The city said it is currently “working with (its) vendor to investigate” the error and will send out corrected mailings to affected customers.