PROVO — Talk has begun about who might run if Provo Mayor Lewis Billings walks away from his job in 2 1/2 years.

George Stewart is one possible candidate. The mayor from 1994-98, Stewart is the chairman of the City Council.

"It will depend who files," Stewart said. "I'm certainly considering it. I've had a number of people ask me if I'd do it, including a number of city employees. It's something I would consider doing, considering the right circumstances."

Stewart assumed Billings wouldn't run, but Billings said he hasn't ruled it out.

Billings is in the midst of his third term. He became mayor in 1998 when Stewart decided not to run. If he won a fourth term, he would be on track to become the longest-tenured mayor in city history.

Abraham O. Smoot was Provo's mayor for 13 years, from 1868-81.

"It's way early for anyone to know whether they're going to run again or not," Billings said. "It would be folly speculation at best for anyone to suggest I am running or not."

Billings and Stewart recalled a conversation where Billings said he was going to run in 2005 to continue to shepherd through iProvo, the city's controversial fiber-optic telecommunications network. Stewart thought Billings meant it would be his last race. Billings said he didn't mean that.

"One of the things that propelled me to run (in 2005) was there would be opponents of iProvo," the mayor said. "That issue alone could create a real attraction to me to consider running again (in 2009) if it was necessary. I think iProvo will mature and move along."

Stewart has repeatedly said he would have voted against iProvo if he had been on the City Council in 2004 but also has taken the position that the council must be sure the project succeeds to protect the city's budget.

Earlier this month, the council — at Stewart's urging and against Billings' will — gave iProvo $1.2 million from surplus sales tax revenue to pay iProvo's debts for the next year.

Billings wanted that amount loaned to iProvo from the energy department's reserve fund. Previously, Billings had persuaded Stewart and the council to give iProvo loans of $980,000 for 2006 and $2.1 million for 2007.

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