Anderson was on the commission from 1983 to 1988, serving a two-year term and then a four-year term. He opted not to seek a third term, at the time, citing the Timpanogos Community Mental Health scandal as one of several reasons.

In August 1988, three top administrators of the Timpanogos Mental Health Center in Provo were charged with a combined 117 felony counts for theft of $3.5 million in public funds through unauthorized contractual and credit-card expenditures.

Former executive director Glen Brown, former specialty programs director Carl V. Smith and former business manager Craig W. Stephens each spent 18 months in jail for their involvement, but the scandal also gave a bad name to publicly funded mental-health programs across the state. It also increased scrutiny of the mental-health operations and expenditures by the center's authority board.

Though mismanagement occurred during Anderson's tenure on the oversight board, he said he doesn't believe the scandal will hurt his chances to receive the Republican nomination for the commission seat. In fact, he says it should help his cause.

Anderson said he worked in cooperation with the county attorney's office to uncover the embezzlement. "That should be an asset to me," he said.

Howard Stone, Provo, also is seeking the Republican nomination for the commission seat. Calls to Stone for comment were not immediately returned.

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