PROVO — King George is back, but now what he wants is to be one of Provo's seven dukes and duchesses.
George Stewart, whose genealogy traces back to Charlemagne and English kings, will run this fall for City Council.
Stewart reigned as the mayor of Provo for just one term during the 1990s, but he became a household name in Utah when he decided to close the city's pool on Sundays.
Despite the controversy he courted, the frank and aggressive Stewart remained affable, to the delight of talk show hosts like Tom Barberi, who stuck Stewart with the King George label.
Stewart, 65, plans to run for a council seat that will be vacant because of a surprise decision by Councilman Dave Knecht not to run for a second term. Stewart said his goal is to quell infighting on the council that began with the last election 18 months ago.
"People have approached me because they saw a need there because of the contention," Stewart said. "It causes dysfunctionality. I think I can bridge that gap because I know people on both sides. I think I can be of some assistance."
The fall election season in Provo promises to be interesting for other reasons. Two-term Mayor Lewis Billings, who served as Stewart's chief administrative officer and then replaced his boss when Stewart decided not to run again, is up for re-election.
Billings has not officially announced whether he'll run again. A message seeking comment left for him Wednesday while he was traveling in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned.
Dave Bailey, who narrowly lost to Billings four years ago, has already announced his intention to square off with the mayor again.
Two other council seats will also be contested. Paul Warner, who represents the northeast district of the city, said he hasn't decided to seek a third term. Councilwoman Cindy Richards announced she would run to retain her central city seat and welcomed Stewart's candidacy for Knecht's seat.
"You can really work with a man like him," she said of Stewart. "He has zero tolerance for contention and deceit. He is sweet and warm and honest. The nice thing about him is he doesn't think like a politician. He's not politically motivated."
But Stewart's mayoral term was controversial. Media outlets portrayed Stewart as a religious zealot for closing on Sundays the city's Veterans Swimming Pool and the Eldred Center for senior citizens. He did so because he said the community considered Sunday a day of rest. The majority of Provoans are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Stewart wanted to close the city's East Bay Golf Course on Sundays, too, but instead turned it over to a private management company. He also pushed for bans on alcohol and tobacco sales through convenience store drive-up windows.
Stewart said the controversy never bothered him. It didn't seem to hurt him with residents, either. He won election in 1993 with 62 percent of the vote. A local paper carried a poll at the end of his term in 1998 that showed 62 percent of the city supported his stand on Sunday observance.
Stewart's staunchest critic, former councilwoman Shari Holweg, expressed dismay Wednesday that Stewart may become an elected City Hall stalwart again.
"This is an attempt to get the independents off the council and run Provo by dictatorship once and for all," she said. "There will not be enough room to slide a piece of paper between Lewis Billings and George Stewart, and they will control the majority of the council, all of the department directors and the budget."
Stewart said Billings is a friend, but the two have differences, including the decision to close the pool on Sundays.
Stewart recently returned from an LDS Church mission. He and his wife served on a Navajo reservation in southern Utah for a year and then he was president of a mission in Argentina.
He already has spoken with several members of the council and has lunch meetings arranged with Steve Turley and Barbara Sandstrom.
Stewart said the only item in his platform so far is to continue efforts to strengthen the center of the city. Turley has questioned the methods of the council's quest to increase the number of owner-occupied homes in central Provo.
The decisions of Stewart, Bailey, Knecht and Richards come early in the election cycle. Candidates cannot file for races until July 15, and the deadline to file isn't until Aug. 15, city recorder LaNice Groesbeck said.
Primaries, necessary if three or more candidates file for a position, would be held Oct. 4. The general election will be Nov. 8.
Knecht decided to forego a shot at a second term after his teenage boys, ages 14 and 18, reminded him that if he won a second term, they would be gone when it ended.
"I haven't been on a family vacation in four years," Knecht said. "For the last 13 years I've given all my spare time to politics. It'll be nice to get back to being a family man."
Richards mourned the loss of Knecht.
"He is one of the most without-guile public servants I have ever known," she said. But Richards grappled with a similar decision.
"It's a sacrifice for your kids and your spouse," she said. "We talk a lot about it as a service we as a family want to give."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com