St. Louis ? Billboards on display in St. Louis propose that supporting changes to the city’s government is akin to supporting the Confederate flag, though it isn’t clear who paid for the signs.

The billboards read: “A vote for Charter Amendments A, B, C and D equals support for the Confederate Flag.” A representation of the stars and bars of the Confederate flag appears next to those words.

The billboards also state, “A vote against A, B, C and D protects your right to vote.”

The propositions on the Nov. 2 ballot would convert several elected positions in the city into appointed jobs, reduce the size of the Board of Aldermen, allow certain appointed jobs to become civil service positions and consolidate decision-making power to the mayor’s office.

Carl Star, 45, said he was shocked to see the Confederate flag displayed at an intersection in a mostly black neighborhood, over a black-owned business.

“It’s blatantly disrespectful,” Star said, looking at the sign. “It’s blatantly racist.”

Claude Brown, vice president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, filed a complaint Wednesday regarding the billboards with the Missouri Ethics Commission, the agency that enforces campaign laws. Brown’s Vigilant Communications firm is running the campaign related to changing the city charter.

“I think it’s outrageous,” Brown said of the billboards, “but I think it’s typical of some of the things that have happened in this city before.”

The billboards credit “Capital Resources Management, LLC” in the corner, but that group is not listed as a business with the Missouri secretary of state.

According to state law, nonpolitical groups sponsoring campaign materials must file a disclosure form with the election authority, but the St. Louis Board of Elections had no such disclosure for Capital Resources Management.

The billboards are owned by Viacom, whose local outdoor advertising division referred calls to the company’s headquarters in New York.

A worker in that Viacom unit on Thursday said the billboards were bought by a man named “Greg Colombo.” A man who answered a telephone at the number Viacom supplied to The Associated Press said that business was a carpet-cleaning venture, that he’d never heard of Greg Colombo and that it had no involvement in billboards.

A St. Louis home telephone listing for Greg Colombo is unlisted.