Leaflet battle deepens as rec vote looms

Tuesday's bond election for a new recreation center in south Davis County isn't going to be voted on without a fight.

Two groups, the Citizens for Tax Fairness and Utah Taxpayers Association, claim that Bountiful city inappropriately used its powers to illegally promote the bond election at a parade as well as in a newsletter sent out by the mayor.

Members of Citizens for Tax Fairness say that riders on the South Davis Recreation District's float in last Friday's Bountiful Handcart Days parade were passing out leaflets urging people to vote yes for the bond. Ron Mortensen, a spokesman for the tax groups, said that the float incident not only violated the rules of the parade but also violated state law.

"Our feeling was they violated the spirit of the parade. The more serious point is that the float was made with taxpayer money and run by a government car," Mortensen said.

In addition, when his group asked city officials if they could pass out their own fliers, they were told they couldn't.

"Telling us that we can't pass things out and then allowing proponents to distribute literature infringes on our freedom of speech," he said. "It's about being fair. If the rules of the parade say 'no' to keep with the ideals of the parade, I understand, but it's also about being fair."

State law also says that "unless specifically required by law, a public entity may not make expenditures from public funds for political purposes or to influence a ballot proposition." This is what Mortensen says makes the float not only morally wrong but also illegal.

"I've been told that we have grounds to move ahead with some kind of action," Mortensen said. "We don't want to, but we aren't taking any options off the table. We're just really disappointed in the city that they didn't respect the rules. We're also considering filing with the elections committee, although after talking to them I haven't any great faith that they'll really be able to do anything."

In response to accusations of allowing the city to pass out fliers, Les Paskett, co-chairman of the parade, said that had committee members seen the activity they would have stopped it.

"We are a rule-ignoring society. It's just the way it works, even the fire department was breaking rules. It's near impossible for us to catch every person in the parade for doing something wrong," Paskett said.

Bountiful city manager Thomas Hardy adds that with a large number of participants in a parade, the city does not have the police or resources to "baby-sit" everything that goes on.