Lewis Billings proud of success as Provo mayor

PROVO — When he was sworn in as Provo's mayor in 1998, Lewis Billing invoked the memory of one of the city's early leaders, Abraham O. Smoot.

Smoot, who was told by Brigham Young he could go to Provo or hell, chose the former, but only after thinking about it. He served as mayor for 13 years and carved his name indelibly in the city's history.

As Billings prepares to relinquish office after 12 years, the Smoot reference seems appropriate as he becomes only the third of Provo's 44 mayors to serve a dozen or more years. (Verl Dixon was mayor from 1962 to 1974.)

"At noon on Jan. 4, I'm going to walk out of here and feel really good about what I've done because I feel in my heart I have done all that I could," Billings said during an interview in his City Hall office two days before Christmas.

He pointed to two large stacks of reports and other paperwork and said both would be completed before the holiday weekend was over.

"This job will take everything you will give it," Billings said. "One can put in 80 hours a week here, no sweat."

Billings, 53, is no stranger to long hours. Before he went to work for Provo as the community relations officer and then as the chief administrative officer, he was a self-employed real estate developer.

He was Provo's CAO for three years before outgoing Mayor George Stewart championed him as his successor in 1997.

Intelligent and articulate, Billings was a rising star in the Utah Republican Party during his first term and was on the short list for the GOP nomination for governor.

"Ultimately, I decided it was not time for me to pursue that," he said. "I am not a person who has a plan to get me into higher office."

Billings is quick to point out that when good things happen in a city, it's the result of many people working together.

"The mayor is just the leader of the choir," he said.

The construction of two major public buildings bookend his administration.

The transformation of the old Brigham Young Academy into the Provo City Library at Academy Square, begun in 1999 and funded with almost $6 million in donations and a $16 million bond, was a significant event in Billings' first term.