However, Councilman and former Mayor George O. Stewart thinks Lewis K. Billings' interest in the area, held in a blind trust, should have been publicly announced when the council voted to allow Action Target to purchase land in the proposed Mountain Vista business park.
"Being in a blind trust doesn't change the fact that anything positive in Ironton affects all the property owners," Stewart said.
Billings referred questions about the trust to his attorney, Richard Hill, who said the trust's existence has been disclosed to the council before.
"He has no control," Hill said of Billings. "The trustee can do what he wants with the property."
On July 3, the council voted to purchase Action Target's property at 1281 W. 220 North for $3.3 million. Then, the council voted on July 17 to approve all the transactions, which call for the city to sell 10 acres at 2901 S. Mountain Vista Parkway for $1.1 million, or $110,000 an acre.
The agreement defers the payments for 10 years, with the understanding that Action Target will build on the site and be ready to move in by Sept. 15, 2009. It also allows Action Target an option to purchase 10 more acres for $1.45 million in 10 years, with a chance to lower the purchase price $3,500 for every job created in excess of 120.
That bonus is capped at 100 new jobs, or $350,000.
"It is a win-win for the city and Action Target," Stewart said. And moving the company to Ironton will ease tensions with the company's old neighbors while opening the land to single-family residential development.
Meanwhile, Councilwoman Cynthia Dayton said she was "vaguely aware" that Billings had property in the area in the past, and if there was a serious conflict of interest, she would be the first to condemn it.
However, she said Billings' land ownership does not change the need to develop the business park.
"We need to have a lot of businesses down there," Dayton said.
Councilwoman Midge Johnson said she was not aware of Billings' holdings until she read about it in the media. But that doesn't mean the council was completely in the dark, she said.
"It was probably disclosed to a council earlier."
dmeyers@sltrib.com
