Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 15/98) - The city is continuing to use its financial clout to bully the Yellowknife Property Owners Association, says one former alderman.

"That's been the strategy from the beginning," said Dick Peplow, referring to council's withdrawal of a cash offer as part of an out-of-court settlement on the secret-meetings.

The association continues to wage its court battle against city council's former habit of holding secret meetings -- in violation, say the ratepayers, of territorial law.

Peplow, who now lives in Northern Ontario, said the association has yet to buy him a ticket for a trip to Yellowknife to testify in the action, which is scheduled to proceed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

"They were on the verge of doing that when the city made this kind of half-assed offer," said Peplow. "(The association) was right on the deadline for an excursion fare. Now they're looking at paying full fare, which is about four times the price."

Any serious offer to settle out of court should include the association's costs, said Peplow, since permanently ending secret meetings benefits the entire city.

Mayor Dave Lovell did not see it that way.

"Why would we buy them off?" said Lovell, noting no judge has ruled the property owners are right in saying secret meetings are illegal.

Up until last year, the association's case was largely bankrolled by its president, Ken Pook, who moved to Saskatchewan last year.

The association's new president, Matthew Grogono said it has instructed its lawyer to "vigorously" pursue a settlement.

On Wednesday, he and two other association members urged Lovell to dispense with the lawyers and conduct settlement negotiations face-to-face.

Asked if the association can afford to conclude the case, Grogono paused for a moment then said, "We're determined to take this to a logical end, whatever it comes to."

Grogono would not say how much money the ratepayers are demanding or how much the association has in the bank. He did say the association's "best-case scenario" amounts to the equivalent of what the city has paid for its case.

Costs of seeing the case through to its conclusion will be substantial.

The association would have to buy plane tickets for Peplow and its two Alberta-based lawyers, hotel rooms for each for the week they would be in town and the lawyers' time.