By NANCY DONG
Provo candidate for mayor, Lewis Billings is offering a $500 dollar reward for anyone with information “which proves the names of the parties involved in the creation, financing, and placement of the “Ethics 4 Provo” advertisements that have run in a local newspaper.
The reward, which will be offered until noon on Monday, November 3, 1997, comes in response to the “Ethics 4 Provo” ads which Billings describes as, “full of false statements, lies and misrepresentations.”
Some of the ads claim that the current mayor, George Stewart is “grooming” Billings to be the new mayor. One advertisement shows a long list of appointments to city positions that were made by Mayor Stewart. The ad also said that bylaws had to be changed for the appointments of Chairman of the Provo Library Construction Oversight Committee and Chairman of the Provo/Utah County Ice Sheet Authority to be legal.
“Ethics 4 Provo” ads have not made the identity/identities known of who sponsors them. The only information given on the advertisements are the name of the chairman who is identified as Kent Barrus. The Billings Campaign says that Barrus is only the frontman and that four others are involved.
Barrus, however, was unreachable to comment.
“I am prepared to deal with lies, but this campaign is not about someone’s anonymous lies,” Billings said.
“It’s ironic that a group that call themselves ethical, uses the most unethical thing we’ve seen in this whole campaign,” said Billing’s campaign manager, Taylor Oldroyd. “We aren’t going to dignify these ads by responding, but we are taking individual calls.”
The Billing’s campaign also said that they don’t want to turn the issues in this election into the “Ethics 4 Provo” ads but they do want to determine who’s behind them, so that they can take responsibility for their allegations.
Billing’s said that it is a shame that in a democracy, their are nameless, faceless, people who hide, because their intentions are so ill motivated that they do not want to be known.
“We want the campaign to move back to a discussion of the issues that really matter most to Provo such as: crime, traffic, growth, building the tax base, etc.,” Billings said.
Provo residents who want to talk about the ads or any other issues in the ads can call the Billing’s campaign at 379?2D0939.
