The list of challengers for Provo's Municipal Council may be freshly minted, but the names are not new and neither are their reasons for running.

The group met late last week to get instructions on campaign rules, from where signs can be placed, to how to report finances, to a chance to sign a clean campaign pledge. (They all did.)

There are plenty of familiar faces without even counting the incumbents.

Take former councilman Dave Knecht.

Knecht left the council two years ago of his own accord, but not before spending several years onboard with fellow-councilman Steve Turley who's up for re-election. The two had a strained relationship, disagreeing on nearly everything from iProvo to applications for neighborhood awards.

"I'm filing against Mr. Turley, who should not be on the council. I know that because I was on the council with him," Knecht said.

He claims Turley has ethical lapses and doesn't understand issues such as cost of living increases for city employees. Turley counters that his record stands for itself, including being the lone vote against the increasingly expensive iProvo fiber network and voting three years ago against the Downtown Business Alliance, which the city just this year is asking to evaluate its effectiveness.

Despite having a council term under his belt, Knecht says if he agrees strongly enough with one of the other two candidates in the citywide Council District 2 race, he'll support them instead of running himself. Those two candidates are former fire chief Coy D. Porter and Christopher Stowe.

Another candidate running to draw attention to an incumbent's voting record is Melanie McCoard. The former neighborhood chairwoman has previously mounted two tightly contested races. But poor health this year, she says, limits her to running only to draw attention to incumbent Midge Johnson's District 3 voting record, which she disagrees with. She cites, for example, a pledge from Johnson to be fiscally conservative, but Johnson then spent $150,000 beautifying private homes in the Provost Neighborhood, where Johnson lives.

Johnson in unapologetic. She counters that the money, spent over two years, went to the Provost and Carterville neighborhoods. The Community Development Block Grants were also bolstered by local donations and a crew from AmeriCorps, and eventually more than 100 homes were spruced up, she said.

"The amount of investment that went into those neighborhoods was huge, it had a great impact."

Howard Stone is looking to make an impact by taking a third swing at a council seat, this being his second try at the District 4 seat occupied by Barbara Sandstrom. He says he's the only serious candidate in the whole process because he's not serious about taking money. Stone says a renewed focus on stewardship is needed, citing as an example his 15-year run as a volunteer cleaning up after the Freedom Festival parade.

"That's as brutal as running in this race, but I don't see any candidates down there picking up trash," he said.

He, like Knecht and McCoard, shakes his head at the amount of money being thrown around in Provo elections. In the 2005 election, fellow candidates George Stewart and Mark T. Sumsion spent tens of thousands of dollars slugging it out while he spent next to nothing.

"I may be the only dead serious candidate in the whole process because I'm serious about not taking money ... about truly representing the community as a whole," said Stone, an operations manager for a software company.

While Stewart won that one and Stone is running in District 4, Sumsion says there hasn't been the progress he would like to see over the past two years so he's re-entering the pool and taking on Cynthia Dayton in District 1.

He'd like to see more efforts made to revitalize the downtown area. As someone who grew up in Provo but has lived in Los Angeles, Phoenix and along the East Coast, he says he has seen enough older city centers to see what people have done.

He also says that times are good economically, and that Provo should be finding ways to secure itself financially instead of transferring funds out of the general budget for various projects.

"I think this a time to put hay in the barn, and I don't see much hay."

Brian J. Smith is also running for Johnson's seat in District 3. He lost to Councilwoman Cindy Richards six years ago.

There will be primary races Sept. 16 for districts 3 and 4 as well as citywide District 2 to narrow the races down to two candidates each. The general election will be Nov. 6.

In District 4, Sherrie Everett and V. Kay Van Buren will compete along with Stone and Sandstrom.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.