OREM — Four Orem residents have filed a formal complaint with law enforcement and election officials, saying Alpine School District's campaign tactics are illegal.

The residents on Monday hand-delivered the complaint to the Utah County Attorney's Office and the office of Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, whose staff oversees elections in the state.

Alpine District is asking voters on Nov. 7 to approve a $230 million bond issuance and $4.6 million increase on the voted leeway.

If passed, taxes would increase almost $60 on a $200,000 home.

The complaint — signed by Dennis Lisonbee, Laurie Lisonbee, Beau Sorensen and Barbara Petty — accuses the district of breaking the law by using taxpayer money to promote the proposed bond issuance and leeway increase.

According to the complaint, the residents want the public to have equal access to their viewpoint. They want the district to pay for distribution of a brochure that states opposing viewpoints to the bond and leeway proposal and to post their viewpoints on Alpine's Web site.

The four residents are proponents of a proposal to split the Alpine School District. They have launched their own campaign against the public-financing proposal because they believe it would complicate division of assets and debt, if the district is ever divided.

The residents delivered to officials a packet that includes pictures, an employee newspaper, a voter-information pamphlet and a seven-page complaint alleging violations of law.

Allegations include illegal use of district vehicles and an illegal meeting at a school during which parents were given information about the bond and leeway proposal.

Alpine officials have acknowledged that the vehicles should not have been used to transport campaign signs on Oct. 17. The district was reimbursed for the use of those vehicles.

However, district officials maintain that the Sept. 19 lunch meeting at Cherry Hill Elementary was only to distribute information — not campaign. Parents were not told how to vote.

Alpine district spokeswoman Jerrilyn Mortensen said she has not seen the complaint and could not comment.

Neither the county attorney's office nor Herbert's office had contacted Alpine officials by the time offices closed on Monday.

However, last week, the lieutenant governor asked the district to allow for a written argument against the bond and leeway proposal on literature the district would distribute.

The request came after the district published in the employee newsletter a graphic illustration of a ballot with a check next to the word "yes."

Joe Demma, the lieutenant governor's chief of staff, said that the complaint "is probably in our in-box with 400 other things," but the staff will refer it to the Utah Attorney General's Office.

The Utah County Attorney normally investigates such violations of law, but apparently will not in this instance.

"The Utah County attorney has declined to take the case due to a conflict of interest and has passed it to the attorney general," Demma said.

The Deseret Morning News was unable to reach the Utah County Attorney's Office for comment.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com