Who? 2010 electioneering

References supplied.

Blog entry: Dave Cull for Dunedin City Mayor
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 2:09 PM
TAKING OUR FUTURE BACK
By Dave Cull

Dunedin is wonderful city, with a fantastic future. But right now that future is vulnerable: vulnerable economically, environmentally and socially. Dunedin’s community has never been more disillusioned with how Council makes decisions, how it listens, or not, to the community, how Council takes responsibility, or not, for major spending decisions with long-term consequences. These are consequences that include maxing out Councils [sic] and Council company debt, so that the companies may not be able to pay expected dividends to the ratepayers in the next few years! It is that bad.

The challenges ahead are considerable. But we can achieve that fantastic future. We have to. We can achieve it if we replace secrecy with transparent processes and provide responsible leadership that listens and is up-front with the community about debt and costs. If we do that we can turn disillusion into a shared and inclusive vision for the city.

So imagine what YOU want Dunedin to be like in 20 years.

Imagine Dunedin with:
• a thriving economy featuring high value jobs and businesses that keep families living here
• suburbs of well-built, healthy houses
• streets of beautiful, rejuvenated heritage buildings being put to productive use
• renewable resources being utilized for lower cost energy.
• measures already taken to address climate change and peak oil
• well maintained civic amenities not saddled by a mountain of debt that ratepayers have to repay
• top notch infrastructure including comprehensive Broadband coverage everywhere
• a smooth coordinated public transport system and cycle and pedestrian network
• an accessible and well-protected surrounding environment full of nature’s treasures

Previous Councils and this current one, have not tried to imagine such a future and not planned to achieve it. They have ticked the boxes of bland Council vision statements, reacted to pet ideas dished up by special interest groups, and lurched from one to the next, piling a huge debt on all our shoulders in the process. At the same time some of our suburbs are mouldering from neglect; our digital infrastructure is falling behind other NZ communities; jobs are ebbing away and families are leaving for greener pastures. I and my team want to help turn that all around.
Read more

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During the 2010 Dunedin Mayoral race the local newspaper ran this:

### ODT Online Tue, 7 Sep 2010
Mayoral Profile: Dave Cull
By David Loughrey
Dunedin city councillor Dave Cull is about to end his first term on the local authority, and has put his hand up for the council’s top job. With nine candidates, including himself, on his Greater Dunedin ticket, success could see him heading a group with a majority, on a council more recently made up of 15 independents. But he says that would be a good thing for a city that needs a “collegial” approach to reining in debt, and attracting business and people to Dunedin.

Dave Cull
Age: 60.
Family/marital status: Married, two daughters.
Occupation: Writer.
Council experience: One term as councillor.
Running for: Mayor and council.

Why are you standing?
I’m standing because when I put my hand up for council in 2007, I realised it was going to be something I was either going to be in for the long haul or not, so I’m in it for the long haul.
I’m standing for the mayoralty because I see the need for far more engaging and inclusive leadership than is being shown at the moment.

Tell me then, how you would go about engaging and including.
Well I think the context is that the current council and mayor …

Of which you’re one …
… of which I’m one, but the majority has not engaged genuinely, has not listened genuinely to the public, and has, worse than that, not got a cohesive, connected view of the projects the council is involved in. They tend to be isolated from one another, and the impact on one another is not fully appreciated till the negatives hit, I suppose. So I see a need for developing a much more future-focused vision for the city that looks at everything in a connected way.
Read more

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Blog entry: Dave Cull for Dunedin City Mayor
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Ratepayers Association Questionnaire
By Dave Cull

The Greater Dunedin Team Answers Ratepayers Association Questions.

Greater Dunedin candidates declined to answer the Ratepayers Assoc questionnaire, the answers to which are to be published in D-Scene. Framed as either/or questions, the requested yes/no answers would oversimplify the issues with many of the questions. More importantly Ratepayers chairperson Lyndon Weggery acknowledged the Association would edit and “analyse” longer answers and distribute the results privately to Ratepayers Association and ex-Stop the Stadium members. We have no confidence that would be done in good faith. Mr Weggery (also on the committee of ex-STS) has signed STS newsletters containing untrue claims and misrepresentations about Greater Dunedin mayoral candidate Dave Cull’s views on the new stadium, and endorsing another candidate. Dishonesty and partisan commentary are incompatible with a purportedly independent survey.

However all the Greater Dunedin team recognise voters’ interest in our views and their right to hear them expressed publicly. We wholeheartedly promote transparency and also believe our views and positions on most subjects, while diverse, probably resonate with most of the membership of both the Ratepayers Association and what was Stop the Stadium. To that end we have each fully answered the questions posed by the ratepayers Association and posted them on our website: http://www.greaterdunedin.co.nz/. We encourage readers to read them there.
Greater Dunedin’s aim is to engage with and serve the interests and views of the whole Dunedin community. We welcome feedback, ideas, concerns and comments from all.

Following are the Ratepayers Association questions and my answers.
Continues at greaterdunedin.blogspot

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Pecuniary interest: Crs Wilson and Thomson in events fund debate

UPDATED 30.1.13

Where is DVML’s report to DCC ? Go to ODT 30.1.13

### ODT Online Tue, 29 Jan 2013
Call for new stadium events fund backed
By Chris Morris
Dunedin city councillors support a new $400,000 annual fighting fund to lure more major concerts, and the millions of dollars of extra spending that comes with them, to Dunedin.
Cr Lee Vandervis questioned whether stadium events delivered additional economic benefits or largely moved money around within Dunedin. [DVML chief executive] Darren Burden disputed the latter, citing an economic impact report on Sir Elton John’s stadium concert, estimated to have contributed $14 million to the city’s economy. The exact figure could be disputed, but with half the 35,000-strong crowd for the show coming into Dunedin from elsewhere, returns for the city were ”in that sort of ballpark”, he said.

Crs Kate Wilson and Richard Thomson agreed, saying their businesses had recorded substantial increases in turnover at the time of Sir Elton’s concert, and other businesses would, too, in future.
Go to ODT 30.1.13

Cr Syd Brown hoped the ”modest” extra investment would allow the stadium, and the city, to ”punch above our weight”. Other councillors also supported the move, including deputy mayor Chris Staynes, who said even if the economic impact of shows like Sir Elton’s was only half what was claimed, it was still ”a pretty good investment”.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 for consultation #RIOTmaterial

Email received from Lee Vandervis this evening.

My overview regarding the Annual Plan that has gone out for consultation today is that little has changed.

Rates rises continue to be disguised, first by getting DCHL to borrow up to $23 million on our account, continuing to take more than policy allows from the Waipori Fund [proposed relaxing Waipori rules to justify], continued significant underspending on drains, and now buying $3 million in paid-up share capital of DVML – yet another multi-million dollar gift to bail out overspent Stadium operations.

The official result – the long heralded 4% rates rise.

I believe the real rates rise to be somewhere between 25% and 30%, as the DCC continues to amass all kinds of liabilities and debt that will have to be paid for in the future. CEO Paul Orders has made real gains finding significant DCC staff efficiencies, but most are simply going to bail out Stadium operational inefficiencies.

Stadium annual drains on the ratepayer now include:
● $1,666,000 rates subsidy via a ‘Stadium Differential’ [LTP 2013/14 – 2021/22 p8]
● $750,000 annual ‘Stadium Community Access’ fund
● $725,000 ‘Stadium Capital Repayment’ fund for each of the next 4 years
● Annual $400,000 ‘Stadium Event Attraction’ fund.

The Dunedin City Council is now going to buy the events that the Stadium was supposed to attract by itself. These further Stadium subsidies will only prolong the currently unaffordable wasteful Stadium operations, and entrench the directorships, fat contracts, and rugby cronyism that plague current Stadium costs.

If anyone can think of any other type of ‘fund’ that might possibly go to the Stadium please don’t tell the DCC or we will shortly be paying that annually too.

From an email I sent to senior staff and the Mayor last Monday:
“I have been uncomfortable with the timing and presentation advantages enjoyed by DVML in being perfectly positioned to come into our workshop and present and pluck us for millions yet again, but I accept that their issues needed to be addressed.”

Many Annual Plan issues have not been addressed but they have been bought into.

The predetermined Plan has just happened again.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Sunday Star Times Business News: Woops DCC

### Stuff Online Last updated 11:52 27/01/2013
Auckland councillors reveal interests
By Rob Stock
The shutters of secrecy around the personal commercial interests of elected councillors and local board members are beginning to lift at the country’s largest local council. In May last year Auckland mayor Len Brown pledged to the Sunday Star-Times that Auckland Council would work towards the establishment of a register of pecuniary interests of councillors, something other major councils have long provided to their ratepayers.
Read more

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Near the end of the article we love the reference to “the heavily indebted Dunedin City Council” being without a public register of pecuniary interests of councillors… Something “major councils have long provided to their ratepayers” (see Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga, and now Auckland).

It’s the remainder of the sentence about Dunedin that really amuses, but let’s reproduce the paragraphs which implicate DCC.

In fact, the lack of registers at some councils – the heavily indebted Dunedin City Council was another without a public register – seems in direct contravention of the Local Government Act that requires councils to operate “in an open, transparent, and democratically accountable manner”.

Local Government New Zealand told the Government it believes the model set by MPs needed to apply to local councillors, arguing that it would “strengthen public confidence in public bodies like local government”, and it turned out that Auckland City Council was supporting the call.

Best we demand a register of Dunedin City councillors’ interests well before the October 2013 local body elections – make the request via public submissions on the Draft Annual Plan 2013/14, and DCC public forums.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

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Pike River, Department of Internal Affairs #skippingthebusiness

Comment received.

Martin Legge
January 14, 2013 at 8:57 am

Spare a thought for all the Pike River victims and their families.

Maarten Quivooy was the National Safety Manager at Dept of Labour at the time of the Pike River tragedy and during the commission of enquiry that followed which resulted in DOL Management being heavily criticised. As we now know, Quivooy, like a rat off a sinking ship, left the DOL before the Commission made its findings public.

Quivooy grabbed the top Gambling Compliance job at DIA ahead of an incumbent. In light of this it would be interesting to read his CV, his references from DOL and hear his responses given to the DIA selection panel – “Maarten can you please outline your achievements with the DOL”

Quivooy is all hat and no cowboy!!!

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Related Posts and Comments:
30.12.12 Internal Affairs is a whole other planet #whitecollarcrime #DIArorts
18.11.12 Martin Legge: DIA audit criticism #pokierorts #coverup
13.11.12 Martin Legge replies to Sunday Star-Times story #DIA #coverup
26.10.12 Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) – CULPABLE #pokierorts
3.10.12 DScene: Russell Garbutt seeks DIA file to Crown Law #PokieRorts
27.8.12 DIA’s political cover-up of TTCF and ORFU rorts
12.8.12 DIA reshuffle: new investigation teams, money laundering, criticism
25.7.12 Martin Legge backgrounds TTCF (pokie trust) and Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts #DIA
15.7.12 Martin Legge responds to media stories on Murray Acklin, TTCF and DIA
26.5.12 DIA media release
22.4.12 DIA, OAG, TTCF and Otago Rugby swim below the line

Use the search box at right to find more items connected to professional rugby, pokie rorts, TTCF, ORFU and DCC.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Editorial spin, disagrees?!

The Editor’s reply (ODT 23.1.13):
Russell Garbutt: Thanks for your comments but we don’t agree with them.

[Email]

From: Russell and Bev Garbutt
Sent: Tuesday, 22 January 2013 10:46 a.m.
To: ‘editor@odt.co.nz’
Subject: Letter for publication

[Contact details deleted. -Eds]

The Editor
Otago Daily Times
Dunedin

Dear Sir

Your editorial on the urgent need for an austerity budget for Dunedin is too little too late.

For years now at Council Plan consultation meetings also attended by your reporters, the financial stupidity of the Council’s decisions have been graphically pointed out by a long line of submitters. The practice of Council owned companies being forced to borrow to pay dividends which you now describe as being “worse than poor” was emphasised by a large number of submitters, but largely ignored by the ODT for many years.

While ultimately all of the spending decisions made by the Council are those of the Councillors – many clearly out of their depth – the weight of public opinion assisted by informed and investigative stories by the City’s only daily paper, has no small part to play in what has happened in this town over recent years. It is hard to see why the ODT has failed to meet its obligations or role in this regard. Many believe that it is because the ODT is a strong supporter of the stadium which has caused a major part of this debt, and of its proponents and major user.

While the ODT has adopted a position of supporting the new rugby stadium, even now that the full costs of the stadium are more or less known, your position is that you appear to be supporting the establishment of a significant fund to subsidise the use of the stadium – despite your reluctant acknowledgement that while the fund will cost the ratepayers dearly, there is no believable data that shows any tangible benefit.

I look forward to the ODT being part of the process in holding those that have made the decisions that have put Dunedin into these astronomical levels of debt responsible and accountable – but I’m not holding my breath.

Russell Garbutt

Read Russell’s comments in reply here.

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Related Post and Comments:
22.1.13 ‘Liability Cull’ and council chasten for election year

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Proposed hotel: Council and submitters await detailed information

The committee planned to invite hundreds of submitters to have another say on the new information, before resuming the hotel’s resource consent hearing in March.

### ODT Online Wed, 23 Jan 2013
Further dialogue on hotel
By Chris Morris
Plans for a $100 million five-star hotel on Dunedin’s waterfront are to go back to submitters for another round of public consultation. It was confirmed yesterday the Dunedin City Council’s hearings committee has requested more information from Betterways Advisory Ltd, which wants to build the 28-storey hotel and apartment tower.
The details were contained in a letter from committee chairman Cr Colin Weatherall to Betterways, dated January 17 and released to the Otago Daily Times by Cr Weatherall yesterday. Betterways director Steve Rodgers said when contacted he was still considering its contents, but was frustrated and concerned by the length of time the consent process was taking.
Read more

Cr Weatherall’s letter to Betterways said extra information was required for a “proper understanding” of the hotel and its impact on the immediate surroundings and wider environment.

Information wanted by 15 February:
● An assessment of the environmental effects of construction and wind disturbance arising from the hotel
● A report from a recognised landscape expert
● Additional computer-generated images showing the hotel from locations around the city
● Betterways Advisory Ltd must physically demonstrate the hotel’s height on site in a way that was visible from across the harbour, perhaps by using a tethered balloon.

Image: ODT Online 2.12.12 [screenshot]

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Related Posts and Comments:
28.12.12 ‘Low-rises are great for the community and the residents’
24.12.12 A Christmas Tale
21.12.12 Proposed hotel – ODT graphic indicates building height
19.12.12 Hearing for proposed hotel – competencies, conflicts of interest?
16.12.12 Proposed Dunedin Hotel #height
10.12.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf St – “LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS”
7.12.12 Proposed hotel – Truescape shenanigans
6.12.12 Dunedin Hotel – revised design
2.12.12 Roy Rogers and Trigger photographed recently at Dunedin
26.11.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf Street – indicative landscape effects
20.11.12 City planner’s report recommends against consent for hotel
10.11.12 Dunedin Hotel, 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212)
4.10.12 DUNEDIN: We’re short(!) but here is some UK nous…
8.9.12 Waterfront Hotel #Dunedin (Applicant names?)
7.9.12 Waterfront hotel: DCC to notify resource consent application
23.6.12 Mis(t)apprehension: website visits, not bookings?
16.5.12 Dunedin Hotel

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 – ‘Liability Cull’ and council chasten for election year

“Levels of debt are still high … you cannot say we are in a comfortable position – far from it.” -Orders

### ODT Online Tue, 22 Jan 2013
Tight years ahead for Dunedin
By Chris Morris
A decade of discipline is needed to protect the Dunedin City Council’s fragile finances until debt repayments ease the fiscal squeeze, council chief executive Paul Orders says. The warning came as Mr Orders confirmed the council was set to remain beyond a self-imposed debt ratio limit for at least the next three-year council term. The council’s 2013-14 pre-draft budget – to be considered by councillors later this week – showed the council would begin repaying more debt than it was borrowing for the first time in 10 years.

Mr Orders said the council would still have “little or no” headroom for new spending until 2022.

However, the size of the council’s debt meant it would still be operating beyond its self-imposed limit, which sought to restrict interest as a percentage of total revenue to no more than 8%, until 2016-17, Mr Orders confirmed.
Read more

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### ODT Online Tue, 22 Jan 2013
Mayor’s rates warning
By Chris Morris
Dunedin city councillors will have to choose between a 2.8% rates rise and extra spending on key priorities – including debt repayment – that will drive up the bill for ratepayers. The choice was presented in the 2013-14 pre-draft annual plan, to be considered by councillors in public for the first time this week. [Chief executive] Paul Orders said the cost-cutting had been achieved in part by reduced staff costs, including not filling all vacancies, absorbing inflation and strictly controlling the council’s capital spending programme.

Overall operational costs had increased by just $500,000 as costs were cut in other areas, while capital spending had been cut in half, from $105 million in 2012-13 to less than $50 million in each of the next three years, Mr Orders said.

Key reports were yet to be made public, including one discussing the financial future of DVML, the stadium and the need for a new events fund. Others would consider options for the Waipori Fund, car park operations in Dunedin and the city’s aquatic facilities, as well as the future of the council’s investment property portfolio.
Read more

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[On council companies…] The practice of businesses having to borrow to pay dividends is worse than poor.

### ODT Online Tue, 22 Jan 2013
Editorial: Dunedin’s austerity budget
The local government annual plan season is beginning, with councils facing austerity budgets. Some, as in Dunedin or Queenstown Lakes, have gorged on debt, and must face the slow process of digesting it. Others will be aware that communities have had enough of rates increases continually topping annual inflation. The Dunedin City Council, easily Otago’s largest council, has feasted on new projects and on high general costs, and its consolidated debt is peaking beyond the extraordinary figure of $600 million. Although it includes council company debts, it is still an astronomical figure. As projects small and large – like the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, the Town Hall, the water and sewerage system upgrade and the stadium – came up for discussion, the annual interest costs were often the financial focus.

[ODT blondness…] To make the stadium a success and to compete with other centres, the council might have to seriously consider an events fund. This will again cost ratepayers, but could benefit the city overall.

The long-term accumulation of debt and cumulative interest totals could be sidelined behind an unrealistic optimism, leaving a legacy of commitments to years of whopping rates increases. Fortunately, the folly of this course has been recognised, and vigorous efforts are being made to turn to a sustainable direction.
Read more

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Related Post:
16.1.13 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 – Aaron Hawkins on the money

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Defibrillators – where are they?

“There’s no point in people dying when a potential piece of life-saving equipment is 50m away. And that happens regularly. We need to make people aware of where they are.”

### ODT Online Sat, 19 Jan 2013
Defibrillators easy to find by phone
By Shawn McAvinue
Life-saving defibrillators are sitting idle as people nearby needlessly die, says the creator of a defibrillator locator. AED Locations founder Gareth Jenkin said he had taught thousands of people how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) when working as a resuscitation co-ordinator at Auckland City Hospital, but could not give his students information on where to find one. Many people died because a defibrillator could not be found, he said.

He had the idea to build a website to locate a defibrillator but had no money or knowledge to build it. But Able Technology heard of his vision and built Mr Jenkin the website at no charge.

At www.aedlocations.co.nz, 2500 defibrillator locations are mapped and a smartphone application can locate the nearest defibrillator using GPS.

In an emergency, people should dial 111 and then use the application on their smartphone, which included a function to speed dial the defibrillator location so it could be rushed to the emergency.

Any defibrillator owners should contact him with the locations because the larger the database, the more chance a life could be saved.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

When in China… #Architecture @Dunedin

Dunedin usually makes headlines for its couch- burning university antics, but in fact it’s one of the smartest cities in the country… Some two percent of the city has a PhD, which is about five times the national average.

### idealog.co.nz January 14, 2013 @ 9:37 am
Architecture Van Brandenburg’s ambitious Marisfrolg project
By Vincent Heeringa
From subterranean offices in Dunedin, Architecture Van Brandenburg is designing the headquarters of a Chinese fashion house. The result: a spectacular sculpture that people can work in.
On a side street in Dunedin in a quiet underground office, a couple of young men sit at their desks, fussing with their keyboards. The conspiratorial atmosphere belies the office’s real purpose. It’s the Dunedin branch of Architecture Van Brandenburg, a Queenstown firm that’s responsible for some of New Zealand’s heartland icons: Huka Lodge, Millbrook Resort and Wairarapa’s Wharekauhau. It’s also the design centre for Van Brandenburg’s latest work, a four-year explosion of imagination for international fashion house Marisfrolg (pronounced ‘masifer’), in Shenzen, China.
Consider the scale. The project consists of five buildings on a 90,000m2 site. That’s roughly 22 acres, the size of nine rugby fields or three Te Papas. It’s bigger than New Zealand’s largest building, Auckland Hospital, and possibly the largest commission ever for a New Zealand architect.

And consider the design. Van Brandenburg’s earlier work was more akin to Middle Earth and English hunting parties. This project is fit for a Ridley Scott movie. From the air the construction emulates a flying bird, representing the movement in the Marisfrolg garments and the emergence of this important Chinese brand. Seen from the ground, the buildings grow out of a man-made pond and are clad in a brilliant, glittering, white surface of broken tiles. The roofs are draped in gigantic, gravity-defying leaves.
Read more

Originally published in Idealog #41, page 50

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 – Aaron Hawkins on the money

“[Last year] What we didn’t see coming during the annual plan process was the DCC’S move to streamline its marketing budgets across all departments. Instead of the DPAG, for example, having a budget allocated to them for marketing their services, they would have to bid for access to that on a case-by-case basis.”

### DScene 16 Jan 2013
Opinion – Aaron Hawkins
Council’s budget tactics queried (page 13)

New process restricts community’s chance to comment on marketing spend

Next week, the great bunfight that is the Dunedin City Council annual plan process begins. Given the DCC’s self-imposed limits on rates increases, as per the Long Term Plan adopted last year, there are always going to be hard decisions to be made. Financial resources are scarce and community demand tends only to increase. Last year in these pages I wrote that I was disappointed that the DCC had chosen to prioritise investment in sports infrastructure (Logan Park) over arts infrastructure (the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s – DPAG – acquisitions budget). Given that the city’s finances are strained by building a sports stadium, I argued, this wasn’t a particularly good look. It seemed that plenty of people agreed with me and, largely due to the mobilisation of the arts community, the funding cuts to the DPAG were reversed and the Logan Park development was deferred. Glasses were charged and backs were patted but perhaps a little prematurely. What we didn’t see coming during the annual plan process was the DCC’s move to streamline its marketing budgets across all departments. Instead of the DPAG, for example, having a budget allocated to them for marketing their services, they would have to bid for access to that on a case-by-case basis.
{continues} #bookmark

● Aaron Hawkins is the breakfast host-music director at Radio One.

Register to read DScene online at
http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Return of High Street cable car

### ODT Online Mon, 14 Jan 2013
Cable car back in 2018?
By Hamish McNeilly
The High St cable car could be resurrected within five years, as the trust behind the project prepares to start a major fundraising drive this year. The original High St to Mornington line opened in 1883 and closed in March 1957, but the Dunedin Cable Car Trust hopes to have a cable car back on the route by 2018. Chairman Phil Cole said the estimated $22 million project would be broken down into three phases, beginning with the construction of a $2 million terminus near Mornington Park.

Mr Cole stressed the trust was not looking for financial support from the Dunedin City Council, but was keeping the council updated on the project.

The Mornington terminus would include a cafe, museum and storage area for the cable car, and could be completed by 2015. ”We want to build this first to generate income for the project”. He said the completion of the terminus would help provide impetus for the project before the start of phase two – raising funds and installing the track and building the cable cars.
Read more

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ODT Poll commenced 14.1.13

[screenshot as at 12:00am 15.1.13]

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Related Posts and Comments:
23.12.11 High Street cable car update
27.8.10 Invitation to ALL #High St Cable Car
25.11.09 High Street cable car
23.11.09 High Street Cable Car a possibility
19.10.09 Cable Car Meeting @Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Fresh veggies, a holiday mystery

As many will know, I take a keen interest in who deals in fresh market produce around the city.

Years ago, a tiny group of us set up Otago Farmers Market at Dunedin Railway Station (opened March 2003) to ensure local market gardeners and food producers had at least a fighting chance to survive against the duopoly supermarkets trucking in old (no longer fresh) fruit and vegetables from the North Island; and to provide a market alternative to export given the high compliance costs besetting small orchards.

We aimed to get the city’s ‘urbanistas’ to talk to Otago’s rural folk by adopting a Saturday market ritual – prior to opening we researched our business model to death (given the exact nature of Dunedin food retailing and the customer base, and the availability of suitable vendors) in the attempt to keep overheads down so small local producers could make the real profits. And that is what happened.

The farmers market has spawned new businesses and new employment. We always envisioned the market as a business incubator. We also hoped our hard work – in just a couple of years it became a multimillion dollar enterprise (for the vendors) – would eventually spur other small independent farmers markets to set up in the region to give vendors more chances of selling – and so they have, with varying degrees of success and failure.

While we know Otago Farmers Market has the numbers, the solid customer base at Dunedin – there is absolutely no room for organiser complacency. Some of that, I believe, and a lack of strategic business thinking, timing and network connections on the part of the organisers was responsible for the failure of the trial market venue in South Dunedin. They may have misread the location as much as the trading climate, more diligence was required.

At the Railway Station we saw every trick in the book committed by vendors (not the majority of vendors, I note) to earn cash by means not covered in the vendor contract they sign. That is the nature of a cash economy, the cowboys and cowgirls try it on. Behind scenes, we met mid-week with our accountant to look over business and enforce contracts, measuring these against what happened on site on Saturdays – we attended all Saturday markets checking the ‘pump’ as well as greeting customers at the gate, year in year out, rain hail or shine. Were we over-possessive? – No. We were learning the whole dynamic, firming systems for the avoidance of kinks. A farmers market will never be perfect, but it has to try!

Those who now run Otago Farmers Market continue to be vigilant – the need to focus on quality control was never more relevant – this is what we the initiators and founding trustees set great store by (to use a phrase), we rigorously policed things as the market evolved. When we each handed over to new management on pursuit of other projects about town we expected our long-view objectives to be followed and maintained as best business practice.

http://www.otagofarmersmarket.org.nz/

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I called into Veggie Boys in Albany Street before Christmas, it’s near where I live, fresh flowers posed at the door for sale is a bonanza for the apartment dweller. The ‘boys’ Barry Gazeley and Marty Hay opened a store in Cumberland St in late 2011; their Albany St store opened in July 2012. They claim they’re meeting a gap in the market for locally grown produce (Otago Southland). Good on them I thought, after reading this profile: Dream comes true for Veggie Boys (ODT 26.4.12).

Google tells me Anderson & Co Resource Management has worked on planning matters for Veggie Boys.

http://www.facebook.com/veggieboys

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After much delay I finally got out to Wal’s Plant Land at Mosgiel, run by Clive Wallis, to check into the new Topiary Cafe there. We’ve been great fans of Richard and Michelle Denhardt’s last venture, ‘No. 8 Cafe w Herbs’ at Outram (now closed); the two of us were keen to sample their food and coffee, again.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours at Wal’s, and had a good look around the site – it’s a really nice place to visit. There were couples and families about. We were surprised to see a new Veggie Boys outlet. Their third outlet? They must be doing well. We made some plant purchases, and left feeling very pleased with ourselves.

When we got back to town I was a bit curious. Towards the end of last year I was in and out of DCC’s online consents records following progress on Outram subdivisions and what not, I hadn’t noticed an application for Veggie Boys (109 Bush Road). Anything commercial in the rural zone sparks my interest, being a country girl averse to life-stylers carving up the countryside. Bane of the earth!

Anyway, I checked non-notified decisions, public notices and notified decisions. I might’ve missed something, I couldn’t find a resource consent for Veggie Boys to trade from Wal’s site.

I’m mystified – when I think about it, given all the activities going on at Wal’s, and what I can’t see on the council record, online at least, there appears to be more to look into consents-wise. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed. Maybe council staff have overlooked loading up the website. I’ll have to check the paperwork at City Planning when I get time.

Nurseryman turns dreams into reality (ODT 3.11.12)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

“Otago” —musing the provincial social history museum

[screenshot]

Peter Entwisle is perfectly right: “The Dunedin institution is here and is a window on the history of Otago.”

### ODT Online Mon, 7 Jan 2013
Opinion | Art Beat
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
By Peter Entwisle
The redevelopment of what used to be called the Otago Settlers Museum is undoubtedly a great success. But there are concerning issues surrounding it which need some careful thought.

Readers may remember I did not support the name change to include ”Toitu”. At a practical level it obscures the path to resources in publications using the old name. It was also a public relations ”own goal” because the opinion poll conducted by the museum showed overwhelming opposition, which was then blithely ignored. It thus became an issue for the city council, decided on the mayor’s casting vote. It is an odd use of the casting vote, which conventionally favours the status quo. In explanation Mayor Dave Cull said the institution was now a new museum and so a new name was appropriate.

“With respect, it is not a new museum, being on the same site and with the same collections, but an existing one expanded, physically. But the change of name and other things suggest it is changing its focus.”

I was on a tour of the premises shortly before their opening when director Linda Wigley addressed the group. When it came to question time I asked if the museum was not losing its focus on wider Otago. She acknowledged it was focusing more on Dunedin and I asked why that was and if it was a good thing. She said that as history museums had sprung up in other parts of Otago, she thought her institution should avoid poaching on their ground.

This has at best limited merit.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
21.9.12 Fugly ‘logo’ for Otago Settlers Museum
27.6.12 Otago Settlers Museum
31.5.12 The ‘happy’ little renaming of our leading social history museum
28.1.12 DCC “unjustifiably” disadvantages senior conservator
5.11.11 Otago Settlers Museum – Burnside Building (site visit)
28.1.10 Alert: Dunedin has some gifted professional conservators
24.10.09 Rodney Wilson: Dunedin as national heritage city

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Year 2013 opens with goodly despatch of Cr Collins, nearly

It Feels Good, People!
The other blockheads at the council table must follow.

Start with Mayor Cull and the remaining Stadium Councillors, some of whom, like Neil Collins, were bought by Sydney Brown – or so the rumours go.

YES. $10,000 of sparklers was all it took to get Fizzer Collins to fall off his budgie-seed perch. Think how much we’ve saved already!

We don’t doubt the GOBs have lined up a replacement or six with Dunedin’s, ahem, blue blood connections (see professional rugby/harness racing/SCF/pokie trusts/real estate/COC). Hell, they might as well wheel St Farry back in. How to keep that DEBT coming! $700 MILLION and climbing! This is a go-ahead kind of town! Root killer was applied to Presbyterianism years ago.

The bad news is Cr Collins collects a pay cheque for a few more months. Suggestion, Neil, pay it into the mayor’s fund – you’ve had enough cake, already. It might buy you the knighthood if you’re a good boy. But hey.

In debt we shall linger, in sickness and in health.

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Related Post and Comments:
1.1.13 Journalist sums up 2012, against the ‘odds’ how does it rate ?

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Proposed 100m hotel: Damn right, the fight’s not over! #Dunedin

Great to see the letter by award-winning architect Richard Shackleton given prominence in the ODT today. It sent me hunting for my copy of Paul Goldberger’s book, The Skyscraper (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), bought in second professional year (BArch) at Auckland. Given what has happened since to skyscraper design internationally, the book is a little quaint, eclectic and short of stature – it will always be a useful commentary on the emergence and history of towers in the United States.

Most of the buildings Goldberger cites I visited on architectural study tour with a group of staff, students and friends of the Auckland School in 1984, at the start of my four-year fulltime Master of Architecture degree (thesis only). But that’s quite another rainy day story of ‘commercial facades’.

Goldberger begins his last chapter, ‘Beyond the Box’, saying:
“By 1980, one thing was clear: the box, the rationalist dream of the International Style [the austere glass box, his words], was making more and more architects uncomfortable. Not only was it no longer the clean and exhilarating structure that would serve as a clarion call to a new age, but it was not even able to hold out much promise of practicality. It was generally inefficient from the standpoint of energy, and it was not as marketable from the viewpoint of real estate operators either.”

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41 Wharf Street, Dunedin
For the applicant (Betterways Advisory Ltd), architect Jeremy Whelan of Ignite Architects (Auckland) is assisting Shanghai-based ECADI (Eastern China Architectural Design Institute), who were initially engaged by the client, with the conceptual design of the proposed hotel. It is claimed in Whelan’s brief of evidence that ECADI has significant international hotel experience and has completed projects for all major 5 star brand operators including Kempinski Hotels, Four Seasons Hotels, Marriot Hotels, Ritz Carlton Hotels and the Intercontinental Hotel Group.

The design of the 27-storey hotel tower crassly proposed for one of Dunedin’s best waterfront sites is the likes of which Goldberger correctly identifies as ‘tired’ by 1980 – at the time of writing, he hadn’t yet considered Arquitectonica’s work at Miami, Florida (see the landmark 20-storey luxury Atlantis condominiums built in 1982, famous for their cutout) – but Whelan certainly had, as a BArch contemporary of mine at Auckland School, and that building too is ‘tired’ as architectural metaphors and shared language go.

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ODT 3.1.13 Letter to the editor p12

Enter hotel in the search box at right to find recent posts and comments.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium: Animal safety and welfare top priority? #Dunedin

Screenshot.

“Doors open at 3:30pm with equestrian action kicking off the evening’s entertainment, thrilling the crowd from every angle. It will include everything from international show jumping and the high-paced action of mounted games, to the masterfully crafted grace, power and beauty of dressage to music. The stadium’s intimate feel will only add to the spectacle, bringing its own unique party atmosphere.

The highlight of the equestrian action will be the McMillian Equine Feeds Super Grand Prix, boasting a $50,000 prize, making it the second biggest Grand Prix in Australasia. Run over two rounds, the competition will feature some of Australasia’s leading jumping combinations.

As the equestrian entertainment draws to a close, The Hollies will take to the stage bringing down the curtain on Dunedin’s biggest night of the year, providing hours of entertainment.” http://www.ridetherhythm.co.nz/

Equestrian Information

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Comments received.

Phil
Submitted on 2013/01/03 at 9:53 am

I read somewhere that the “highlight” is an attempt on the NZ high jumping record for horses. I’ve seen these events many time around the world and they can be incredibly dangerous for the horses. The height and force they land from/with puts tremendous stresses on their frames. Because of this, any attempt competition is always made on a specially prepared surface. They do not, repeat NOT, come down from 2+ metres onto a heavily compacted football pitch with all the forgiving qualities of a concrete slab. The riders are only ever specialist jumpers on horses trained specifically for this one event. Allowing this cowboy production to perform in our town puts a cloud over us all. Leave the rest in, drop the prices to match the product and get rid of the ridiculous jump. Show the animals some respect.

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Phil
Submitted on 2013/01/03 at 9:43 am

You would think that someone with a knighthood would ask his reporters to check a story instead of simply posting a copy of the promoter’s advertising flyer and calling it journalism. Like the infamous rodeo, this is another overhyped event. There is only one legitimate show jumper on the start list, and she has sold the horse that gave her a name. Riding a new young horse is like expecting a Formula One driver to show his top skills while driving a Ford Escort. Riding is all about combinations. All top riders will be in Europe in February, at the height of the competition season, where their top horses are permanently based. The other so called “Olympians” date back almost 20 years and were Eventers. Expecting them to give a quality specialist display is like expecting a top Triathlete to win the Tour De France. These promoters are going to want to charge top dollar for tickets. The very least they could do is to be upfront about the product. Probably a bit much to ask. They have managed to shoot themselves in the foot a bit, however. So there is some justice. The date of the event is the same date as the national Dressage riding championships in Christchurch. A bit of a lesson in researching your target audience before trying to screw them.

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The Animal Welfare Act 1999 is a very wide-ranging Act and deals with offences in the handling and management of animals (including fish and birds) in this country. For a full guide to the Animal Welfare Act 1999, visit the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) webpage.

SPCA Otago – Dunedin
http://www.spcaotago.org.nz/

General Enquiries:
Email: office@otago-spca.org.nz
Phone: 03 473 8252
Fax: 03 473 8169
Please do not send an email for animal welfare or emergencies. Please phone us on the above number.

Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 10am to 4.30pm
Saturday and Sunday: 1pm to 3pm

The Haven:
SPCA Otago Centre, 1 Torridon Street, Opoho, Dunedin 9010

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Journalist sums up 2012, against the ‘odds’ how does it rate ?

### ODT Online Tue, 1 Jan 2013
Ups and downs, but no worries
By Nigel Benson
It was the year that had a bit of everything. A bit like most other years, really. Nigel Benson looks back on 2012… Dunedin wakes up with a New Year’s Day hangover, but feeling rather smug. The driest December since 1918 has brought the best weather in New Zealand, while heavy rain and floodwaters sweep the rest of the country.
Read more

We always enjoy the news. We note the abridgements, deletions, non-acknowledgements and hijackings that meant the most concerning news generated within our Community never got through. No “lack of political motivation”, as ’twere.

Consolation Prize: DCC continues to ‘advertise’ with ODT, by special arrangement.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr