Received – Thursday, 18 August 2011 8:40 p.m.
Cc (via Email): ODT Editor; Wilma at DScene; Elizabeth Kerr; The Star; Mayor of Dunedin; Bill Acklin; John Bezett; Syd Brown; Fliss Butcher; Neil Collins; Jinty MacTavish; Andrew Noone; Teresa Stevenson; Chris Staynes; Richard Thomson; Lee Vandervis; Colin Weatherall; Kate Wilson
An Open Communication to Cr Paul Hudson
Councillor Paul Hudson
Dunedin City CouncilCouncillor
Having now read the Warren Larsen Report entitled “Governance review of all companies in which Dunedin City Council and/or Dunedin City Holdings Limited has an equity interest of 50% or more” it is clear that you, despite a number of denials you have made over a period of time, have been compromised by the positions you hold as a Director of DCHL, a number of companies within DCHL and as a City Councillor.
It is time that you accepted the findings of this independent review.
I call upon you to immediately tender your resignation as a Board member of all companies associated with DCHL and also as a Dunedin City Councillor.
Russell Garbutt
Ratepayer
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Thank you Russell. Cull needs to ensure this individual is removed from committees and most crucially from the DCC. The rot in the DCC will still be there if he stays. We can have no hope of a viable city economy with this person still pullling the strings.
Hudson remaining in a position of authority and decision making for Dunedin’s economic future is simply not acceptable. He has not shown even adequate due diligence in this area.
Councillors, I hope you have a deadline for Mr Hudson’s removal from your council table, as chair of DCHL, and as board member of DCHL subsidiary companies (plural). You’ve gone strangely silent. Oh. Your protection of Cr Syd Brown is also noted.
Cr Hudson is in his normal position – staying low, if you see what I mean…
### D Scene 24-8-11
Your say: letters to the editor (page 7)
Heads should roll
By Russell Garbutt, Wakari
One of the more distinctive differences between this Council and the last Council seems to be the willingness to open up the various processes that lie behind Council decisions. Readers will undoubtedly recall the refusals to divulge any information particularly about the stadium project on what seemed spurious grounds such as “commercial sensitivity”. Well, now we have a lot more revealed in the Warren Larsen report. What this report shows is that there was a total disconnect between the DCC and those that were running its holdings company DCHL.
{continues} #bookmark
The reaction from Cr Paul Hudson on my call for him to resign as a Councillor and a Board member of all his DCHL positions has been deafening. Quiet that is. Perhaps hoping that it will go away.
Well, Cr Hudson, it isn’t going to go away.
While you may feel very comfortable sitting astride the fence posts raking in our money, we don’t feel comfortable in you remaining in that position. Why don’t you resign? And take your DCHL Board with you. Or are there many thousands of reasons why you don’t want to? All of them preceeded by a dollar sign.
This now comes back (Mr Hudson is already out, it’s a matter of when not if) to the incumbent mayor and councillors and the ‘independent’ legal and accounting advice they receive for the restructure of DCHL and subsidiary boards. Might take a little while to sort, however, Warren Larsen’s recommendations have been adopted. He saw the urgent need to hoover the whole screwy nightmare. Pressure is ON.
It’s funny how certain expressions take hold. Recently It seems that the expression of ‘feeling comfortable with a decision/situation’ has surfaced at the DCC more than once. This expression is meant to serve the purpose of pushing something ‘uncomfortable’ away and hoping people go along with the sentiment. The other one, recently expressed by Dave Cull, is to ‘not re litigate the past’ coupled with that cliched expression of moving on/ forward’. Serves the same purpose. I guess I should adopt the same attitude if I am robbed at some time in the future.
Cr Hudson believes he can just do what has worked in the past; just ignore any of the proletariat who dare to question his entitlements. He’s not bothered, probably, they got their stadium with this attitude after all. What he may not be banking on though is that the city simply cannot afford to have him in a position of authority. He has proven to be too incompetent. The city’s survival demands that he be removed from council and not protected anymore by Cull’s attempt to quieten the situation.
Hudson will only go kicking and screaming, not voluntarily you can guarantee. The operative motive which drives him is greed, plain and simple. Just look at the matter of the “Hungry Frenchman” restaurant lease which stood in the way of the Municipal Chambers revamp. Owned by his daughter, apparently one year to run with no right of renewal. Settlement $360,000. Professional opinion says 10% of that would be a good reward. Now what sort of person would screw the ‘Harland Plonkers’ for that sort of robbery of citizens’ treasure? An unprincipled sort that’s who. A special sort of sickness pervades that place, and no-one is immune. We were lucky enough to get shot of the ‘crooked lawyer’ and Richard Walls, but there is a lot of dross there yet.
Russell Garbutt’s letter to the editor is a cracker – ‘Search for final cost continues’ (ODT 27.8.11)
To challenge Malcolm Farry’s claim that the stadium has been delivered “on budget”, he fields Warren Larsen’s statement “What is clear is that the final cost will be approximately $200 million and the funding requirement around $110 million. This, together with the other scheduled capital projects, indicates debt funding requirements of an additional $280 million for DCC.”
Confronted with “other published estimates of total spend at over $300 million”, Russell pursues the council’s acting chief executive, Athol Stephens, for an accurate answer to “all costs on the stadium project from all sources both inside and outside the Guaranteed Maximum Price contract and including all relevant SH88, DCHL, DVL, DVML, CST, Carisbrook purchase, “extras” and debt servicing costs”.
The non reply from Athol includes: “As such, all the contractors’ claims have not been received so the final cost is unknown. Indications are that it is on budget, including allowance for the additions of $5.25 million approved by council. Mr Larsen’s report correctly refers to the council’s obligation to service $110 million of debt. This excludes the private sector’s obligation to service an opening debt of $30 million and the additional $5.25 million of council debt for the additions.”
Russell’s opens his letter saying “despite Warren Larsen’s ability to have open and frank discussions with all those on either council or on DCC companies, he was not able to ascertain the actual cost of the new rugby stadium”.
HOW LONG. How long can the Dunedin City Council and ‘friends’ hide?
Rugby World Cup 2011 is nearly upon us, perfect timing for a spot of public activism.
Watch the no-fly zone. Damn, that clear roof is a bonus.
‘A special sort of sickness pervades that place, and no-one is immune.’ You’re right there, Calvin. It’s almost as if the whole stench of the place is so unpleasant that those who could do something about it are either compromised themselves or are too weak to deal with it. More often than not people don’t want to know. Until there is no choice.
We need outside intervention – desperately – but this will not happen until a breaking point has been reached where the whole pack of cards finally collapses. Greed begets more greed and finally some, who also wished to gain, lose out. Then the shit really hits the fan. We might be lucky and see a replay of the Moran family style feuds here in little old Dunners!
‘HOW LONG. How long can the Dunedin City Council and ‘friends’ hide?’
Not long.
Wallabies 25 All Blacks 20 !!!!!????? Suicide pills available at all cathedrals and affiliated rugby clubs. A mass will be celebrated in the new stadium at 2pm Sunday. Officiating will be Cardinal Malcolm assisted by the Welsh bishop David Davies. All welcome. A plate will be passed around.
And the plate will come back empty with these boys.
I don’t know what is greater than God, but Malcolm is it. (He’s no mere Cardinal, Calvin.) Remember he defied God when he declared that not even ‘an Act of God’ could destroy his temple, the stadium.
No Peter, the plate won’t be empty. It will be in deficit as all the private funding will now evaporate. That is how important that All Black loss will be. Malcolm Allah is no longer Akbar.
In Xanadunedin did Malcolm Khan,
A stately pleasuredome decree…
It’s going to be even tougher when Christchurch abandons AMI Stadium and builds a new covered stadium on a new site.
How high will Hudson’s stadium cabal and the sleepy other half of council raise our rates to pay for the stadium debt? That is also a good question. They can raise rates indefinitely. Seems like that is the game plan. I guess they figure the low waged made poor decisions and are not rewarded with wealth like the noble honest business man Malcom Farry. So too bad for them. And the midddle class here in Dunedin can just keep smiling and wondering why it is getting harder to pay the bills and keep on expecting the money to fall down on them from the stadium, still buying the trickle down lie.