Yellowknife (Aug 18/06) - Mayor Gord Van Tighem is backpeddling on a promise to hold a public vote on how the city would plea to safety violations following the deaths of two firefighters last year.

Van Tighem is now saying there was no need to hold a public vote because city council is allowed to decide legal matters in private.

The provision is found in the territorial Cities, Villages, and Towns Act.

Lawyers representing the city pleaded not guilty in territorial court Tuesday to two charges under the NWT Safety Act, after an in-camera council committee meeting, Monday.

In a March interview, Van Tighem said city administration would give council recommendations based on reports by the NWT and Nunavut Workers Compensation Board (WCB) and the NWT fire marshal into the March 17, 2005, shed fire that killed Lt. Cyril Fyfe and Kevin Olson.

He said it would be followed by a city council vote in public on how to plead to the charges and that council would be free to vote as they pleased.

"With those two pieces of information council will make the decision," the mayor had said.

"We don't vote out of the public."

But on Wednesday, Van Tighem, supported by some city councillors, told the Yellowknifer there was no requirement to make the vote public.

"It's not an item we needed to vote on," said Van Tighem.

Two items were discussed Monday, both in a private session, which are not open to the public, according to a city spokesperson.

City councillor Alan Woytuik said this is standard procedure when discussing legal issues.

"All direction on legal matters is done in-camera," he said.

When asked if the mayor promised a public vote on the matter, he replied, "I don't know that the promise was ever made."

Coun. Bob Brooks echoed Woytuik. "It's not a public decision," he said.

Brooks said he didn't know of any previous legal issues being voted on publicly. Couns. Kevin O'Reilly and Wendy Bisaro declined to comment.

All other councillors could not be reached by deadline.

Van Tighem said there was no official vote recorded, but that the council was in general agreement with the decision to plead not guilty.

The city is charged with failing to take proper safety precautions and not providing adequate safety training.

The mayor said it took the city several months to enter its plea because changes to the lawyers prosecuting the case.

Van Tighem said there was a large amount of information the city's counsel also needed to review.

Crown counsel John Cliffe, out of Vancouver, submitted an application to join the trials of the city and acting fire chief Darcy Hernblad.

Hernblad is charged with the same offences as the city.

"It's in the interest of the court to have one trial, not two," said Cliffe.

Chief territorial court judge Brian Bruser refused to discuss the application for a joint trial and instead told Cliffe and the city's lawyer, David Myrol, they would have contact Hernblad's lawyer.

Bruser said he would speak to the three lawyers next Wednesday or Thursday about the possibility of a joining the two trials.

Sean Beaver, counsel for Hernblad from Edmonton, opposed joining the two trials in court July 27.

Hernblad, who pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to be in court Nov. 27.

The city will be back in court Aug. 28 to confirm a trial date.