INUVIK - As Premier Floyd Roland finds himself embroiled in a conflict of interest inquiry stemming from his extramarital affair with former legislative clerk Patricia Russell, residents and the mayor of his home town are weighing in on his predicament and how it affects voters.

"I wish the rest of the MLA members would do some real work and quit this fighting all the time," said Mayor Derek Lindsay.

"It's getting to be like a soap opera. If they continue to act like children we'll never get devolution. Ottawa is looking at us and saying, 'would you grow up.'"

The current inquiry was spearheaded by six MLAs. They believed Russell was feeding the premier sensitive information discussed in MLA assembly sessions on strategy and ministerial performance, which Roland shouldn't be privy too. During the second day of the inquiry, on Sept. 10, Roland admitted he was told about what was discussed in some of those meetings, but argued the leak came from an MLA, although he wouldn't reveal the member's identity.

Though Lindsay thinks Roland's affair wasn't morally right, he doesn't believe the premier is guilty of a conflict of interest. He said the inquiry is largely the result of "disgruntled" MLAs who weren't picked among Roland's cabinet.

"Now you have all these other MLAs who don't have a cabinet post, those are the disgruntled ones. Now they're out gunning for the premier."

"It proves that consensus government is designed to fall apart. How many of these premiers have been investigated in the last five years?"

Grace Blake, a constituent of Roland's, said she wonders how the Inuvik resident is finding time to fulfil his day-to-day duties as premier while he's consumed with the trial. Blake, who served as chief of Tsiigehtchic for 11 years, wants to know how much of tax payers' money is being spent on the inquiry.

"It's squandering of money," she said. "The money that we pay to our government to run the NWT intelligently shouldn't be spent this way."

Patricia Macauley said that money is well spent if it shows whether Roland's extramarital affair had put him in a conflict of interest.

"If there was some concern over his private life, it's worth the time and money to investigate," the Inuvik resident said. "It's worth it for him for his political future to clear his name, if that's the case. He deserves that opportunity."

Macauley is not ready to cast any stones just yet, but admits she's keeping a close eye on the trial.

"I'm only interested in a politician's private life when those private lives cross into the public interest. If in this situation that did occur, than that's a political issue.

"It's about trust between the elector and the politician. If the elector has a feeling that there representative has breached their protocols ... then I think the elector should be granted the truth."