PROVO -- Several residents of the Lakeview North neighborhood filed a complaint against Councilwoman Sherrie Hall Everett, alleging she had a conflict of interest in a recent Council vote.

The complaint, signed by 14 people, was filed Nov. 5 with the mayor's office. It states that Hall Everett had a known conflict of interest in the Municipal Council vote approving the Villages of Celebration development, a 350-acre project that will be in this neighborhood. Hall Everett, as part of her public relations work, contracted with Dave Gardner, the project's consultant, to design a Web site and print letterhead. Hall Everett, who disclosed this relationship with the city earlier this year, said she did the work for Gardner before she was on the council and long before the Oct. 6 vote.

The complaint states that Hall Everett should have disclosed the conflict in the public meeting and recused herself from the discussion and vote. The development, which has been before the city for five years in various stages, passed unanimously.

Hall Everett said she disclosed the past business relationship because she wanted to be transparent. She was not doing any work for Gardner at the time of the vote, so there was no conflict of interest, she said.

"I would never want anybody saying that I shouldn't have disclosed it or there was something there," she said. "I wanted people to understand the nature of what it was."

Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Parker said the complaint was forwarded to City Attorney Robert West for his legal opinion, and then Mayor Lewis Billings would determine what action, if any, was appropriate. The challenge now, he said, was determining who to respond to. There were no printed names or contact information, only some mostly illegible signatures on the complaint.

"We've got to try to figure out who it is that raised the concern," he said.

Travis Parry, Bryant Livingston, Anne and Stewart Hagberg and Robert H. Mack are the only decipherable names on the complaint, although not all of those have been confirmed. One signator did say he was made aware of the conflict of interest by Councilman Steve Turley.

Turley, who said he was happy to defend Hall Everett because he believes council members need to be involved in the community, said someone else brought the disclosure statement to his attention, but both considered it public knowledge. He asked the signator if he knew of it as well, and that was the extent of his involvement. It is not a witch hunt, he said.

• Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2556 or htoth@heraldextra.com.