by
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 23/97) - If Tuaro had stayed a little more current in its payments, council and the public likely would never have known the city underbilled it for seven months last year, according to senior administrator Doug Lagore.

At a committee meeting Wednesday, Lagore said, "This report is not before the committee because of the error, it's before the committee because of the outstanding amount."

Lagore maintained Tuaro has received no special treatment from the city, saying "I will treat it the same way I treat any other account in arrears."

When later asked if the city had a standard policy for dealing with arrears, Lagore said there was none. "When an account reaches a certain point in time, I bring it to council's attention," he explained.

Lagore said the point for bringing it to council's attention varies.

"It all depends on the circumstances of the account. I would bring it forward in a few days if I felt it was something we needed direction from council on."

Arrears over 90 days would be reported to council, said Lagore.

The dairy was $49,567 behind in its lease payments as of May 1. Of that, $27,363 was more than 90 days overdue.

Alderman Blake Lyons suggested the committee review the account monthly, a mechanism Lagore said had just been established.

As far as responsibility for monitoring the mistake goes, Lagore said he would take "appropriate" action. "I will not report to council who is responsible and what action was taken because it is a personnel matter," he added.

"You mean you will report to council, but not in public?" asked alderman Trevor Kasteel.

"If you want, we can do it at an aldermen's briefing, yes," responded Lagore.

City council holds closed meetings at noon each Monday. Council's right to hold the meetings is currently the subject of a court challenge launched by the Yellowknife Property Owners' Association.