Billings gets a liberal dose of ribbing over comparison

PROVO — The Provo City Council and several city employees enjoyed some side-splitting laughter at the expense of Mayor Lewis Billings this week, and the hearty guffaws had nothing to do with one of the mayor's pet projects or colorful metaphors.

Billings is proudly conservative and is enjoying his 10th year as mayor of a city branded the most conservative community in America by more than one group.

So Billings was stunned, and his staff and the City Council delighted by the irony, when the vice mayor of Provo's sister city in China said during an otherwise formal press conference that Billings bears a physical resemblance to a man conservatives like Billings consider their liberal opposite.

"When I met Mayor Billings I thought he looks like the former President Clinton," Huang Huansheng said through his interpreter.

The room filled with belly laughs, and Billings turned red and bent forward, almost coming out his chair at being compared to Clinton in any way and specifically at the idea he might look like Clinton.

Billings would know if he did. He stood face to face with Clinton and shook his hand in 2002 when the former president arrived at the Provo Airport on his way to a speech at Sundance.

Billings looked stricken after Huang's comment but smiled the whole time and clearly took the ribbing good-naturedly.

Huang didn't immediately understand the reaction in the dining room of the White Willow Reception Center, but he made it clear — as the laughter finally began to fade — that he meant to honor Billings.

"I sincerely wish Mayor Billings will be the next president of the United States," Huang said.

That statement and others from the seven-man Chinese delegation made it crystal clear how vital leaders of Nanning, a city of 6.7 million people in southwestern China, consider their nearly seven-year sister-city relationship with Provo.

Billings shared the sentiment, saying he will only enter sister-city pairings that bring real value to both cities. He said doors to China's burgeoning market have opened to Provo businesses.

Nu Skin was building a factory in Shanghai when Provo leaders made their first visit to Nanning, but Nu Skin was not able to do business in China.

"It is my opinion that door was opened because of the visit of our delegation," Billings said, crediting Nanning's leadership.

Provo and Nanning began the sister-city relationship in 2000 and Provo Economic Development Director Leland Gamette said Nu Skin was involved in the sister-city relationship from the start.