Yes, Tired, BEP was so world class they sold under 10k tickets. That's less than the seating capacity of the Metro Centre for a friggin' hockey game. Really, I see how that is just right up there with KISS and McCartney with over 50 thousand.

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If Mayor Fitzgerald had done this when Kelly was the councillor from Bedford you know that Kelly would be crying foul and asking for a full explanation.

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They took my earlier comment off so I will say it again, nothing will change at city hall, the Deputy CAO post vacated by Wayne Anstey will be backfilled by the new CAO Butts with another senior staff dope, Mike, Ken etc.. Just watch.

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Tired of...

The real Commons Concert numbers are going to come out. TCL has kept them secret for years but they are going to be revealed and they are going to be terrible.

These concerts are not of the broad popular interest they've been said to be.

I love music and entertainment. I love Nova Scotia. I want to grow the economy and entertain the folks.

This is not the way.

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C'mon people lets keep cultural events coming to the city guys seriously. EVERY city, town, municipality, province, etc funds these large scale events - EVERYONE OF THEM.

I'd rather my tax dollar go to bringing a large scale concerts / festivals / events to Halifax than a redundant piece of frozen ice in the winter where I can just go to a lake and go skating. Not to mention that the chillers at the oval were supposed to go to community rinks around HRM and benefit people from all over rather than a few on the penninsula. You want to skate for free, come to Lake Banook and skate all day!

Back to concert and events, keep funding them, pass a motion so that it gets above board and done by a committee (not by beauracrats) and lets allocate more money to the arts and music events so that our city (not Moncton) can get the support that it needs to attract tourism, build community, and generate revenue for all of us here in HRM.

If you look at some of the acts that we have brought to Halifax - McCartney, KISS, Alan Jackson, BEP, etc - they are world class - and I don't care if you like those acts personally or not, you cannot deny their talents in their own way. I don't care for all of them myself but I do recognize that those concerts would have appealed to many thousands of people from different backgrounds and different musical tastes. I was at the McCartney concert and that was an amazing time and the atmosphere on the common was unbelieveable!

Keep the concerts coming! Increase funding to the arts! Let's stop skating around in circles on the common and start some positive dialogue on the future of our community!

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Mayor Kelly is being somewhat cautious with the details, so here are a few questions :

1) When did he first become aware that a senior staffer was sending advance payments to a concert promoter ?
2) Who told him ?
3) Did he speak to any other person at HRM about the advances ?
4) Why did he choose to not inform the council as to the contents of the contracts he had signed ?
5) Was the board of Trade Centre Limited informed that they were being used as an intermediary to pass advance payments from HRM to the promoter ?
6) Is he aware that Metro Centre Limited is no longer a registered entity with the Registry of Joint Stocks and has not been so registered since Dec 29 1983 ?

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If you think this is bad just wait until the court case over the HRM pension fund mess.
www.halifax.ca/pension_plan/PensionCommitt…

HRM pension committee of staff and union leaders in August 2007 handed over $47,000,000 to the Toronto office of a Boston based investment firm who then gave it to Lehman Brothers who then shipped the money to London,UK and then sent it on to other advisers.
Lehman Brothers then went tits up in September 2008 and the money cannot be found.
Union leaders and some management staff at HRM are the trustees for the $1.2 billion pension plan.
Nice to know such a vast amount of money is in the safe and extremely knowlegeable hands of people from the fire and police departments and other employees.

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Anstey's resignation is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

For someone at his authority (and pay!) level, it is unacceptable that he didn't know better. It is unbelievable, frankly. It's time to end the culture of impunity in the HRM bureaucracy, and their old boys network.

If someone does something this wrong, it isn't enough that they be allowed to retire quietly, no questions asked, without any investigation, disciplinary actions, penalties, sanctions, etc.

There must be a full investigation as this was blatantly unethical and most likely illegal. That investigation should include Anstey, but also other involved parties. The mayor and others cannot hide behind this -- they must also be held accountable!

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Mayor Kelly, your silence is deafening.
Stop hiding.
Man up.
Hold a press conference.
Admit your mistake.
Tell the truth.
Tell every voter what you knew and when you knew it.
Then resign.
You have an EMBA from SMU.
Did you miss the Ethics 101 course ?
Does EMBA stand for 'Easy Money Blown Away' ?

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Something smells at city hall. Take a look at Tim's article about the new convention centre, or whatever they are calling it these days.

It's a very interesting read.

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/the-convent…

I never have nor will I ever vote for Kelly. He needs to go.

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Would the July 21, 2010 letter from HRM; where MacKay signs for both Power Events & Power Promotions not tie these two companies at the hip? I'm wondering because Power Promotions still operates and perhaps this may offer recourse for creditors of Power Events.

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Recently TCL has sent staff on trips to visit US promoters after Mackay's demise to keep the concerts flowing here. The intention on the part of TCL & the city was to pick up where Power Promotions left off. In the absence of these documents, this method of operating would have continued unabated. Ugh.

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I think we should also look at the acting CAO in this case too. It's the job of the CAO to manage these kinds of decisions, to keep the city working within its limits and to also help direct and guide the mayor and council when making deals like this. Any CAO worth their salt would have seen from the outset the illegalities of these negotiations.

I have worked under fabulous CAOs in the past in other municipalities, and there's NO WAY elected officials would ever have gotten this kind of leverage - NO WAY they would have gone through this process without consultation with legal council.

I think that's a major failure here - the lack of leadership from staff. Halifax has gone through a messy series of awful, unqualified, ill respected (from their peers in CAMA, etc) CAOs, and I certainly hope that someone with enough background (Butts, are you listening?), common sense and enough gumption to pull this municipalities head out of its giant ass and finally straighten up and stop throwing away $ on pipe dreams and bad decisions. Start paying attention to what really matters to a community - and it's not $18mill underpasses and hobnobbing with elites.

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This is the same clique of "old boys" who scandalized the commonwealth games bid. Now they have done the same with the commons concerts.

They appear to be willing and capable of breaking the rules to get whatever they want.

How can any rational person think it's a good idea to give them $160 million to build a convention center and then give them $10 million a year to run it for the next 25 years?

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As a local performing artist I am sickened at how readily Kelly and Anstey threw around my tax dollar while being so incredibly backward when it comes to supporting local artists. Absolutely despicable. I am disgusted.

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"Influence Pedaling":
http://www.funmunch.com/funny_pictures/fai…

Not just an HRM problem.

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looks like the mayor's re-election won't be the walk in the park as he thought...people are getting tired of this idiot and his relentless strive for blandness in local politics..this clown must go !!! I have no confidence in this fool and this scandal will finally put the nail in his political coffin....i really hate fence sitters in politics and his wafflings have finally come back to bite his pathetic ass..

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This makes me livid. And that Kelly knew all along!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have always thought he had something up his sleeve, but this is beyond my worst suspicions, especially as he tried to muzzle public debate about the Commons concerts and kept making excuses about not disclosing details as being malarky about competing with Moncton.

Kelly MUST resign.

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We should consider carefully the broad definition of Influence Pedaling which has been supported by the courts of Canada with the public interest in mind.

The Criminal Code prohibits officials from demanding, accepting or offering or agreeing to accept a loan, reward, advantage or benefit of any kind for cooperation, assistance or exercise of influence in connection with any matter of business relating to the government. Although Politicians and officials may not necessarily be in a position to make a particular decision, they might very well be able to influence the decision-making process. In fact, politicians are expected to represent the interests of their constituents and to participate in the development of public policies. Thus, representing the interests of their constituents in influencing public policy is not in itself a crime. However, this activity becomes a crime when done in exchange for a benefit. The member would be taking advantage of his public office for private gain.

Remember this Benefit is not necessarily, or even often, cash.

In this instance the benefit is clearly stated in the report. The Mayor, CAO and TCL conspired to avoid "embarrassment and reputational risk" not to the community - because that doesn't make any sense - but to themselves.

It is noteworthy that when a public official accepts a benefit in exchange for the exercise of his or her influence, it is not necessary that the official possess a corrupt state of mind. The test applied by the courts is : whether or not the individual is aware that he or she is an official ; whether or not the official intentionally demands or accepts the benefit in question, for himself or herself, or for another person; and whether or not the official knows that the reward is in consideration for his or her influence in connection with the transaction of business with the government.

That is a crime in Canada.

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The memo from Anstey to McKay dated July 21 2010 specifically says :
"Dear Harold,
As per the meeting this morning between the Mayor and I representing HRM and you and Edgar,....."
Kelly knew about the promise of advances of money. The memo never says "Subject to council approval"
If the transfers were not allowed by legislation and the staff are at fault then Peter Kelly is at even greater fault.
KELLY MUST RESIGN.

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The thing that is truly galling about this is that anybody who works in arts and culture in this city knows how little HRM has invested in our local professional arts. The grant programs are virtually non-existent and are certainly far below what other similarly-sized cities in Canada provide to their culture sector.

I would wager that the money that has been tossed at the concerts on the Commons is in excess of the funding that has been directed to local professional arts in the past year. HRM trades upon the vibrant cultural sector: local music, dance, theatre, visual arts (etc.) are featured in many of it's promotional materials, but the city cannot or will not introduce meaningful funding to support and sustain artists.

Moreover, one has to remember that this money was given, without any due process, to a for-profit venture, while non-profit arts and culture fight for scraps through ineffective, underfunded grant programs.

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Peter Kelly and Anstey met with Harold Mackay when a deal was put together on July21 2010. The deal detailed more advance payments.
If Kelly never followed all the proper procedures and never told the council then he'll have to resign.
For some strange reason Mayor Kelly gets off without a mention in the March 15 confidential letter signed by Councillor McCluskey,chair of the Finance Cttee. The staff get the blame.

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And then some City Clowns and Honest Citizens will cry...oh Tim, why do you focus on the negatives all of the time? Please do some puffy feelgood stories to make us feel better!!! Barf. Keep on 'em. Someone has to and it isn't the maintream.

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Acting CAO in the 2010 advance agreement was Wayne Anstey,Q.C. a lawyer and subject to discipline by the Nova Scotia Bar Society. He is eligible to retire at any moment and has a little over 33 years at city hall.
My questions would be quite simple : Was this issue discovered during the 2009-2010 audit which covers the period from April 1 2009 and March 31 2010 ?
Advances were made January 20 2010 in the amount of $400,000 and another on March 29 2010 in the amount of $500,000.
Was the auditor aware of the advances ? And was the issue menyioned in the Management letter which accompanied the 2010/2011 Financial Statements ?

This practice had started in 2008 and the council were never told.
Why was this issue able to be hidden from the auditors ?
Is it being disclosed now because the auditors are in the process of preparing for the financial year end on March 31 ?

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