The council owned companies DVML and DVL present their Statements of Intent to the Dunedin City Council today. The meeting commences at 2pm at the Council Chamber, Municipal Chambers.
### ODT Online Mon, 23 Jun 2014
Whistle to blow for stadium deals
By Chris Morris
The company which runs Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium faces an uncertain future as it eyes the expiration of deals with sponsors, members and even the Highlanders Super rugby franchise. It also continues to operate under a cloud while awaiting the outcome of a major review of the stadium operation, now expected by early August, that seeks to address the venue’s multimillion-dollar losses.
Read more
![Terry Davies [radionz.co.nz] 1](https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/terry-davies-radionz-co-nz-1.jpg)
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 164.3 KB)
Statement of Intent for Dunedin Venues LimitedReport – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 170.1 KB)
Statement of Intent for Dunedin Venues Management Limited
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The meeting includes final approval and adoption of the Annual Plan 2014/15 and the setting of rates.
Agenda – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 122.0 KB)
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 4.5 MB)
Dunedin City Council 2014/15 Annual Plan for Adoption on 23 June 2014
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 699.6 KB)
Adoption of the 2014/15 Annual Plan – Minutes of Hearings and Deliberations
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 114.3 KB)
Adoption of the 2014/15 Annual Plan
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 540.0 KB)
Setting of Rates for 2014/15 Financial Year
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 76.6 KB)
Assessment Timeframe for Dunedin Earthquake-Prone Buildings Policy
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 149.9 KB)
Marketing Dunedin Advisory Board and Transition Advisory Group
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 872.4 KB)
‘Toi Au – Our Creative Future’, Draft Ōtepoti Dunedin Arts and Culture Strategy
Report – Council – 23/06/2014 (PDF, 156.0 KB)
Elected Member Remuneration Rates for 2014/15
█ Statements of Intent for other council owned companies are here.
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Related Posts and Comments:
18.6.14 Crowe Horwath Report (May 2014) – Review of DVML Expenses
14.6.14 NZRU ‘hustles’ towns and cities to build stadiums
12.6.14 Fairfax Media [not ODT] initiative on Local Bodies
9.6.14 DVML: Crowe Horwath audit report (Hedderwick)
3.6.14 DCC unit under investigation
2.6.14 Stadium costs ballpark at $21.337 million pa, Butler & Oaten
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Image – radionz.co.nz – DVML chief executive Terry Davies at the stadium
What if? Dunedin... 
### ODT Online Mon, 23 Jun 2014
Rates rise, quake plan on agenda
By Debbie Porteous
A busy agenda has been prepared for today’s Dunedin City Council meeting, much of it tying up the ends of work done over the past few months. The adoption of the 2014-15 annual plan and setting of rates for that year will be the key discussion, with councillors set to sign off on a rates rise of 3%. But a handful of other important issues are also coming up, from a decision to consult on a draft arts and culture strategy for the city to extending the earthquake-prone building reporting timeframe and delaying the establishment of an advisory group for a new city marketing agency.
Read more
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### ODT Online Mon, 23 Jun 2014
Pay rise for mayor and councillors
By Debbie Porteous
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull is looking at a 3% wage increase next year, and councillors 2.8%, following the Remuneration Authority’s latest review. Last year the authority moved from a pool system to a process whereby the authority directly sets the level of remuneration.
Read more
Pay rises 2014-15 (via ODT)
Pay (and % increase)
• Mayor $146,250, incl. vehicle allowance (3%)
• Deputy mayor $65,650 (2.8%)
• Committee chairman $60,600 (2.8%)
• Councillor $50,500 (2.8%)
• Community Board chairmen (population based) $14,000 (0%) – $17,400 (2.7%)
• Community Board members $7000 (0%) – $8700 (2.4%)
As many have said previously, and they continue to yell – it’s time to do independent forensic audits of DVML, DVL and Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust (CST).
‘Even a cut by half, to $2 million a year, would help the company’s financial projections turn from red to black, allowing profits to be reinvested in the venue, reducing the risk to ratepayers in future, he (Davies) said.’
I predict this is the softener for the stadium review’s ‘new funding’ model.
A devious plot hatched at the top of the DCC (both wings), in association with DVML.
Peter, I tend to agree – and if not that, then a softener for something else equally corrupt and fraudulent devised by DCC in cahoots with DVML and ORFU – with lashings of strong-arm tacticianship from paymasters NZRU.
Followed shortly thereafter by the ODT breathlessly reporting that ‘the stadium has finally, (sob), made a profit.’
“The risk is the interest rates will be higher than 6.5% by 2016” as a result of $25 million interest rate swap. I’d say there’s a risk. The reserve bank has predicted an 8% interest rate by 2015!
Just what effect the default on that swap is in fact anyone’s guess. I don’t think anyone in the council or any councillor’s have any clue on the magnitude of this problem.
“It is not expected that a dividend will be paid in 2017”
The stadium cannot be declared an asset for borrowing purposes, it is clearly a liability and should be subtracted from any guess as to total assets, not added as it is at present.
And more
“purchase of assets worth more than $1 million cannot be purchased without shareholder’s (DCC) approval.
Unfortunately that means that assets CAN be purchased by DVL if they are less than $1 million.
Oh bloody dear!!
Under the Chairmanship of Sir John Hansen this $1 million limit was breached but no consequences as per usual.
Just like the breaching of DVML policies by Guy Hedderwick and Neville Frost.
It was today announced in Wellington that 450 staff would move to the $18.40 per hour minimum wage on July 1.
See what that does to the annual DCC plan, debt levels, rates increases and the ultimate demise of Dunedin. That inevitable change could add $15 million to the DCC annual wage bill, as no doubt increments for department managers, team leaders etc will rise pro rata. I mean the council dunny cleaner won’t be paid more than the mayor’s secretary will he/she? With current council debt levels in excess of $15,000 per ratepayer, such largesse will increase our individual indebtedness by up to $22,500 (the increment is 50%). Good luck in attracting new business to Dunedin with each incoming worker immediately saddled with a $22,500 burden.
$18.40 per hour is not that much for any worker these days. The extra costs to the city are a consequence of irresponsible debt spending by corrupt, wealthy people to fill their own pockets. I think it is best to separate these two issues. Regular, honest, working people shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of others by taking a non living wage on the chin.
We need to screw the wealthy for a change and, in the process narrow the widening gap between the rich and the poor. (Forget about a Labour led Government doing this.)
Good point about maintaining wage relativity, Cars. Bringing pay up to “living wage” is the least any decent employer should do. What’s the option – effectively saying to the people doing work that is vital for day to day functioning, “You don’t deserve to live”?
For years every lift in the pay of the lowest paid has gone up by a percentage, and the same percentage applied to everyone in that Union. The same applied after unions were weakened and workers could choose whether to join one or not.
Note the mayor etc have a percentage salary rise.
To restore some kind of humanity and decency it’s time for dollar increases.
If the cleaner’s wages go up $3 an hour that should be the maximum for that whole workplace.
It’s a big increase for the “dunny cleaner” who needs it.
It’s a small increase for management who don’t. If they can’t pay the ‘lecky bill they can’t manage money so we don’t need them. If a dollar-rate increase incentivises them to bugger off it’s win-win, with ratepayers being the biggest winners.
Screwing the wealthy unfortunately makes little or no difference to the poor or under privileged. The unfortunate part of such policies is a creation of jobs in the middle class as “team leaders” and parking managers or even policy analysts. In fact increasing the tax on the top five percent of income earners only adds between 1% and 2% to the tax take. The answer is not to screw the wealthy but encourage them to spend their capital on businesses that create wealth and therefore real jobs. More taxes means more bureaucrats, self defeating. At present banks in NZ only want to loan to house owners, thus businessmen invest in property, if you want real wealth and jobs, regional incentives, tax breaks for business investment and freight subsidies would be a far saner policy. Not likely with populist democracy, far better to bash those who have become wealthy, they do not constitute a voting bloc.
I’d say the wealthy do constitute a voting bloc, but one with tentacles that go beyond democracy. It’s called influence and how to use.
You say,’In fact increasing the tax on the top five percent of income earners only adds between 1% and 2% to the tax take.’ That is a start. Progressive taxes can be adjusted, whichever way.
Gross inequality in society does not breed success for a society as a whole. The world is replete with examples of countries where inequality fails those countries. Social cohesion falls apart.
The wealthy invest in property, like everyone else who has some capital, because it is perceived to be safer. The lure of bricks and mortar is strong. Shares, finance companies, banks can be riskier. Even if the price of property plummets and you are not too mortgaged (better without, of course) you can survive for another day when things get better.
Haaa, what has ODT Online abridged? In italics…. A minor detail….
Stadium
Submitted by ej kerr on Tue, 24/06/2014 – 10:40am.
The poll fails by placing a condition on ‘yes to mothballing’. The point might be that while the council owns and operates the stadium, the venue will always pull ratepayers and renters down. If council owned or privately owned it will never break even because the small resident population of Otago has quite limited discretionary spending power. If rugby pays up, pays its share, that too comes from ratepayers and taxpayers by direct and indirect subsidy. Should the stadium be wiped off the planet? Yes. Meantime, we stay collectively bound to repay the debt that the Dunedin City Council – by believing the likes of Malcolm Farry, Syd Brown and the parasites of professional rugby (ORFU and NZRU) before the city’s concerned and clearsighted ratepayers – has saddled us with by less than transparent as well as forensically accountable means.
Comment on today’s poll at ODT Online, ‘Should the stadium be mothballed?’: http://www.odt.co.nz/polls/homepage/306903/should-stadium-be-mothballed#comment-58652
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Mothballing stadium an option
The idea of mothballing Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium might raise eyebrows, but it is officially on the table for the Dunedin City Council.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/306889/mothballing-stadium-option
Mothballing the stadium is inevitable. The combined DVML/DVL debt continues to rise. Tinkering with stadium models is fruitless and will only result in more millions being wasted. Currently the stadium is costing the city over $20 million per year (updated figure is now over $23 million) and this will continue to rise, now that the stadium honeymoon is over. The stadium is on a debt funded death spiral with contracts due for renewal and substantial maintenance looming. We either face the problem or continue to throw good money after bad.
There is a solution and that is to hold the CST to account for the financial disaster they foistered onto our city.
Thanks Bev. If people reading this who are in agreement that THE COST OF THE STADIUM IS NOW OVER $23 MILLION PER ANNUM could repeat that in letters and comments to the ODT and other media, that would be a happy thing!
Should readers require figures to back that approximate total please contact Bev Butler or Calvin Oaten directly or through this website to learn more. In the meantime you can view a recent appraisal of theirs at this post:
2.6.14 Stadium costs ballpark at $21.337 million pa, Butler & Oaten
And yet “Mayor Dave Cull said it [mothballing the stadium] was not a ”particularly constructive” idea and was unlikely to solve the council’s stadium-sized financial headache.”
Who hit Daaave on the head between the time he spoke eloquently against the proposed F U B A R. at that huge anti-stadium meeting, and the time immediately after being elected Mayor when he embraced “keep it on life-support in perpetuity”?
### ODT Online Tue, 24 Jun 2014
3% rates rise approved
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council has delivered on a promise to limit its rates rise to 3% for the coming year, despite a warning Forsyth Barr Stadium remains the “elephant in the room”. Councillors at yesterday’s full council meeting confirmed the council’s 2014-15 annual plan, including a 3% rates rise, which would take effect on July 1.
Read more
Dave Cull isn’t up to the job of safeguarding ratepayer finance.
Nice to see JimmyJones at ODT yesterday reminding Dunedin people about DVL, again. Such a slippery slidy topic is DVL – DCC and ODT are treacherously hell-bent on not mentioning that council-owned debt vehicle in nearly all stadium statements.
This isn’t anything other than obfuscation based on corporate lack of courage and council leadership built on serial evasion, deception, damnable lies, fraud (now proven, cumulatively and amazingly sizeable, of long duration, reported in non public thus far) and corruption. (since late Sunday afternoon, this week has been clobbered by that sensibility or its results in public and personal aspects of life – the “Southern Way”, to quote that piece of rubbish St Farry of Central Qtown)
Terry Davies then, fuels a rage already festering – I trust next week’s better.
[In which Cull sounds incredibly weak and crying-out-loud stupid, so what’s new.]
### dunedintv.co.nz June 24, 2014 – 6:04pm
Council approves a 3% rates increase
Despite debt over the Forsyth Barr Stadium, the majority of Dunedin City Councillors are happy with the city’s finances. Councillors have approved a 3% rates increase for the next financial year, and adopted a budget drafted through the annual plan process. And in doing so, they have delivered on some long-held promises.
Video
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[Arts and Culture Strategy – RU ready to spend, Dunedin!!!]
### dunedintv.co.nz June 24, 2014 – 5:54pm
DCC serious about creativity in the city
The Dunedin City Council has taken action to show it’s serious about creativity in the city. It has approved a draft arts and culture strategy for public consultation. And that may see local artists getting more recognition and support for their work
Video
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[The words ‘High Performance” so remind me of that (cough) sporting luminary Kereyn Smith, and all the pro-rugger boys from ORFU that rort DCC. And Te Weasel Neville Frost (now employed by DVML, formerly Guy Hedderwick’s boss) and ah, those expensive ‘community grants’ received by orchestrated pokie trusts.]
### dunedintv.co.nz June 24, 2014 – 5:58pm
Much needed funding heading towards young sports people
A new programme designed to get younger sports people on the podium is about to receive some much needed funding in Dunedin. High Performance Sport New Zealand made a presentation to the Dunedin City Council yesterday, outlining its latest report. And with sporting success in the city growing, the organisation hopes its new programme will work well into the future.
Video
Wowie! Daaave fronts on Ch39 looking like a jolly death spectre, with a shaky (chickens home to roost) voice, championing the rates increase at 3% then ka-boom… next day… the companies are set to [eeek!!!!] under perform, oh noes, surprise much.
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### ODT Online Wed, 25 Jun 2014
DCC in dividend drop dilemma
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council will consider increasing rates or cutting services as it grapples with earning $4.5 million less from its companies, Mayor Dave Cull says. The annual shortfall was expected to begin in 2015-16 and, although well-signalled, would still leave the council scrambling for room in already-tight budgets, he said.
Read more
Nek minnit –
Dunedin City Council helpfully puts up signs pointing to nearest food bank……
Care of Dunedin TV (Ch39) tonight, verbatim:
“There’s a significant story developing in the ODT tomorrow from Dunedin City Council.”
“Plus there’s more troubles for the city’s Chinese Garden.”
Chinese Garden has small child fall into the pond thus a health and safety review and the need to increase staff… Maybe they could bring in ex mayor Peter Chin as a volunteer pool guard instead.
Mishap forces garden to add staff
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/307151/mishap-forces-gardens-add-staff-member
Oh, yes, the Chinese Garden. Another Peter Chin inspired folly in his disastrous years as Mayor. The Chinese have a well deserved reputation for working hard and running profitable businesses. Leave them to it.
All those reported early, and late, hours in the office while catching up with a frequent kip during council meetings, and what did Chin achieve for the city? SFA, I’d say.
The Chinese Garden may well have honoured an ethnic group important to our history, but a simple, yet elegant, memorial would have sufficed. Instead we have a sterile, faux ‘garden’, stuck alongside a railway track/industrial area in the Deep South of NZ, for God sake, and now bleeding us dry financially by about $500K pa (or has it got worse?).
“The Chinese Garden may well have honoured an ethnic group important to our history” no, FAIL there too, to add to the FAIL collection. Wrong Chinese: the garden’s like Maori Hill, our early Chinese were like South Dunedin. Hard toilers, when they gardened it was because they needed food, not so people would say “Gosh what a lovely posh garden” (in Chinese of course) and stroll around quietly contemplating the meaning of life.
Miss Miss please Miss! The Chinese Garden has fewer visitors than a deaf smelly person with severe dementia and no family in the Southern Hemisphere, and costs more than expected to maintain, am I right Miss?
Hmm, so someone’s been selling off 100 or so city vehicles and nobody noticed for years and years – it’s great that they’re insured ….. oh wait they’re “self insured” which is a fancy way of saying that they’re not.
Hat tip to the ODT for subtly explaining what’s going on without offending the coroner (this also probably explains why they’re not allowing comments on that thread – careful what you say here people).
The High Performance Sport folk are back with their begging bowl. Have we forgotten that during the stadium construction it was mooted by the HPS folk that an adjacent purpose built facility would be complementary to the stadium. It was agreed and the cost was to be $10 million. Whilst the DCC funded it the HPS agreed to service and pay down that debt over ten years at a cost of some $580,000 pa. No problem says HPS. The next thing I noticed was a remit put to council that it should support the HPS with an annual grant of $850,000 pa, matching their costs. It was passed by council. I kid you not, and to this day it is never mentioned. Except I put it in my calculations of the stadium costs in conjunction with Bev Butler.
Calvin – $850,000pa or $580,000pa, THEIR error, their failure
of judgement, prudence, sense, guts, responsible stewardship……..
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{Calvin Oaten’s comment has been corrected. -Eds}
Why is a bankrupt city council giving away rates funds to Events, again?!
Where are the gold and platinum sponsors from (tight-arse or barely trading) local business?!
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### dunedintv.co.nz July 8, 2014 – 6:05pm
Dunedin City Council allocates event funding
The Dunedin City Council has allocated almost $400,000 to a small number of regular events in the city. The money comes from the council’s contestable fund for premier and major events. It received 14 applications for the latest funding round, but only nine were successful. The largest grant of up to $100,000 was given to the annual Dunedin fashion week. Other large amounts went to the arts and science festivals, and the annual car rally. Money was also allocated to the mid-winter carnival, the fringe and writers’ festivals, Dundead, and the historic motoring festival.
Ch39 Link
It is quite easy to give grants of contestable money to events when you haven’t got any. You simply put it on the credit card. What’s wrong with that? We’ve been doing it for years and no-one has complained. YET!!!
### ODT Online Wed, 9 Jul 2014
iD’s $100,000 comes with strings
By David Loughrey
For the first time, Dunedin City Council funding for the iD Dunedin Fashion Week is set to hit six figures. The council has allocated $100,000 for next year’s event, but has made sure organisers will get help to attract sponsorship so they are not so dependent on a local authority with its own financial restraints.
Read more
My guess is that iD Dunedin Fashion Week is Dunedin’s best visitor, business and tourism attraction and “international profile lifter” of all the things money is spent on to boost the city. The fashion biz is huge, it’s in magazines that reach all over the world. The Railway Station venue is brilliant, one of Dunedin’s most photogenic assets is an inescapable part of the story. Dunedin as a place of creativity, a small city where things happen, is appealing to other people who want to be where the creative buzz is. This makes it a place to visit, and possibly is a factor when a person/family is deciding where to move to. While I’d like to see less rates money chucked at events, it’s my opinion that assisting iD fashion week can be actually classed as investment – for a change.
I see Hype, that the $100,000 comes with strings. Now if council chair Cr Kate Wilson appeared in ‘strings of the ‘G’ type’ on the catwalk even I could believe it would be a crowd pleaser. Worth the money though? Hmm… that’s problematical.
[probably too hopeful, Calvin]
DVML
TERRY DAVIES…. let’s go (sacks!) the staff from the Dunedin Centre, those with continuous knowledge (all bar one), and leaves the venue hanging with zombies in place. More stirrings, unrest and mutterings from the venue users and visiting public later… Davies is quite a bright wee guy, isn’t he. Not. Plus the restructure at FBS – Hedderwick dismissed, Frost gone in the last days. What happened? Too much heat on the Financial Manager, who used to work for ORFU in a previous life. A very LONG story. More FBS staff threatened with job loss. And the sexual harasser at FBS is still on deck – why is that. What sort of ‘senior’ management does not follow up on staff complaints about sexual harassment. DVML is not a credit to its name. But its acronym fits many disparaging re-inventions, as we’ve seen at ODT Online comments.
OK. ODT have a story about only some of this tomorrow. We might hazard to fill in the rest.
### ODT online Thu 10 Jul 2014
DVML in staff shake-up
By Chris Morris
Dunedin Venues Management Ltd is shedding six staff – but recruiting four more – as part of a push to sharpen its commercial focus, chief executive Terry Davies says. Mr Davies told the Otago Daily Times the restructure was designed to shift the company running Forsyth Barr Stadium from a start-up business, focused on operational issues, to one that was more commercially driven.”
Read more
Company changes (via ODT)
• Six roles disestablished; five staff going and one being retained.
• Departing staff include DVML finance manager Neville Frost and events and functions manager Ruth Mackenzie-White.
• DVML accounting processes to be transferred to Dunedin City Council finance department.
• Aim to shift DVML from operational to commercial focus.
• Five new roles being created, including business development manager and marketing analyst.
• Four new staff to be recruited.
• Changes to reduce DVML’s overall staff count from 27 to 25.
• Results of DCC’s wider stadium review expected next month.
Terry Davies losing it?
Chris Morris’s story DVML in staff shake-up (ODT 10.7.14) really pissed off Terry Davies. People said Terry was going to get sued, especially because the article cited him saying the events and functions manager had “missed out on the new role”.
We understand Terry might have yelled some abuse down the phone, poor Terry!
Apparently, anything even mildly negative sets off those pushing the stadium.
Shortly after that story ran, the former events and functions manager went looking for an employment lawyer.
Terry was very defensive at the Chamber BA5 meeting this week, hosted by DVML. Said the stadium wasn’t a white elephant because it had made a $2.8M profit the previous year. Oh, except for having to pay the $4M in rent. Forgot about that. So that’s a $1.2M loss then?
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*BA5 Otago Chamber Business After 5 Meeting. -Eds
### ODT Online Mon, 1 Sep 2014
DVML business development chief appointed
By Chris Morris
The company running Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium has appointed a new business development manager as part of a push to secure more bookings. Kim Dodds, a projects co-ordinator with Catlins Coast Incorporated, was responsible for implementing the Catlins tourism strategy, but would take up her new role with Dunedin Venues Management Ltd today.
Read more
A “new business development manager as part of a push to secure more bookings” – yeah that’ll work. I wonder why nobody thought of trying to secure more bookings, before.
Herd of tuis? Flocking ridiculous.
Supplied. ODT 9.7.14 (page 14)
“DVML in staff shake-up” headlines the ODT. Not that one would expect it, but these moves are not in any way addressing the problems I allude to in the above letter. It is simply an exercise in ‘moving the deck chairs’. It seems, unless the much heralded council’s wide ranging review of the stadium model, brings about the much needed changes it will be more of the same. The only thing is that when the music stopped there was two less chairs and a couple of the ‘numbskulls’ missed out. Hardly likely to affect the gate takings I would have thought. Face it, it is only gate takings that can turn this debacle around, and unless we are to host “the second coming” or a similar event, that increase is as likely as Brazil winning the World Cup. I have difficulty (well not really) in deciding if the powers that be are mentally impaired or just stupid.
Menchies Davies and DCC will not say what caused Hedderwick’s demise – how interesting their attitude to fraudulence perhaps.
Then Mr Neville Frost who signed off on Hedderwick’s looseness with work expenditure, of “medium risk” to DVML as noted in the Crowe Horwath report (May 2014), has not yet been formally targeted for loose money management – and certainly he has never historically been held to account, when employed by ORFU, for doing the deeds for ORFU and the Centre of Excellence for Amateur Sport, in relation to the mis-use of community funds (gathered through pokie trusts of foul means, and significant chains of money laundering) for professional rugby. With this known history under his belt he became employed by DVML and flourished. And likely continued work for ORFU behind scenes through the David Davies-Darren Burden-Terry Davies years of ‘accommodations’. That wouldn’t be the half of it. Then the TVs, Grow lights, and more. And all the other stuff that is being buried by DCC’s stadium review to be released in August.
I dare say Anderson Lloyd are advising DCC how to manage its liability in the whole sordid affair of ratepayers bankrolling professional rugby (CST, DVML, ORFU and Highlanders) at Dunedin. That’s a hell of a pay cheque right there.
And Farry had a background check done on Hedderwick.
Must have been just the man he needed for the CST!
How mafia is that.
Integrity – 5
Self-interest – 92
Greed – 95
Social conscience – our scale is not calibrated to measure below 1.
We confidently recommend this candidate for the high status position.
Shysters 4 U, Headhunters and Serf Wranglers, PO Box, no street address.
We also supply honest hard workers who can be paid peanuts and worked till their bodies break.
And must have behaved similarly at all previous job postings, internationally.
Remember that when you shake up a bunch of nuts the biggest ones float to the top.
Supplied, ODT 10.7.14 (page 14)
Interesting comment complete with a link to a critical December 2011 article at ODT Online. A great reminder of the “rugby deal” that would shock us if we knew…
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27 DVML staff: What on earth do they all do?
Submitted by JimmyJones on Fri, 11/07/2014 – 9:17pm.
Trev asks why does DVML [have] so many staff to do so little. Part of the explanation is that they are wasteful, poorly managed, poorly monitored and have learned that the DCC ratepayers will pay for whatever they want. The other part of the explanation is that a big chunk of its staff work for the Otago Rugby Football Union; paid for by ratepayers but working for the benefit of rugby, not the city.
So why are we subsidizing the ORFU? The answer remains a mystery. This started at the end of 2011 and still there has been no explanation from Mayor Cull or the DCC CEO. Stadium related expenses cost the city over $20 million each year. After CEO Bidrose’s restructuring it will cost exactly the same, but some of those costs will be hidden; not gone, just invisible. An obvious way to make a real difference to these huge costs is to stop subsidizing the ORFU by paying for their staff. Read about it »HERE«.
[ends]
Trev – since 2011 the Dunedin ratepayer has simply replaced the poor of South Auckland as the main funders of the ORFU and the Highlanders.
In 2004 ORFU purchased 3 of NZ’s top performing pokie bars operating in South Auckland known as the Jokers Bars for around $3 million. These bars generate in excess of $3 million in grant money per annum so it was the golden goose. ORFU set up a company called Roseburn Holdings Ltd to create the appearance of separation but refused to divulge to DIA where the money was coming from to purchase the bars.
They signed the bars up with a friendly well known pokie trust called TTCF who were not averse to also deceiving DIA for their own commercial gain. In 2005, ORFU sold its 50% share of the Jokers bars to Mike O’Brien and Harness Racing interests and from then on the grant money was split between ORFU and racing interests no doubt to recover the purchase price.
By 2010 ORFU had relinquished their interest in 2 of the bars but held on to the top performer, Jokers Manurewa, which is situated in the poorest part of Auckland. Between December 2010 and June 2011, TTCF granted ORFU a further $800,000 before the music stopped.
In late 2010, Mike O’Brien stepped up as the sole Director of Roseburn Holdings Ltd and the lease was soon to expire at the Jokers Manurewa premises. Deals were done that essentially meant ORFU were left out in the cold with no business and no more pokie revenue. The Landlord signed a new lease with another operator and a new pokie trust. Jokers Manurewa was liquidated in June 2011.
DIA know all of this and sit on a report provided to them by the NZRU which contains the details of these transactions but refuse to release it.
I am also aware the DCC were briefed of the circumstances by the DIA which is perhaps the reason why they remain silent on the issue.
2011 that thread ran in the ODT. 2014, “THREE YEARS LATER!” and we still are “shackled” to the rugby ‘monster’ by our dopey Mayor and council. At over $20 million per year that would have to be the most imbecilic action of any elected body on this planet. Even after he was threatened with a defamation suit for over $500,000 if he didn’t retract and publicly ‘grovel’ an apology for blurting out some ‘crap’ on the national airways, Mayor Cull is still enthralled by the ‘robber barons’ of the ORFU. Absolutely amazing, the man should be certified.
http://www.times.co.nz/news/pokies-hurting-our-communities-protesters.html
At least the the poor in South Auckland took to the streets in protest.
Re DVML Staff
Two good comments at ODT Online this afternoon:
MikeStk Too many chiefs
russandbev The Trojan Horse inside DVML
MikeStk includes a useful link to the old DVML staff list that we published at What if? previously (Jan 2014). Great reminder as we stare down Terry Davies’ current bouts of restructuring at DVML, occurring before DCC’s Stadium Review due mid-August.
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Another chance to publish the old list here:
DVML: Meet the Team
● CEO | Darren Burden – gone
● EA to the CEO | Michelle Johnston
Events – for all conference, events and exhibition queries
● Events Manager | Ruth Mackenzie-White – going
● Events Co-ordinator | Nicole Wood
● Events Co-ordinator | Tania Summers
Commercial – for sponsorship and major event queries
● Commercial Director | Guy Hedderwick – gone
● EA to the Commercial Director | Kim Scobie
Marketing and Communications – for media and marketing queries
● Marketing and Communications Manager | Jo Scully
Forsyth Barr Stadium memberships – for membership information
● Sales Manager | Craig McGregor
● Commercial & Hospitality Sales | Paul Thompson
Ticketing – group bookings and other enquiries
● Ticketing Manager | Kalla Nicholson
● Corporate Ticketing | Whitney Kooman
For public booking enquiries please contact Ticket Direct,
www ticketdirect.co.nz or phone 0800 224 224
Operations – for all venue queries
● Operations Manager | Coryn Huddy
● Operations Coordinator | Conor O’Fee
● Turf Manager | Troy Jordan
Finance
● Corporate Services Manager | Neville Frost – gone for some time
● Accounts Manager | Mai Maslin
[ends]
I started pointing out all those managers (and Hedderwick still there) on the DVML web page a few months back – that page disappeared pretty quickly after that – luckily the Way Back Machine remembers.
Sites like this one are valuable for their collections of information that otherwise “disappears” when someone notices it’s embarrassing. The more places such information is presented, the better.
Thanks Mike, loving the Way Back Machine! Your prods were/are needed.
HEY YOU!!!
The DCC operates largely in secret until it’s all too late. They are only following the trend. How may of you have heard of TISA, the Trade in Services Agreement? Jonky is signing you up for it at this moment. This is a new international treaty that WILL AFFECT YOUR LIVES PROFOUNDLY. It is effectively a back door way of imposing the venomous, but virtually dead GATTS agreement that is opposed (with good reason) by the majority of nations on the WTO. So – the 1% of a smaller group of the wealthiest countries are signing you up to an exclusive version of GATTS.
So important is this treaty (to them) that its provisions will remain secret for FIVE YEARS after it comes into force! Your lives will in effect be governed by ‘secret’ laws. It WILL affect you – for example recent additions aim to make even state pensions ‘unlawful monopolies’. New Zealand as one of the ‘weaklings’ of this group may well be used as a test bed to see if such wonderful outcomes can be delivered to you by insurance companies with your happiness in your declining years at heart (honest) by treaty based litigation in the law courts. See here for more.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1406/S00322/tisa-trade-talks-will-lock-nz-into-finance-rules-behind-gfc.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/13/capital-politics-wikileaks-democracy-market-freedom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_in_Services_Agreement
https://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/
http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/298464/making-trade-offs
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*WTO = World Trade Organisation; *GATT = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; *TTS = Tariffs and Trade Services -Eds
Frightening stuff. We all ought to be very aware of the motifs behind the National Party hierarchy in Key, English, Joyce , McCully and Groser. It’s got all the hallmarks of totalitarianism about it. The world according to Goldman Sachs. Once all the ducks are in a row watch those ‘gringos’ duck off into the murky world of ‘merchant banking’. Key has already made a fortune in that field remember. He would have little aversion to adding hugely to that in his life after politics, probably based in Hawai’i. New Zealand has such little clout in the hurly burly of international high stakes negotiating that we will be taken to the cleaners. We will become a third world nation designated to be no more than the rich clubs’ meat, dairy and forest products. These of course in the fullness of time will be all overseas owned. Twenty years down the track our society will be unrecognisable.
I think we are already a third world country, in many respects, with an omnipotent government and a weak opposition and an ever growing disparity between the rich elite and the poor. We will see a shrinking of the middle class, I believe, as they find they cannot cope with further financial imposts put on them.
Corruption is a growing problem in this country with the resources of the police, the SFO and Ombudsman’s Office clearly overwhelmed by graft. Trevor Mallard needs to think more deeply of more serious issues than reviving the moa and David Cunliffe actually needs to be proud of being a (real) man. My God, do we need an effective opposition to this present vicious regime in Wellington.
### dunedintv.co.nz July 23, 2014 – 5:53pm
DCC produces new draft of its grants policy
The Dunedin City Council is re-thinking the way it applies grants to community groups and organisations. It’s produced a new draft of its grants policy, following a review. And now councillors want to hear what residents think of the changes.
Video
Portobello Harington Point Road Improvements Project
### ODT Online Wed, 3 Sep 2014
Road options to be studied
By Debbie Porteous
The options for speeding up the widening of the low road around the Otago Peninsula, and how much that could cost ratepayers, will be studied over the next month. The council is considering how it could afford to expedite the work to have the $25 million project finished in the next four years, instead of the planned nine years, after inter-community debate broke out during this year’s annual planning process.
Read more
Further to Annual Plan and the “way forward” at Peninsula, wherein DCC takes potential business away from commercial camping ground operators and or private interests that may wish to develop campervan dump stations?
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### ODT Online Thu, 2 Oct 2014
DCC moves on freedom camping
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council hopes extra signs, security patrols and a new site for freedom campers will help prevent a repeat of previous headaches at Macandrew Bay this summer. Council staff yesterday confirmed they were introducing extra signs and security patrols at Macandrew Bay, and considering opening up the Bayfield Park car park to freedom campers using vehicles without toilets.
Read more