Deputy Mayor Uteck called Peter Kelly a liar twice, during a live broadcast of the Hotline. Does Halifax need a Mayor that lies to council and the people?

The following news item appeared in the Daily News on August 15, 2007.

Card causing lots of confusion

Mayor gave public, councillors different explanations

For a card that was meant to convey a clear message, the promotional items being sent out by the mayor's office seem to be at the least confusing, if not downright misleading.

Since the story broke earlier in the week, Mayor Peter Kelly has been telling two different stories to the public and to councillors.

To councillors, through a series of e-mails, Kelly is backing away from his involvement in releasing the card to The Daily News.

He told councillors the card was merely a draft, that it would change and that it was only for discussion purposes.

He tells Connaught-Quinpool Coun. Sheila Fougere, who is also his chief rival in next year's municipal election, that he doesn't know how the card became public.

"Sheila, someone apparently made the media aware of this and they began calling me," Kelly writes.

Last week, Kelly brought up the card with The Daily News and when asked for a copy of the card, Kelly willingly offered one, but later said it was only available electronically because hard copies had not yet returned from the printers.

To the public, through the media, Kelly said the cards are an attempt to act aggressively in trying to bring concerts to the Common in a competitive industry.

In an interview yesterday, Kelly said what he meant to tell Fougere was that the cards "did not become a story until some negative comments were made by a member of council.

"Now, that may not be in that e-mail, but that's what the intent of that message was," Kelly said.

He said he has no problem clearly stating that HRM needs to be aggressive in landing big concerts.

Deputy Mayor Sue Uteck, in an interview, said the mayor is distancing himself from the cards.

"He doesn't want us to know that he's the one because he didn't get council approval on this initiative," Uteck said.

"And then he compounded it (yesterday) by the fact that he said in the paper that he just went ahead because the council, the approval process, would be too slow," Uteck said. "Do you want a council or do you want a (Halifax Regional) school board?"

The Daily News