"There's no motivation" for billboard companies to remove signs under the cap-and-bank system, he said. "I don't see how letting them take a sign down and move it somewhere else is better."

Dewey Reagan points to a survey conducted by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, which concluded 50 percent of Americans favor billboards.

Before the vote, Bradley pointedly asked each council member to disclose whether he had accepted campaign money from the billboard industry and whether he had discussions with billboard company representatives. Five council members — Horiuchi, David Wilde, Cortland Ashton, Michael Jensen and Bradley himself — said they received contributions, and all the council members said they had discussions with industry representatives.

Reagan is well-known for generous and widespread campaign contributions both in local and state races.

Already the heavy hitter in the Utah billboard industry, Reagan has been accused of trying to monopolize the market with the cap-and-bank proposal. But Dewey Reagan, who originally proposed it last spring, said there was no other alternative, given mounting opposition to billboards.

"I was trying to operate under the circumstances that existed at the time," he said.

Ted Phillips, spokesman for County Mayor Nancy Workman, said the cap-and-bank option is "an opportunity for the billboard companies to put their money where their mouth is."

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