![DCC - nsebridge [3.bp.blogspot.com] 1b](https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/dcc-nsebridge-3-bp-blogspot-com-1b.jpg)
Prepare for intergalactic exchange…
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More structural changes inside the council, including across its property group, are expected to be announced today by chief executive Sue Bidrose.
### ODT Online Fri, 2 May 2014
Agency given a name
By Debbie Porteous
The new Dunedin marketing agency to co-ordinate tourism, events, investment, skills and migrant promotion efforts for the city will be known as Enterprise Dunedin. Dunedin City Council […] was to form the new agency, moving Tourism Dunedin in-house, from July 1. The agency would be responsible for economic development and city marketing and consist of the council’s present economic development unit, i-Site and Tourism Dunedin staff.
Read more
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Updated post 3.5.14
![Grant McKenzie [odt.co.nz] reimaged by whatifdunedin 4d](https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/grant-mckenzie-odt-co-nz-reimaged-by-whatifdunedin-4d-e1424846974102.jpg)
New team structure unveiled
Following consultation with staff the decision was made to retain property staff as one team. A new property manager, in a lower level management position than previously, would oversee the team and report to infrastructure and networks general manager Tony Avery. However, ownership, and therefore any final decisions, of the investment property portfolio would sit with group chief financial officer Grant McKenzie.
ODT Link
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Images: 3.bp.blogspot.com – NSE bridge; odt.co.nz – Grant McKenzie (re-imaged by whatifdunedin)
What if? Dunedin... 
Discombobulation rules. DCC Communications should stay. The present staff actually know how to communicate stuff. Even if their brief is spin and or propaganda, the skills remain.
Prerequisites:
A+ in ethics, redaction and sealing wax.
You are a tearaway, Elizabeth. Just cos I came top of class in ‘Cabbages & Kings’. I know.
Copied from another thread.
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Creative chartered accountant GM sounds not unlike Athol….
### ODT Online Sat, 3 May 2014
City finance chief off to flying start
By Chris Morris
Grant McKenzie is still getting his feet under the desk as the Dunedin City Council’s new group chief financial officer. But already the role has taken him to London, in search of better insurance for the council, and brought him face-to-face with some of Dunedin’s biggest headaches, including the city’s loss-making stadium. […] Mr McKenzie was working on a new group financial strategy which could be ready in time for next year’s council long-term plan budget hearings, and which could help address the council’s debt position. […] The council was also seeking savings elsewhere, including exploring greater use of shared services by its companies to achieve efficiencies, he said. He was working with two [DCHL] companies in particular – which he would not name – on an initiative in that area, the results of which would be known in a few months.
Read more
Grant McKenzie (44): (via ODT)
– Dunedin City Council’s group chief financial officer.
– Started work January 2014.
– Aims to bridge communication gap between council and its companies.
– Chartered accountant, company director and member of Institute of Directors.
– Former Allied Press group accountant and University of Otago director of financial services.
NZ Companies Office
Grant Andrew MCKENZIE – 8 Woodside Terrace, Andersons Bay, Dunedin 9013
[Director/Shareholder – family company]
BRAMWOODE LIMITED (1037677) Struck off
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1037677
Previous Name: STOPTHEBUSGIFTS.COM LIMITED (06 Jul 2001)
Registered from 07 Jul 2000 to 27 Oct 2011
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(via SearchLite)
https://www.business.govt.nz/@@fb-searchlite/directorsearch?query=Grant%20Andrew%20MCKENZIE
MCKENZIE, Grant Andrew
ASHBURTON’S THE COURIER LIMITED (1473208) Struck Off Company
— appointed as a director on 14 Jan 2004 and resigned on 10 Mar 2005
ARTHUR BARNETT LIMITED (1569888) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 01 Dec 2004 and resigned on 16 Mar 2005
UNIPOL RECREATION LIMITED (383435) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 11 May 2005 and resigned on 13 Dec 2013
NEW ZEALAND CENTRE FOR REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE LIMITED (809352) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 14 Aug 2008
UNIVERSITY UNION LIMITED (1201585) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 23 May 2005 and resigned on 13 Dec 2013
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO FOUNDATION STUDIES LIMITED (818597) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 20 Mar 2006 and resigned on 13 Dec 2013
DUNEDIN EVENTS LIMITED (1210583) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 12 Mar 2014
DUNEDIN VISITOR CENTRE LIMITED (1283100) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 12 Mar 2014
TOURISM DUNEDIN LIMITED (861914) Registered Company
— appointed as a director on 31 Mar 2014
Thanks for posting the letter on Aurora’s ‘subvention’ rort of the consumers. Despite Grant McKenzie’s response I still say it is a Stadium subsidy from all those far and wide connected to the Aurora grid. The best bit is the ‘bible quotation’ at the end.
You say subsidy, he says subvention, let’s call the whole thing off.
If only!
The name ‘Aurora’ is enough to give elderly redundant a heart attack. It was an SOE restructuring model, wherein Staff were asked to nominate where ‘savings’ could be made. This diabolique process enabled management to eschew responsibility for the subsequent lay offs. No connection to this Aurora.
Grant McKenzie has recently returned from an overseas jaunt to look at insurance for the council’s infrastructure assets.
█ Uninsured DCC asset value work
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/300904/uninsured-dcc-asset-value-work
Related Post and Comments:
16.7.11 Major Dunedin City Council infrastructure assets NOT INSURED
I dont know how long this Trekkian metaphor will last. I hope we dont get Ricardo Montalban, shirtless as ‘Khan’.
Grant McKenzie, in his reply to my letter says: “the subvention payments made by Aurora Energy to DVL are not a subsidy.” He goes on to cloud the issue by saying: “Overall, the debt level for Dunedin City Holdings Ltd for the six months to December 31 2013 has reduced by in excess of $19 million compared to the same time last year.” Now that may well be, I don’t know. But what I do know is that DVL had received for two and a half years to date $18.288m in subvention payments from Aurora Energy plus $10m in rental (supposedly, from DVML at $4m pa) plus $2m (at least) from the DCC for an all up total of $30.288m. And yet in that same time period DVL’s Liabilities moved from ($157.654m) to ($151.332m) to ($146.884m). That represents a total reduction in debt of just $10.770m. So that suggests to me that DVL has, despite the best efforts of the Aurora consumers and the DCC ratepayers, dug a deeper hole by at least ($19.518m). In just two and a half years that is no mean feat. I would like very much to know why everyone inside the Town Hall still believe that they have the Stadium problem under control.
Even with the learning or was it the discipline Grant McKenzie picked up at University of Otago and Allied Press, I struggle to think a 44-year-old homegrown accountant has any of the leadership skills, experience and nous needed to turn around DCC and DCHL’s financial fortunes. It does not compute.
Notice how many changes have been claimed for the council’s consolidated debt since chair of finance, Syd Brown’s participation in the last public meeting of the Council before the October elections. It’s been a fascinating/unbelievable moving feast of consolidated debt totals claimed.
I also note that the Finance Committee has not yet convened another Q&A public meeting, as anticipated. The last meeting failed to reassure on the council’s exposure to interest rate swaps and the $850 million declared to be on call (???) to the big banks. All has gone strangely quiet.
I suggest McKenzie has a long way to go in effecting his “no surprises” policy. Meantime I suggest we have a financial kindergarten of sorts, and I’m left wondering where he is taking his advice from.
It will be interesting to see which two DCHL companies he is concentrating on.
In wandering through sets of minutes since the October 2013 elections, I stopped at the set for the council meeting commencing on Thursday 23 January 2014 if only to stare at the list of those “in attendance”; to dwell on how top-heavy the staff management ranks are. Note the list may not be the complete picture at that date and positions may have changed since then; however, what an expensive trough-like snapshot.
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Click to access ma_council_m_2014_01_23,24,27.pdf
Sue Bidrose (Chief Executive), Nicola Pinfold (Acting General Manager Services and Development), Tony Avery (General Manager Infrastructure and Networks), Grant McKenzie (Group Chief Financial Officer), Sandy Graham (Group Manager Corporate Services), Graham McKerracher (Manager, Council Communications and Marketing), Carolyn Howard (Financial Planner), Jane Nevill (Corporate Planner), Maree Clarke (Financial Controller), Kat McNamara (Financial Analyst), Renuka Bayly (Financial Analyst), Lawrie Warwood (Financial Analyst), Wai Piggott (Financial Analyst), Des Adamson (Manager, Economic Development Unit), Louise Van de Vlierd (Team Leader – Visitor Centre), Robert Clark (Group Manager Economic Development and Property), Rhonda Abercrombie (Assistant Manager – City Property), Gene Ollerenshaw (Group Manager Transportation), Sarah Connolly (Transportation Planning Manager), Michael Harrison (Programme Engineer, Transportation Operations), Jon Visser (Transportation Policy Engineer), Evan Matheson (Projects Engineer, Transportation Operations), Kevin Thompson (Group Manager Regulatory Services), Maria Ioannou (Corporate Policy Team Leader), Neil Brown (Manager, Civil Defence and Rural Fires), Brent Bachop (Team Leader – Citifleet), Daphne Griffen (Team Leader – Parking Enforcement), Neil McLeod (Building Services Manager), Kevin Mechen (Liquor Licensing Coordinator/Projects Officer), Ros MacGill (Environmental Health Team Leader), Anna Johnson (City Development Manager), Glen Hazelton (Policy Planner (Heritage)), Alan Worthington (Resource Consents Manager), Laura McElhone (Group Manager Water and Waste), Gerard McCombie (Water Production Manager), Ian Featherston (Solid Waste Manager), Chris Henderson (Manager, Maintenance and Wastewater), Tom Dyer (WWS Asset Strategy Team Leader (Acting)), Paul Coffey (Community Advisor), Cara Paterson (Community Advisor – Arts), Lisa Wheeler (Parks Manager), Paulien Leijnse (Reserves and Recreation Planning Team Leader), Bernie Hawke (Group Manager Arts and Culture), Jennifer Evans (Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Director (Acting)), Cam McCracken (Dunedin Public Art Gallery Director), Mick Reece (Group Manager Parks Recreation and Aquatics), Steve Prescott (Manager – Aquatic Services), Bill Frewen (Senior Policy Analyst), Brendon Harper (Policy Advisor), Suzie Ballantyne (Policy Analyst), Nadine Gaffney (Manager Information Solutions) and Pam Jordan (Governance Support Officer)
[ends]
Elizabeth, that’s around 50 odd, all chiefs. Never mind the indians. I too wonder at the rapid variations of the total consolidated debt figure. It suggests to me that either they don’t really know or it is a moving feast as council keeps developing additional spending programmes, which once set in place put staff in the position that they have to cover the costs. As Rob pointed out some time ago there is in place a facility with the banks for drawing rights (possibly even an obligation) for up to $850 million. Then there are the floating hedge and interest rate swaps commitments which few if any understand. Whether Grant McKenzie has control of these is a moot question as it is the banks who call the shots there. I would say it is a given that the inner cabal of elected council have next to no financial nous at all really. Made worse by the self appointed guru of fiscal matters Cr Thomson who continues to display a half baked understanding of anything much, either on council or SDHB business. He doesn’t even understand the basics of vehicle parking relative to the retail business. I suspect that this “world’s best little small city” will just bounce along from crisis to crisis (albeit unrecognised) until the day when the shutters come down.
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{Link added. -Eds}
Yes, Calvin. No consolidated debt position of the order we’re talking about improves over night given the lack of explanation provided to ratepayers and residents. Creative accounting continues, accompanied by a deep sense of distrust.
Supplied.
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27.3.14 Russell Garbutt: City ratepayers let down again
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/296620/city-ratepayers-let-down-again
### dunedintv.co.nz July 1, 2014 – 7:00pm
New marketing and tourism agency officially up and running
Dunedin’s new marketing and tourism agency officially came into being today, combining the work of Tourism Dunedin and the Dunedin City Council’s Economic Development Unit.
Video
Great! Now we might see 10,000 more penguins earning 10,000 more fish over the next ten years. Now that would be a huge boost for tourism. Why didn’t they think of merging the Tourism Dunedin and the Economic Development units long ago. I bet the penguins have been crying out for it.