City council says councillors are working to soothe internal tensions revealed in a major leak of emails
from 2014.
Mayor Mark Heyck and city council stated Monday that "a lot of positive changes" have been made since 2014. City emails from that year obtained by the Yellowknifer suggest conflict between Dennis Kefalas, the senior administrative officer of the day, and some members of council.
2015
In a statement issued Monday, council acknowledged that city emails expressing SA国际影视传媒渟ome perspectives on adversarial council-administration relations dating back to 2014SA国际影视传媒� were provided to local media organizations, including Yellowknifer.
SA国际影视传媒�ItSA国际影视传媒檚 no secret that city council has had its differences in the past, both amongst ourselves and with administration,SA国际影视传媒� reads the statement from Mayor Mark Heyck and eight Yellowknife city councillors.
SA国际影视传媒�Some differences continue to this day and we are working to navigate through them respectfully and productively, including convening councilSA国际影视传媒檚 conduct review committee to address current issues.SA国际影视传媒�
The statement goes on to say the SA国际影视传媒減ush-pullSA国际影视传媒� highlighted in the emails SA国际影视传媒渋s a natural part of political relationships and having a variety of perspectives on council guarantees that each issue before us is thoroughly explored and debated.SA国际影视传媒�
On Friday, Yellowknifer reported it had obtained more than 700 emails belonging to members of city administration, including former senior administrative officer Dennis Kefalas.
While many of the emails are benign, there are some messages that paint a grim picture of relations in 2014 among the city's top bureaucrat and some members of council.
Some of them show Kefalas questioning whether the municipality could sue council in the event that council did not follow administration's recommendations, and the city was sued as a result.
In others, Kefalas suggests displeasure over councillors meeting with territorial government officials to find a solution to an unexpected tax spike affecting property owners in Kam Lake.
Kefalas, who was made senior administrative officer after the 2012 election, left his job in 2016 and was replaced by Sheila Bassi-Kellett earlier this year. He continues to work for the city as director of public works.
Heyck declined a request for a phone interview Monday.
In an email, he stated the news release from city council is SA国际影视传媒渋ntended to be a collective final commentSA国际影视传媒� on the subject of leaked emails.
SA国际影视传媒�We're moving forward on a very positive foundation and getting things done for our constituents,SA国际影视传媒� he stated.
The statement from councillors states, SA国际影视传媒淎s council, we have made a lot of positive changes since 2014, and we are proud of our renewed relationship and strong collaboration with administration.SA国际影视传媒�
The city says it became aware in March that its document management system was breached, and the emails were taken by an employee who left the municipality in 2016.
spokesperson Marie York-Condon said police have not received a complaint about the email leak from the city.
