Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt has taken to the airways in his efforts to portray Mayor Brian Bowman as uninterested in road repairs.

Wyatt announced in a statement he has taken ads out on two private radio stations to convince Winnipeggers to sign a petition demanding the city spend more money on road repairs.

Last week at city council, Wyatt authored a notice of motion to ask the city to beef up the road-repair budget. He needed a two-thirds majority of council to vote in favour of debating his motion, which was not on the agenda for the June council meeting.

After failing to obtain support for that motion, Wyatt accused Mayor Brian Bowman and other councillors of being soft on road repairs.

The radio ad continues this theme.

"Tired of our crumbling roads and sidewalks? Right now the City of Winnipeg is getting some of the best pricing on road contracts in recent memory," reads the text of the advertisement.

"Hi, I'm Coun. Russ Wyatt. Last week I moved a motion to get these contract savings back into more road-renewal work. However, Mayor Brian, using his powers, killed the debate on the motion. But we cannot give up.

"On Tuesday, June 28, at public works committee, we will be pushing to get these dollars back into road repairs. Join the campaign at fixwinnipeg.com and sign our online petition."

The city is spending $105 million on regional and local street renewals this year, up $2 million from $103 million in 2015.

Wyatt has taken to Winnipeg's airwaves before. In 2013, he tried to convince Winnipeggers to support the sale of golf courses by using $90,000 of city money to take out ads on behalf of "Responsible Winnipeg," a fictitious lobby group. In 2015, Wyatt and Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie took out ads to combat investments in bike-and-pedestrian paths.

The Bowman ads cost $2,000, Wyatt said. The cash comes from his ward allowance budget.

"That's cheaper than a newsletter," he said.

Speaking to reporters over the noon hour, Bowman said it's up to voters to decide whether Wyatt's attack ads are a good use of public funds.

The mayor said Wyatt voted against an increase in funding for roads because the councillor voted against the city's operating budget this year.

"The facts are this council supported the highest amount in funding for road repairs in the history of this city. The councillor voted against that," Bowman said.

The mayor also said Wyatt's council motion didn't allow city staff to have any input.

"I understand doing due diligence may not be something that the councillor favours. That is something that we're trying to do. We're trying to learn from past mistakes ... the way projects have been pushed through council without adequate attention."