"To say they are substantially past due, I wouldn't say that," Billings said.

Provo City Council Chairman George Stewart said the "city should respond appropriately" to the request from the auditor.

"I don't know what that appropriate response should be. That's up to the city's legal department. These are private entities dealing with the city, and there needs to be some privacy in transactions."

Stewart, who served as Provo's mayor from 1994-97, said he told Empey he is satisfied with the information Billings and the city's telecommunications team has provided regularly to the City Council.

Stewart declined to tell Empey what action the city will be taking because it was discussed in a closed, executive session. Stewart thought it might be an "overreach" to ask for the city's tape recordings of the closed meetings, a rarity.

"I'm at a little bit of a loss as how to respond or how it should be handled because it's never occurred in my tenure, either during my four years as mayor or my first two years on the council," Stewart said.

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What is iProvo?

iProvo is Provo's fiber-optic telecommunications network.

The ultrahigh-capacity network's bandwidth is leased to private firms, which in turn provides the services at a retail cost to homes and businesses in Provo.

Subscribers are able to pay for enhanced voice, video and data services.

See www.iprovo.net for details.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com