Mayoral candidate says Hurricane mayor's removal of signs is ‘election interference'
The signs reading simply 'Hurricane deserves better' were placed by candidate Gary Sanders. Another candidate, Rick Crow, said that he began to hear that Sanders' signs were getting stolen, and when he asked Hurricane City Mayor Nanette Billings about it, she reportedly told him that she didn't know anything about it.
According to Crow, someone gave photos to Sanders of the mayor taking the signs while driving a city car. Billings later said that she removed the signs because they were not easily identified as belonging to a particular candidate or ballot initiative.
'We didn't know if it was a candidate or just a citizen, because when you read the words, 'Hurricane deserves better,' does that mean better air, better dark skies, better parks, better people, better… What is better? What does that mean?' Billings said in an interview with ABC4.com.
Another mayoral candidate, Rick Crow, filed a formal request for an investigation to the Utah Attorney General's Office, and the AG's office concluded that Billings did nothing illegal, citing .
According to those state codes, a campaign sign must either advocate for 'the election or defeat of a candidate for public office,' or advocate for 'the approval or defeat of a ballot initiative.'
'It has to be associated with a candidate or with a ballot initiative, it's basically state law,' Billings explained.
Billings shared a screenshot of an email sent to her by the AG's office, which said, 'A sign simply reading 'Hurricane deserves better does not meet this criteria and is not afforded the protections granted to campaign or political signs.'
Despite this decision from the AG's Office, Rick Crow told ABC4.com that he feels like Billings removing those signs was election interference, and that it was theft.
'To me, it's election interference, is what it is, but now what's interesting is, now that she's publicly admitted to what's happened, she just– she stole signs, whether they're political or they're not,' Crow said. 'She used the city taxpayers' vehicle, and she stole signs, and she left other ones there, including her own, so she doesn't have an argument about they were in a bad place or anything like that, so now I look at it, she's just like a grinch sign stealer at this point, right?'
He also claimed that Billings has been emailing him, and that he is being attacked online.
'We're getting private emails from her saying that Gary [Sanders] and I are in cahoots. It's turned into a whole bunch of other things: it's turned into a bunch of online attacks against Gary and I, we have to go defend ourselves, it's turned into censorship,' Crow said.
Billings said that she understands why the public may be concerned about her taking down signs related to an election that she is currently involved in. 'I can see why someone would feel like, well should she be taking down the signs? No, no I shouldn't, so I can understand their concern,' she said.
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Crow said that the whole thing is taking focus away from the actual issues of the election.
'Had she just come forward right away and said, 'I took them, maybe it was a bad decision' and given them back, then it would have at least shown some leadership and some integrity, but the fact that it has snowballed now and taken away from the real issues of the election, I don't know if that's her intention or whatever, but I personally would have said, 'as a leader I made a mistake' and just move forward, we probably wouldn't be standing here talking today.'
Now that this issue has become such a hot topic within the community, Billings said that there are lots of other signs popping up around the city. She said that that they don't know who put them up or who made them, but she's not taking those down.
'They're non-political as well, but we're not taking them down because we're like, does it matter?' Billings said. 'If someone wants to say something, does it matter?'
One thing that is clear to Billings is that the city will be taking a look at its sign ordinance. 'This will definitely be the next thing that happens as soon as the election's over,' she said. 'We will have a sign ordinance so that we don't have this silliness, because we have people that are putting things just to be silly.'
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