Mayor Kelly sends a sobering message
Posted Jul 15, 2010 07:06:22 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor Peter Kelly isn’t going to name names, but he says he’s received calls about a few city councillors’ drinking habits.
“I’ve received calls over the last number of months, weeks and days with regards to events and/or drinking,” says Kelly. “Not necessarily drinking and driving but some other calls and concerns of potentially that occurring.”
He says he felt he needed to send a memo with a strong and clear message to councillors that such behaviour is not tolerated.
In the memo, which was leaked to media Wednesday, Kelly reminds councillors that they must obey the law. It also asks councillors to report their peers if they think there’s the potential of drinking and driving. The memo also says the problem appears to be escalating.
It’s the third such memo in five years. Dartmouth Councillor Gloria McCluskey calls the behaviour ‘shameful’.
“I haven’t seen any councillor do it,” she says. “And if I did I would tell them that I was calling the police and I would call the police.”
She says Kelly did the right thing by addressing the issue, and says whoever anonymously leaked the memo to the media ‘has no morals or integrity.’
Downtown councillor Dawn Sloane says she’s glad Kelly was proactive with the complaints.
“I think that we need to be following a better lead when it comes to servicing our community,” she says.
