DCC Fraud: Cr Vandervis states urgent need for facts and the record to be made public

The following correspondence is reproduced in the public interest.

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Received from Lee Vandervis
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 at 11:30 a.m.

Message: You may be interested in the following email trail, which I believe highlights a serious impediment to the cleansing process which is taking far too long at the DCC.
I am happy for you to publish.
Regards,
Cr. Lee Vandervis

[begins]

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 21:36:35 +1200
To: Dave Cull
Cc: Sue Bidrose, Sandy Graham, Andrew Noone, Andrew Whiley, Chris Staynes, Doug Hall, Hilary Calvert, John Bezett, Jinty MacTavish, Kate Wilson, Mayor Cull, Mike Lord, Neville Peat, Richard Thomson, David Benson-Pope, Aaron Hawkins
Conversation: Recent events
Subject: Re: Recent events

Dear Mayor Cull.

Denial is not just a large river in Egypt.
You confirm the urgent need for facts and the record to be made public.

Regards,
Cr. Vandervis

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On 29/08/14 2:41 PM, “Dave Cull” wrote:

Lee,
I do not believe that many of your claims below are borne out by the record or the facts and stand by my comments.

Dave

Sent from my iPad

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[conversion code deleted from body text, punctuation restored -Eds]

On 29/08/2014, at 11:16 AM, “Lee Vandervis” wrote:

Dear Mayor Cull,

I believe that you have been long aware of my efforts to have Mr Bachop’s and other DCC departments investigated for the kinds of inappropriateness currently evident in Citifleet.
In particular you now know having read the Deloitte report, [and I believe have long known] that I have been calling for and instigated my own investigations into Citifleet vehicle disposals and contracting arrangements since at least 2011. I have been responding politically, then and since, to many business and individual requests and questions from, for example Turner’s Auctions, regarding Citifleet. Answers to many of my questions have been denied or not forthcoming, and the public right to know has been consequently frustrated. Your public claim that CEO Orders began the current investigative and restructuring process [by starting with DCHL?!] does not align with information I have, or with information and requests for investigation that I made to CEO Orders many years ago.

My understanding is that the Police were not moved to investigate Citifleet when contacted by the DCC over 3 months ago, even when the evidence was so tragically overwhelming that Deloittes were contracted by CEO Bidrose [costing us $200,000] to investigate. I am not convinced that Police requests for a further unspecified number of months of ‘no public comment’ is in the public interest, and my discussion with the Crown Solicitor was also unconvincing on this point.
You say below that ‘the investigation is not a process which you as a Councillor (or I) in our governance roles have a right to’, yet you have the right and have read the Deloitte Citifleet Investigation Report and made numerous public comments, and I have been denied seeing it even on a ‘grey papers’ basis and am being muzzled. Your ‘operational only’ claim is generally questionable and in this case fails on all counts.
We will never know all the facts, especially if the withholding of the Deloitte report and more public muzzling continues.
In one of your media statements you say that Council have agreed not to comment until the Police have completed their belated investigation, but this is not true. Councillors have not been given the opportunity to even discuss a further number of months of no comment on Citifleet, leave alone agreed not to comment. I have certainly not agreed and do not agree.

Thank you for acknowledging my long standing demands that DCC ‘heads should roll’. My long political experience is that timely public disclosure will be necessary to ensure that the appropriate heads are dispatched, and that an embedded DCC culture of self-entitlement across many departments is permanently erased.

Regards,
Cr. Vandervis

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On 28/08/14 5:30 PM, “Dave Cull” wrote:

Lee,
The investigation that the CEO has contracted Deloittes to conduct into Citifleet is an operational matter involving, among other things, employment and potentially criminal issues. From the outset the Police, Serious Fraud Office, and Dept of Internal Affairs have been kept informed.

The investigation and subsequent internal reviews were instigated within DCC.
However the investigation is not a process which you as a Councillor (or I) in our governance roles have a right to, or responsibility for, interfering in or giving direction on, except as part of a whole of Council directive.

The investigation included the question of whether the problems uncovered at Citifleet had been the subject of previous allegations or questions, and if so, whether those had been responded to appropriately by management, including CEOs. Deloittes will report back on that.

The request not to release the report and the consequential request not to comment came not from the CEO (or me) but from Police and the Crown Prosecutor. Indeed both the CEO and I feel frustrated and disappointed as you do, that the report, which was completed only a week or so ago, must now sit under wraps for a further period.

However it is important that nothing jeopardises the ability of the CEO and police to hold people to account. You often demand that ‘heads should roll’
Your claims and demands, without knowledge of the investigation findings, could do just that: put the aims of the investigation to hold people accountable at risk.

I am not suggesting Councillors do not have the right to ask questions or make requests. What we do not have a right to do is step outside our governance roles, interfere with legitimate operational matters particularly without knowing all the facts, and unilaterally jeopardize Council and ratepayer interests. If we do we should be fully held to account for that.

Dave

Dave Cull
Mayor of Dunedin
—— End of Forwarded Message

[ends]

Note: The auditors that Dunedin City Council has contracted to investigate fraud carry the name Deloitte New Zealand, or simply Deloitte. Link

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Related Post and Comments:
28.8.14 DCC: Tony Avery resigns
27.8.14 DCC whitewash on serious fraud, steals democracy from citizens
26.8.14 DCC: Forensics for kids
23.8.14 DCC public finance forum 12.8.14 (ten slides)
6.8.14 DCC tightens policy + Auditor-General’s facetious comments
3.7.14 Stuff: Alleged vehicle fraud at DCC
1.7.14 DCC: Far-reaching fraud investigation Citifleet
3.6.14 DCC unit under investigation
2.5.14 DCC $tar-ship enterprise
28.4.14 DCC loses City Property manager in restructuring
7.2.12 DCC ‘money go round’ embedded

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: leevandervis.wordpress.com

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building: Looking round at potential

Updated post Wed, 3 Mar 2015 at 2:39 p.m.

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, built in stages between 1872 and 1885. Historical building and harbour views (1925) before the addition of the concrete top storey with saw-tooth roof in 1929, the space now proposed for residential use. Details from photographs reproduced in Trapeznik’s book Dunedin’s Warehouse Precinct, pp 34 & 68 [Hocken Collections]

31-33 Wharf Street, proximity to Steamer Basin and Chinese Garden
[Google Streetview 2013]

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ODT 29.8.14 (page 12)

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building with forecourt of Chinese Garden, from Rattray Street. [Elizabeth Kerr]

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### ODT Online Fri, 29 Aug 2014
DCC to foot apartments consent bill
By Debbie Porteous
The Dunedin City Council is footing the bill to process the consent required for the development of the former Loan and Mercantile Building in the harbourside area. But the chairman of the panel deciding whether to grant consent to convert the building to apartments says the historic agreement has no bearing on the decision. The no fee arrangement is the result of a council resolution dated September 2011, in which the council agreed any resource consent required for the development and use of the building at 33 Thomas Burns St should be processed at no cost to the applicant. The resolution was part of a suite of agreements resulting from the mediation process that resolved appeals to Plan Change 7: Dunedin Harbourside.
Read more

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Building details [Google Streetview 2013] – The NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, originally known as the Otago Wool Stores, was built in 1872 for stock and station agents Driver Stewart and Co. Heritage New Zealand lists the construction professionals as Walter Bell, Robert Arthur Lawson, and Mason & Wales Architects Ltd. According to Trapeznik, William Mason was the architect responsible for the plainer part of the complex in the early 1870s. RA Lawson designed the right-hand corner extension in 1880, with additions in 1883 and 1885.

█ More photos here.

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Related Posts and Comments:
18.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #randomsmartphonepix (interiors)
17.8.14 Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building… (site tour, hearing)
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…
18.3.14 Dunedin Harbourside: English Heritage on portside development
21.10.13 Harbourside: Access to a revamped Steamer Basin has public backing

█ For more on Dunedin’s Harbourside and Plan Change 7, enter the term *harbourside* in the search box at right.

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (b. 1872-85), next to the former W. Gregg & Co. coffee factory (b. 1878) and the Wharf Hotel established circa 1880
[Google Streetview 2013]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

● NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd Building – mention by Alexander Trapeznik in Dunedin’s Warehouse Precinct at http://www.genrebooks.co.nz/ebooks/DunedinsWarehousePrecinct.pdf (2014) pp66-71

● W. Gregg & Co. coffee factory and store, Fryatt St – mention by blogger David Murray at http://builtindunedin.com/2014/02/17/thomas-bedford-cameron-architect/

● Wharf Hotel – mention by Frank Tod in Pubs Galore: History of Dunedin Hotels 1848-1984 (Dunedin: Historical Publications, 1984) p61

█ Peter Entwisle recently researched the history and significance of the NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, and presented his findings in evidence to hearing for the application (scanned):
LUC-2014-259 History and Heritage Significance of the NZL&MA Building 19.8.14 (PDF, 2 MB)

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Special Rigs for Special Kids

Special Rigs for Special Kids provides an unforgettable experience to those kids who have special needs.

This Sunday [31.8.14], 250 working rigs (large trucks) will take 350 kids and their families for a unique journey through parts of Dunedin and Mosgiel, starting at and returning to the Edgar Centre Portsmouth Drive. A barbeque, food and drinks have been arranged for the end of trip – that means catering for about 1400 people at the Edgar Centre on the day!

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### dunedintv.co.nz August 29, 2014 – 6:51pm
Nightly interview: Greg Inch
The annual Special Rigs for Special Kids event is taking place in Dunedin on Sunday. It gives children with special needs the opportunity to travel around the neighbourhood in trucks brought to the city from throughout the country. Founder Greg Inch joins us to explain what makes the event unique.
Video

█ For more about Dunedin’s Special Rigs for Special Kids, go to the website:
http://www.specialrigs.org.nz/

EVENT DETAILS – Go to ‘Next Outing’ and scroll down for directions, map and route information — http://www.specialrigs.org.nz/next_outing.php

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: Special Rigs for Special Kids (Dunedin) | youtube.com – Hall’s Refrigerated Transport | odt.co.nz – Trucks in convoy down Dukes Road

Stadium Review: dark yet rosy thoughts

ODT 28.8.14 (page 12)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC: Tony Avery resigns

Council chief executive Sue Bidrose said in the statement she had “immense respect for the honourable action Tony has taken”.

### ODT Online Thu, 28 Aug 2014
Top DCC boss Tony Avery quits over Citifleet scandal
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council’s alleged Citifleet fraud has claimed another victim with the shock resignation of infrastructure and networks general manager Tony Avery. Mr Avery announced his decision to quit the council in a media statement this afternoon, saying he accepted “the management buck stops with me”. That was despite not being aware of, or involved in, the alleged fraud, or receiving information that alerted him to it, he said. Read more [comments closed, again]

● Today’s cosy news is an ODT/Ch39 exclusive – no other News Media given scoop. Tomorrow’s ODT will feature an exclusive interview with Mr Avery who says ‘he has done nothing wrong’ but he has ‘some strong things to say’ !! (ODT interview given prior to his statement, we hear)

● (Ian Telfer) RNZ News
Council manager resigns over fleet – DCC staff told this afternoon. ‘In a statement, Mr Avery said he was not involved with and did not know about the fraud, but relied on internal financial controls which let him down.’ Link (subtle dig at former CFO ?)

● (Wilma McCorkindale) Stuff via Southland Times
Dunedin council manager resigns amid fraud probe – ‘Avery, with the council since 2000, has fallen on his sword in the wake of revelation the DCC has been the victim of an alleged sizeable employee fraud within its Citifleet unit, which manages the council’s vehicle fleet.’ ‘An investigation by Deloitte was “very clear” there was nothing to indicate Avery was aware of the alleged fraud. Bidrose stressed Avery was not one of the DCC staff currently involved in employment processes resulting from the suspected activity.’ Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
█ The site owner reserves the right to take down or abridge any comment.

*Image: Tony Avery tweaked by whatifdunedin

DCC whitewash on serious fraud, steals democracy from citizens

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ORFU / NZRU
CST
Stadium / DVML
Carisbrook
Delta
Citifleet
City Property
Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board
Other
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●

The story today at ODT, Further DCC inquiries possible amid changes – with comments off – shows up the very worst of undemocratic processes and shonky leadership coming to light at Dunedin City Council.

“The Government had the power to replace an elected council with commissioners, or appoint managers alongside, or over the top of, a council’s existing management team. Dr Bidrose confirmed the council had been keeping DIA staff informed about the alleged Citifleet fraud, as well as the council’s reform process, but there were no signs an intervention was likely.”

Be pleased with today’s ODT editorial: Disturbing ‘we know best’ attitude

Meanwhile, take a look at this NZ Herald story:
█ Council votes to sue ex CEO for cost overruns
(see Comments to article, fascinating! suing of Audit NZ and OAG pending)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC: Forensics for kids

Fairfax Media has obtained Audit NZ letters of management to the DCC from 2005 to 2012, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. The letters show that in the years 2007-2010 auditors consistently urged the DCC to tighten up its risk-management policies and processes.

Audit NZ expressed concern over what it indicated could be inadequate controls over several internal processes, including verifying signatures of those authorised to sign invoices and purchase orders, independent review of creditor files, and controls of sensitive areas such as sale of council assets to staff. (Fairfax)

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 08:17 26/08/2014
Dunedin council officers ‘not kids’
By Wilma McCorkindale
The Dunedin City Council (DCC) appears to have ignored calls by Audit New Zealand to improve its risk and fraud processes, saying its officers were “supposedly people with integrity … not kids”.

The DCC revealed in June it was investigating a suspected major fraud within its Citifleet unit. The fraud was suspected to have been carried out over a decade. Citifleet team leader Brent Bachop died suddenly in May. His death has been referred to the coroner. Council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said the alleged fraud of $1.5 million included alleged illegal transactions resulting in the loss of profits from the sale of 123 council fleet vehicles. The findings have been passed to the Dunedin police for further investigation.

Fairfax Media has obtained Audit NZ letters of management to the DCC from 2005 to 2012, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. The letters show that in the years 2007-2010 auditors consistently urged the DCC to tighten up its risk-management policies and processes. It appears Audit NZ was compelled to repeat similar advice over the period and noted the DCC met only minimum requirements.

Council managers’ response to the Audit NZ findings in 2010 was to say the council had considered creating an audit and risk committee but concluded its finance and strategy committee adequately performed the role. In December 2010 Audit NZ raised the issue of reviews of areas “susceptible to fraud”, but management commented that specific audits in the “most sensitive areas” had found “no transactions of concern or deficiencies in controls”.
Read more

Five council staff were involved in “employment processes”, with some facing the prospect of losing their jobs, the ODT understands.

[Irony] Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule yesterday told the ODT the “mind-boggling” alleged fraud was the biggest involving a local authority he could recall.

### ODT Online Tue, 26 Aug 2014
Council overlooked audit advice
By Chris Morris
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull concedes a chance to detect the alleged $1.5 million Citifleet fraud may have been missed, after the council twice overlooked advice from Audit New Zealand. The revelation came in Audit New Zealand’s annual reports to the council, obtained by the Otago Daily Times, which highlighted gaps in council processes dating back to 2003. […] The findings have triggered finger-pointing between past and present council staff, councillors and Audit NZ, but council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said responsibility for failing to detect the alleged fraud rested with the council.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
23.8.14 DCC public finance forum 12.8.14 (ten slides)
6.8.14 DCC tightens policy + Auditor-General’s facetious comments
3.7.14 Stuff: Alleged vehicle fraud at DCC
1.7.14 DCC: Far-reaching fraud investigation Citifleet
3.6.14 DCC unit under investigation
2.5.14 DCC $tar-ship enterprise
28.4.14 DCC loses City Property manager in restructuring
7.2.12 DCC ‘money go round’ embedded

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images (tweaked by whatifdunedin): tmba.tv – Tim McGarvey: 3D forensic animation (TMBA Inc. Animation Studio, New York City); scottthornbury.wordpress.com – F is for forensics (illustration by Quentin Blake, from Broughton, G. (1968) Success With English. Harmondsworth: Penguin)

DCC public finance forum 12.8.14 (ten slides)

The ten powerslides presented by DCC group chief financial officer Grant McKenzie, as discussed at the public finance forum held earlier this month are available for download (see PDF below).

Figures might be, but the forum was advertised….

Public notices advertising the forum and the warm invitation extended by Cr Richard Thomson, chair of the Finance Committee, were unfortunately met with low attendance on the night. Few of the well-known vocal commentators on DCC’s financial position, or indeed, leaders of the Otago Chamber of Commerce, bothered to show. Those individuals lose a measure of credibility. Where were all the beleaguered ratepayers and residents? The local ‘interested’ accountants, economists, board directors, investors, and successful business people? Their apologies? Has everybody drowned with rising sea levels or been knocked from their bikes on the one-way? Blame Dave Cull.

Rob Hamlin and ‘JimmyJones’ did make the effort to be there, solidly plying their observations and questions in debate. Other members of the public also engaged. We didn’t hear the names of people who forwarded questions prior to the meeting, or what their questions were. Notwithstanding, the slides are the Council’s attempt to respond to issues commonly raised, in summary.

The first public finance forum was held on 27 November 2013. The second on 12 August was an opportunity to hear Grant McKenzie who arrived at the Council in January. He proves to be approachable, mild-humoured and self-effacing. Grant explores the expanded GCFO role ably supported by senior finance staff; his already onerous duties include the overlay of current fraud investigations, new systems for accountability and risk management, as well as the stadium review (due in September).

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[click slides to enlarge – scanned from forum handout]

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10.

█ DCC Finance Forum (powerslides 1-10) (PDF, 18.6 MB)

For more information on DCC, enter the terms *finance*, *dcc*, *dchl*, *delta*, *cst* *dvml* or *stadium* in the search box at right.

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Other Reading – link supplied by Calvin Oaten
Sat, 23 Aug 2014 at 12:08 p.m.

An interconnected world was meant to reduce inequality – but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

### blogs.telegraph.co.uk August 22, 2014 13:18
Finance
Nobel gurus fear globalisation is going horribly wrong (technical)
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
David Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage has broken down after 200 years, or so I learned at the Lindau forum of Nobel laureates in Bavaria. The theory published in 1817 has been a guiding principle of free trade, taken as a given by every student of economics in the modern era. It has served us well, but just as Newton’s theories ran into limits and were overtaken by Einstein’s relativity, comparative advantage no longer explains the world. Under Ricardo’s model, inequality was supposed to narrow within countries as globalisation accelerated exponentially in the Nineties. Instead it is getting wider. The Gini coefficient measuring the spread between rich and poor is narrowing between countries, but is widening almost everywhere within countries, leading to a corrosive concentration….
Read more

● Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has covered world politics and economics for 30 years, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America. He joined the Telegraph in 1991, serving as Washington correspondent and later Europe correspondent in Brussels. He is now International Business Editor in London.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from the top) Facebook – yahoofinance (advert); goodcars.co.nz – Finance your next car (advert); nzvf.co.nz – New Zealand Vehicle Finance (advert)

DCC: Deloitte report referred to the police #Citifleet

Updated post 3.9.14

“We have committed to keeping ratepayers and residents informed, but my first priority has to be that the appropriate authorities hold people accountable and we try to recover some ratepayers’ money.” –Sue Bidrose, chief executive

Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Deloitte Report Referred to the Police

This item was published on 22 Aug 2014

An independent investigation into an alleged fraud at the Dunedin City Council has been completed and the matter has now been passed to the Police.

DCC Chief Executive Officer Dr Sue Bidrose says the alleged fraud totals more than $1.5 million and centres on the DCC receiving no proceeds from the sale of 152 vehicles from the DCC’s vehicle fleet. A formal complaint was laid with the Police last week following an independent investigation by Deloitte which began in late May. Citifleet Team Leader Brent Bachop died suddenly on 21 May. His death has been referred to the Coroner.

Deloitte was engaged by the DCC on 23 May to launch an investigation after staff identified what appeared to be a discrepancy in the number of Citifleet vehicles when implementing new financial procedures related to DCC assets.

Dr Bidrose says, “The matter is now with the Police and on their advice, and the advice of the Crown Solicitor, we are not releasing the Deloitte report at this stage, to ensure we do not prejudice any Police investigation.

It appears the alleged fraud was possible because of inadequate internal checks and balances within the DCC. Dr Bidrose says, “We are changing things here at the DCC and it is these changes that uncovered this alleged fraud, which occurred over at least a decade. This reinforces the need for these changes which, frankly, are long overdue.” Measures have been, and continue to be, taken to make sure the appropriate level of accountability and oversight is in place in the future across the organisation. However, this will be an ongoing process that will take time.

“I want to emphasise that this is an organisation in which people can have confidence. The people who work here are overwhelmingly decent, hard-working public servants committed to the best interests of the city. We are committed to getting to the bottom of any issues and ensuring we have best practice across the board. The changes are well underway – in fact it was in making these changes that we uncovered the alleged fraud.”

Dr Bidrose says the DCC has employment processes underway relating to a small number of staff, primarily around the lack of checks and balances which should have been in place. Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull says the fact these issues have been found now after more than a decade shows the Council has been right to push for more transparency and tighter processes. “We tasked Sue, and the previous Chief Executive Paul Orders, with reviewing DCC practices so any problems or issues could be fixed as part of our accountability to ratepayers. Paul started with our companies and made a huge improvement in their governance and oversight. Now Sue and her staff are having the same impact inside the DCC.”

Dr Bidrose says a wide range of work has been completed to tighten up DCC processes, including:
● The introduction of a new Audit and Risk Subcommittee, with an independent Chair.
● All tenders that are awarded through the DCC Tenders Board are published on the DCC website for greater transparency.
● A central contracts register has been put in place.
● The ‘whistleblower’ policy has been updated.
● A first review of internal audit work across the DCC has been completed.
● The risk management framework has been reviewed.

Further work in progress includes:
● The appointment of a dedicated Risk and Internal Audit Manager. This position has been advertised.
● A fraud awareness campaign and training for all staff so they know what may be signs of fraud.
● Increasing further the transparency of purchase card use.
● A review of key DCC policies, such as those relating to fraud and cash handling.
● Review the procurement/tendering processes across the DCC.
● A review of internal processes around issues such as the staff receiving gifts, tickets or hospitality.

The Deloitte report has been sent to both the Serious Fraud Office and DCC insurers QBE. To date, the investigation has cost about $200,000.

Background: Citifleet is responsible for the management of all DCC vehicles, the operation of an internal courier service and an internal chauffeuring service. The fleet includes cars, trucks, motorcycles, vans and various trailers, plant and machinery. There are currently 122 vehicles, but the DCC is in the process of reviewing whether all those vehicles are needed.

DCC Link

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█ What ex DCC chief executive Jim Harland thinks at ODT Online (3.9.14)

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 15:45 22/08/2014
Police probe into missing council cars
By Wilma McCorkindale – via The Press & Southland Times
Police will investigate a suspected fraud involving dozens of Dunedin City Council cars allegedly sold and the proceeds pocketed. Sources say ratepayers may have lost as much as $1 million as a result of the alleged activity. Dunedin Inspector Jason Guthrie confirmed police had received a complaint from the council “in relation to a significant historical fraud matter involving the council’s vehicle fleet”. “The complaint is being assessed and will be investigated further,” Guthrie said. This investigation was likely to take months. Stuff understands the council’s Citifleet/Citipark manager Brent Bachop, who died on May 21 in a suspected suicide, was among an alleged network of buyers. It is understood Bachop had been told that discrepancies had been found in vehicle numbers within his unit.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dirty pool? #SDHB #University

Dunedin Hospital’s physiotherapy pool has some bent admirers.

GUESS WHO ??

DCC Webmap – subject site

Last week What if? Dunedin received information that the pool’s threatened closure is far from what it seems. A long-term plan has been sighted, in which either the hospital (SDHB) or the University of Otago is shown to be eyeing up the pool building. Note —the pool and a large empty space used for parking immediately adjacent to the University’s student hostel property (at 490 Cumberland Street) are marked for “development”.

It is said the $1 million quoted for the pool’s building upgrade looks like ‘a bogeyman conjured up to make the kids settle down to sleep and stop asking awkward questions’.

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DCC Rates information (click to enlarge):

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Related Posts and Comments:
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #randomsmartphonepix

Updated post 19.8.14 at 9:21 p.m.

Land Use Consent: LUC-2014-259
31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building

█ Consent Hearing reconvenes — Wednesday 20 Aug at 2:00 PM
ALL WELCOME | Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers, The Octagon

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Related Posts and Comments:
17.8.14 Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building…
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Post and images by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: Public site tour held on Monday afternoon, 18 August 2014 – hosted by building owner Russell Lund in association with Stewart Hansen of the Wharf Hotel (50 participants)

Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #SiteTour #ConsentHearing

Land Use Consent: LUC-2014-259
31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building

█ Consent Hearing — Tuesday 19 August at 9:00 AM
Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers, The Octagon

█ DCC Planner’s Report (PDF, 4 MB)

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Related Posts and Comments:
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: wikimedia.org – NZ Loan and Mercantile Building by Ben C Hill for New Zealand Historic Places Trust

Mayor Cull’s reflections on Edinburgh #SisterCity #Junkets

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Received from Cr Lee Vandervis
Wed, 13 Aug 2014 at 11:36 p.m.

Message: I thought it might be of interest that there has been no response from the Mayor, or from anyone else regarding my criticism of the latest round of Sister City tourism as below.

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 21:10:12 +1200
To: Dave Cull, Sue Bidrose, Sandy Graham, Andrew Noone, Andrew Whiley, Chris Staynes, Doug Hall, Hilary Calvert, John Bezett, Jinty MacTavish, Kate Wilson, Lee Vandervis, Mayor Cull, Mike Lord, Neville Peat, Richard Thomson, David Benson-Pope, Aaron Hawkins
Cc: Tony Avery, Grant McKenzie
Conversation: File – reflections on Edinburgh visit.docx
Subject: Re: File – reflections on Edinburgh visit.docx

Dear Dave,

Thank you sending us your preliminary reflections on visiting Edinburgh, which I know from personal experience to be especially pleasant at this time of year.
Since being elected in 2004 I have read many similar reflections on Sister City visits all of them similarly generic.
I note that your statement “So most of our time in Edinburgh was devoted to meetings with Edinburgh arts and cultural organizations, people or institutions.” is a fair definition of tourism, unless you are heavily into sports which might not necessarily be caught by the words ‘cultural organizations’.
Your claim that you went to “reinvigorate the sister city relationship” is untenable since there never has been any vigour in the relationship, as anyone who has done years on the Edinburgh Sister City Committee will confirm. The previously overused but safer ‘breath new life into the relationship’ would also fail as it is not possible to breathe new life into a corpse.
Ditto Otaru.
I take it that Dunedin will now be hosting some official reciprocal Scottish tourists by return when the Scottish winter bites.

At least Harland pretended to come back with a viable Scottish wind power design.

Kind regards,
Lee

On 6/08/14 4:26 AM, “Quickoffice” wrote:

Hi Colleagues, Attached a preliminary report on the Edinburgh experience. Dave

—

Colleagues,
The following is a preliminary report/reflection on our recently completed trip to Edinburgh while it is still fresh. There is considerable detail and learnings yet to be brought together from our various meetings.

This Sister City visit to Edinburgh was timed to coincide with the opening of the NZ in Edinburgh Programme. That included a national kapa haka group being a central part of the tattoo, an exhibition by Commonwealth artists partly curated by Aaron Kriesler of DPAG and many more performances/exhibits. NZ was the country of honor at the umbrella Edinburgh Festival. Our Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae was a guest of honor with the 2nd Lord of the Admiralty at the Tattoo opening night.
Dunedin received invitations to Edinburgh from the the Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, Creative Scotland and the British Council.
The visit was timed to coincide because one of the objectives of going was to reinvigorate the sister city relationship, potentially through the medium of arts and culture. This was timely as Dunedin is currently developing an Arts and Culture Strategy, our Economic Development Strategy recognises the important potential of the whole creative sector and we are awaiting confirmation of UNESCO City of Literature status. The two cities obviously already have many cultural connections, going back to Dunedin’s founding and naming by Scots.
So most of our time in Edinburgh was devoted to meetings with Edinburgh arts and cultural organizations, people or institutions. They include Creative Scotland (equivalent of Creative NZ), Edinburgh University (2 depts), Councillor convener of arts and future committee, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh City of Literature, British Council, Institute of Scottish Studies, and Centre for the Book Edinburgh Napier University. We also met with the Lord Provost, attended the Tattoo and the opening of Aaron’s exhibition.
We are still processing what we learned, but a number of things made us very positive about the potential opportunity Edinburgh, and our relationship with her, could offer Dundin. First everyone, without exception, has been welcoming and has gone out of their way to engage, spend time with us and provide any information we asked for. Several organizations have express a desire to collaborate with Dunedin. One or two came to meetings with specific proposals! We have even had an approach from the Edinburgh suburb Corstorphine asking about partnering with Corstorphine, Dunedin. The bigger picture is that Edinburgh has essentially reinvented itself as a cultural/festival city. Certainly after World War II Edinburgh’s economy diminished drastically. Edinburgh was the first UNESCO City of Literature. Now festivals of various cultural complexions bring hundreds of millions of pounds into the city. Edinburgh views and defines itself as a creative, literary artistic city. So if nothing else Dunedin can learn an
enormous amount from Edinburgh’s experience across a range of initiatives. In addition there is considerable potential for collaboration and exchange between Dunedin and Edinburgh institutions, to their mutual benefit. There was emphatic interest in Dunedin performers performing in both Edinburgh and Glasgow at major events. Indeed Neville and Cara saw the Chills in Glasgow on Saturday night.
So while we have yet to fully de-brief and weigh up what we learned, it is clear that there is huge potential culturally, economically and academically for Dunedin in refreshing and developing our relationship with Edinburgh specifically and Scotland in general.

Related Post and Comments:
8.4.14 Cinderella Shanghai + 75 ugly sisters

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: thathideousman.blogspot.com – Edinburgh, Scotland

Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage

Peter McIntyre and John Christie from the Otago Chamber of Commerce had lots to say about the rejuvenation of Dunedin’s heritage fabric and the city’s “vibrancy” after their trip to Portland, Oregon in 2011. What they said then is directly contradicted by the Chamber’s submission on the application for resource consent to redevelop the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Building (31-33 Thomas Burns Street) for residential use.

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█ Full annotated copy | CoC Own Goals – Heritage (PDF 1.51 MB)

Related Posts and Comments:
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cameras in North Dunedin

Received from Lee Vandervis
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 at 11:05am

Message: The email below is what I sent to Critic in direct response to their questions as further below. Critic editor Zane Pocock’s ‘Editorial’ fails to include any of my responses and instead fabricates false quotations. [see even further below]
I did not say “prevent vandalism” or “I don’t trust you little fuckers”, but Mr Pocock’s ‘Editorial’ gives reason enough.

—

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 20:41:00 +1200
To: Nina Harrap [Critic]
Conversation: Cameras in North Dunedin
Subject: Re: Cameras in North Dunedin

Hi Nina,

For decades, various attempts to stop couch-burning in public streets have been ineffective, and ratepayers should not be forced to carry the annual burden of hundreds of thousands in repair costs, to say nothing of the equally unaffordable costs of fire-fighting staff, Police and ambulance services.
Video is now a very inexpensive way to combat unaffordable criminal vandalism hot-spots, but Dunedin North has been exempted for various spineless reasons. A very few pyromaniac vandals have been taking advantage of this exemption, some of them students.
The Police would have access to the camera surveillance as they do in many other parts of Dunedin. I would anticipate that the Police would act with prosecutions only on evidence of serious criminal offending.
Cameras would not be an invasions of residents’ privacy as they would be in public places where anybody with a cell phone could also record similar images. Cameras would not need to focus on any residential property as they are concerned with protecting public spaces.
Mr Baxter has suggested that I would not like cameras recording outside my house. The opposite is true. If cameras had been recording, there might have been a chance of catching the tagger who made an expensive mess on a vehicle parked in the street last month.

Kind regards,
Cr. Vandervis.

On 5/08/14 9:00 PM, “Nina Harrap” wrote:

Hello Mr Vandervis,
My name’s Nina Harrap and I’m a reporter for Critic magazine. I’m currently writing a short piece about your proposal to install cameras around North Dunedin. I was wondering if I could possibly get a statement from you in answer to the following questions:
Why do you feel cameras in North Dunedin are a good idea?
Who will have access to the camera surveillance?
Won’t putting cameras up be an invasion of residents’ privacy?

My deadline is 5pm tomorrow (Wednesday), so your speedy reply is very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Nina [for Critic]

—— End of Forwarded Message

[Critic text article supplied. Header and image – screenshot by whatifdunedin]

As reported by the ODT on Friday 1 August, Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis has called for video surveillance of Scarfie-ville to “prevent vandalism”.

There is a huge problem with this, and it’s because of how much students have improved their behaviour recently. Largely driven by a great effort from both the University and OUSA over the last few years, students have been working hard to correct a past prevalence of misdemeanours, all the while maintaining Dunedin’s reputation as an exciting place to grow up as young, energetic adults. The Hyde Street Party is now a well-controlled and safe event for students to let their energy off. Orientation is similar. Furthermore, the Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival even sees an effort by the students to provide something for the much wider community of Dunedin.

It has been a huge and noticeable improvement, and people like Vandervis undermine that. The clear progress in student culture needs to be encouraged. Taking several years of steady improvements before turning around and saying “I don’t trust you little fuckers” through a targeted invasion of privacy is counter-intuitive and stupid.

Vandervis is looking for a silver bullet when there is none. What there is, however, is a huge cohort of students who really do care about preserving the student culture of Dunedin. No, that doesn’t strictly mean binge drinking and fire starting. What it means is the conservation of a true student quarter and the existence of a true student town in New Zealand. Dunedin’s half dead without the University – the commonly held belief is that there’s not much else aside from the culture here to attract students.

As for privacy itself, the age-old argument that you don’t have to worry if you’ve got nothing to hide should have been abandoned long ago. One of the many oppositional points to this comes down to the sheer confusing nature of law. To the best of my knowledge, one of the reasons we have a judicial system is that a lot of legislative law is extremely convoluted, and a very large portion of our law is based on precedents set by judges’ decisions and not strictly written as rules, which is the common way of seeing law. Although our situation isn’t as confusing as that in the States where they literally can’t count the number of federal crimes that exist, it’s hard to actually know whether you live within the confines of the law or not.

And again, with reference to the States, sometimes people should have something to hide. Sometimes people should be breaking the law to amount pressure on lawmakers. Only in 2001 did Minnesota decriminalise sodomy, and thus, to a large degree, homosexuality. How about marijuana – there wouldn’t even be spokespeople for the huge positive change currently sweeping the States if people hadn’t lived illegally against an outdated and one-sided conservative belief system.

I also struggle to trust humans. People watching the camera footage will almost surely abuse their positions. They will laugh at people and they will put footage on YouTube (even though this would be illegal itself). This rounds out my final point: why can’t we have privacy for the sake of privacy? It’s fair to object to an invasion of privacy without even thinking about why you’re objecting to it. Going by Vandervis’ logic, should there perhaps then be a camera in each cubicle of any Octagon bar? The deadly assault earlier this year scared the shit out of a lot of people.

Otherwise, fuck it. You think students are apathetic? Just wait until power-tripping aggression makes things worse. I would hazard a guess that you’ll need even more security cameras keeping track of the student-spying ones.

Zane Pocock
Critic Editors

—— End of Forwarded Message

█ Source: http://www.critic.co.nz/columns/article/4231/editorial–issue-19
Editorial | Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10 August 2014 by Zane Pocock.

Related Post and Comments:
1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Auckland Council report on pokie grant distribution

### NZ Herald Online 5:51 PM Monday Aug 11, 2014
Poor losing out on pokie cash
By David Fisher
Money tipped into pokie machines in the poorest parts of Auckland doesn’t come back to those communities in gaming grants, new data shows. In contrast, the wealthiest areas gamble far less but take a disproportionate amount of money out of other areas. This has been greeted as proof of a long-stated but never-proven claim about pokies – that the poor get poorer but the rich get richer. The Auckland Council research is behind a challenge to government plans to ringfence 80 per cent of pokie grant distribution inside large regional areas. Instead, it wants a special system for distributing pokie grants inside Auckland which will allow the poorest areas to benefit from money gambled locally. […] Overall, the study found all of Auckland missed out to the benefit of the rest of New Zealand. The $214.6 million put into pokie machines would have made $61.6 million available for grants, on industry averages after expenses were taken out. Auckland got $35.2 million.
Read more

● David Fisher is a senior reporter for the NZ Herald.

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Auckland Council Regional Strategy and Policy Committee
07 August 2014

Gambling Working Party – new regulations for the distribution of class 4 (pokie) gambling grants to communities

File No.: CP2014/14759

Purpose
1. To report back on a gambling working party’s deliberations regarding new government regulations to control the distribution of grants from class 4 (commonly known as “pokie”) gambling, and present recommendations based on feedback from the working party.

Executive summary
2. The Minister of Internal Affairs has recently acquired the power to make new regulations specifying the amount of class 4 grants money that must be returned to the area from which it came, and to set out how areas will be identified and defined for that purpose
3. The Minister recently announced that regional council areas will be used as the areas into which grants must be distributed, and the rate of return to those areas will be 80%. New regulations implementing that decision are expected to be issued later this year.
4. A gambling working party, established by minute REG/2013/10, has reviewed information regarding class 4 gaming machine proceeds in Auckland, and the current rate of return of class 4 grant money by local board area.
5. The new regulations could increase the amount of grant money flowing to community and sport groups in Auckland as a whole, but there are significant inequities in the distribution of class 4 grants within the region that the Minister’s proposal would not overcome.
6. The working party has developed a proposal which would address those inequities by defining areas, within Auckland, for the return of class 4 gambling grants.

Recommendation/s
That the Regional Strategy and Policy Committee:
a) endorse the working party’s proposal to define areas within Auckland, as presented in the appended map, whereby a proportion of grants derived from the proceeds of class 4 gambling in those areas would be returned to them
b) endorse the option of advocating for a 90 percent return of grant money to the defined areas, instead of the 80 percent currently proposed by the Minister of Internal Affairs
c) endorse the option of advocating for a different rate of return to the area identified as CGI on the map (comprising the City Centre and Gulf Islands), of either 40 percent or 45 percent
d) delegate to the chair of the Regional Strategy and Policy Committee to write to the Minister of Internal Affairs advocating that the proposed regulations be amended in accordance with the committee’s response to recommendations (a) to (c) above
e) note that the grants data for Auckland will be published on a web portal
f) note that the findings of the working party will be reported to local boards.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building

### radionz.co.nz Mon, 11 Aug 2014
Radio New Zealand National – Jim Mora with The Panel
The Panel with Michael Deaker and Sue Wells (Part 1) ( 23′ 8″ )
16:07 Topics – we’ve heard from the doctors union the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists that 42 per cent of our senior doctors now qualified overseas. [discussion starts at 14:50 minutes in] The grand old New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Building in downtown Dunedin, developer Russell Lund wants to restore this category two building dating from 1872 and create a 24-unit apartment complex but there is significant opposition due to noise concerns.
Audio | Downloads: Ogg MP3

█ http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel

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Land Use Consent: LUC-2014-259
31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building

█ DCC Planner’s Report (PDF, 4 MB)

Related Post and Comments:
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: wikimedia.org – NZ Loan and Mercantile Building by Ben C Hill for New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand)

DCC: Public finance forum | Tuesday August 12, 2014

ALL WELCOME
Cr Richard Thomson provides venue details for the Public Finance Forum.

Event: DCC Public Finance Forum
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Venue: Dunningham Room, 4th Floor, City Library, 230 Moray Place

Notes: Questions in advance to Cr Richard Thomson, Chair of Finance Committee (contact details below).

—

—– Original Message —–
From: Richard Thomson
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Sunday, 13 Jul 2014 at 11.04 AM
Subject: Public Finance Forum

Dear Elizabeth

when we did the last finance forum there seemed general agreement that it was a worthwhile exercise and I suggested that we schedule another for after that adoption of the annual plan. That has now ocurred and we have set a date of 12th August for this. I would be grateful if you could advise your network on What if of this. As last time it would be really helpful if people could advise questions in advance. Often they require specific information and if we have them in advance we can provide that on the night which is good for others there as well. I am happy for these to be forwarded directly to me. The meeting will be held from 5.30 to 7.30 on the 12th August. Venue to be confirmed but I imagine it will be the same room in the Council chambers as we used last time.

Regards
Richard [Cr Richard Thomson]

Mobile Contact: 027 2245739
Office Contact: 03 4770623 ext 12
Fax: 03 4774028

[richard.thomson @ xtra.co.nz]

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Related Posts and Comments:
13.7.14 DCC: Public finance forum [invitation]
17.12.13 DCC, Dunedin City Treasury and 3 big banks [Interest Rate Swaps]
23.11.13 DCC: Finance Committee [public forum] 27 November
17.11.13 DCC Finance Committee: Public meeting 27 November

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building, 31-33 Thomas Burns Street

Updated Post 11.8.14

█ (audio) http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel

█ LUC-2014-259 DCC Planner’s Report (PDF, 4 MB)

DCC Hearings Committee:
Andrew Noone (Chairman), Kate Wilson and Lee Vandervis.

Look out for more in the news… see Comments on this thread.
DCC Planner (name): Darryl Sycamore
Points at issue in the report will be raised at this site, independently.

Disclaimer: Elizabeth Kerr is not a submitter on the application.

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NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building [Photo: Ben C Hill for NZ Historic Places Trust via wikimedia.org]

█ Heritage New Zealand – Registration report and history (List no. 4755)

█ The well-loved building is one of a group of significant structures listed in Heritage New Zealand’s Dunedin Harbourside Historic Area (List no. 7767)

█ District Plan: Located in the Queens Gardens Heritage Precinct (TH12) and the entire external building envelope is listed for protection in Schedule 25.1 (item B106)

ODT 16.7.14 Plans for landmark building outlined [see ODT photos]
ODT 21.7.14 Excellent proposal to renew building Opinion by Peter Entwisle

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### ODT Online Wed, 6 Aug 2014
Chamber resists apartment units
By Timothy Brown
The Otago Chamber of Commerce opposes residential development of a historic Dunedin building – arguing the proposal has shades of the costly and largely aborted harbourside rezoning. But building owner Russell Lund has struck back, accusing the chamber of ”knee-jerk nimbyism”.
Thirteen submissions supported the proposed redevelopment of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd building, while four were opposed and one was neutral.
Read more

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DCC Residential conversion 31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street – LUC-2014-259
Closed: 30/07/2014

Notification of Application for a Resource Consent – Under Section 93(2) of the Resource Management Act 1991.
The proposal is to convert and utilise the second (top) floor of the former NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building for residential activity. There will be eleven three-bedroom apartments and twelve one-bedroom apartments established within the existing building. The exterior of the existing building will have new glazing, windows, balconies, doors, entry and south light modifications. There will be ten on-site parking spaces at the corner of Willis Street and Thomas Burns Street for residents’ use. […] The proposed residential activity within the Port 2 zone is considered to be a non-complying activity pursuant to Rule 11.6.4. The modification of the building is considered to be a restricted discretionary activity pursuant to Rules 13.7.3(i) and 13.7.3(ii).

A detailed set of location maps, plans and an assessment of effects are provided with the application. The application has been submitted with an acoustics report.

█ Read more, including application documents at the DCC webpage

NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building (render signed by HNZ 30.5.14)

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted By Elizabeth Kerr

DCC issues shoddy treatment to Caledonian Bowling Club

223 Andersons Bay Road [DCC webmap – click to enlarge]

Dunedin City Council loves PROFESSIONAL RUGBY more.
The Council wants to sell 223 Andersons Bay Road. The property is leased to the Caledonian Bowling Club; the 20-year lease expired in 2012 and has been renewed annually since. “The 2013 accounts of the bowling club would be the envy of most social and sporting clubs in Dunedin.” (Harry Love)
Here’s the collide with Forsyth Barr Stadium and dire opportunity cost. South Dunedin loses again. Venal thinking on the part of the Council.

—

Supplied. ODT 6.8.14 (page 25)

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The Caledonian Bowling Club and its associated social hub should not be a casualty of the Dunedin City Council’s squeeze on debt, writes Harry Love, of Dunedin.

### ODT Online Wed, 16 Jul 2014
Opinion
Community institution feels the pinch
By Harry Love
There is a fat bird in the Dunedin City Council nest that swallows most of the food and, no doubt quite unaware that it does so, pushes some of the smaller, skinnier chicks out altogether. […] The question, like all political questions, is one of priorities. I propose, then, to describe the impending demise of one victim of the newcomer’s voracity and to raise some questions about the priorities the DCC, as guardians of the nest, might consider. […] Firstly, the DCC is burdened with large debt, a fair proportion of which is attributable to the Forsyth Barr Stadium and which it is commendably searching for ways to reduce. Secondly, while there is no direct or formal link between stadium costs, as such, and individual victims of the DCC’s need to retire debt, it is indisputable that, in the fiscal space available, small and apparently unimportant entities are pushed out by the big one.
Read more

█ More comments including news and video at Rugby stadiums not filling #SkyTV (from 16 July).

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Tertiary larks squeeze DCC ratepayers for $30,000

“The two [Auckland] firms had been hired to prepare concept plans and options for projects to improve the pedestrian and cycling environment in and around the tertiary campuses. […] This will enable projects to be ‘picked off’ by the various institutions together or individually.” –Susan Lilley, DCC (via ODT)

● Why are DCC, university and polytechnic not buying LOCAL?
● (Student Ghetto) The streets are PUBLIC, aren’t they? Or are they.
● University and polytechnic not paying enough rates?!
● Heaps of other questions?!

Kate Wilson said Chow Hill Architects and Flow Transportation were hired to come up with a plan, at a cost of $88,000, with the city council paying $30,000, and the rest split between Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago. (ODT)

### ODT Online Thu, 7 Aug 2014
Auckland firms work on tertiary streetscape
By Vaughan Elder
Two Auckland firms have been hired to investigate options for a revamp of Dunedin’s tertiary precinct, which could include making some areas pedestrian only. The work on the streetscape in the tertiary precinct is being overseen by the “tertiary precinct planning group”, which includes representatives from the Dunedin City Council, Otago Polytechnic, University of Otago, Otago Regional Council, Otago Museum and Southern District Health Board.
Read more

—

Related Posts and Comments:
5.8.14 DCC staff-led CBD projects that impact ratepayers…
4.8.14 Cr Wilson’s integrity ‘in tatters’
1.8.14 DCC: Sorting THE MESS
28.7.14 DCC: Residents’ Opinion Survey 2014
5.7.14 DCC’s debt level — who do you believe?
23.6.14 DCC Annual Plan 2014/15 + Rugby and Rates
2.6.14 DCC: Slip in service levels, why?!
22.5.14 DCC Transportation Planning —ANOTHER consultation disaster

1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
31.5.13 University of Otago development plans
25.3.13 University of Otago: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder…
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
20.5.10 Hahaha if you’re still thinking Campus Master Plans look…
17.5.10 Campus Master Plan

North Dunedin – Where Campus Watch are operating [otago.ac.nz]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Cr Kate by whatifdunedin

Real reason behind Invermay slaughter/restructure?

Supplied. ODT 6.8.14 (page 25)

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC tightens policy + Auditor-general’s facetious comments

The city council’s Whistleblower policy, originally written by Athol Stephens (!!), has recently been updated.

The proposed change came as independent financial consultant Deloitte continued its investigation into an alleged $1 million fraud within the Dunedin City Council’s Citifleet department. (ODT)

### ODT Online Wed, 6 Aug 2014
Council aims to tighten policies
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council is moving to make it easier for whistle-blowers to speak out, but still has “a fair bit of work to do” to tighten other internal policies, senior managers say. The proposed change came as the council’s audit and risk subcommittee, meeting yesterday for just the second time, considered a schedule of 12 internal council policies it was now responsible for overseeing. The policies, ranging from risk management to staff travel and fraud prevention, were designed to promote good governance while protecting the organisation and its staff.
Read more

****

Universally detested (except by a charming coterie of Wellington’s public servants, all living high off the pig’s back), Lyn Provost represents a fat salary-dollar value only. Fully complicit or was that comfortably incompetent, in not getting MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR RORTS and FRAUD stopped across the local authorities of New Zealand. She and her well-paid ‘academic’ staff ask: “Whatever is Crime?” —OHH! “New Zealand’s public sector boasted $240 billion worth of assets and managing them required continuous attention, she said.” (via ODT) …..What attention, steamed up spectacles??!!

Bugger off, Lyn [Photo: liberation.typepad.com]

****

### ODT Online Wed, 6 Aug 2014
Praise for DCC’s new internal controls
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council’s move to tighten internal controls has been praised by the Office of the Auditor-general, even as the investigation into an alleged $1 million Citifleet fraud continues. The words of encouragement came from Auditor-general Lyn Provost as she addressed a meeting of the council’s new audit and risk subcommittee during a visit to Dunedin yesterday. But, despite the headlines and unanswered questions about why the alleged fraud was not detected, including by auditors, the word “Citifleet” was not uttered yesterday.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital

Dunedin Physio Pool, 140 Hanover Street [Photo: radionz.co.nz]

● Built in 1946, the first large, purpose-built therapeutic pool in New Zealand.
● About 50,000 visits by users each year, including patients and members of the public.
● Owned by Southern District Health Board but run by the Otago Therapeutic Pool Trust.
● Water temperature is 35degC.

See story by Bruce Munro, Oasis in the city (ODT 8.11.12)

█ Heritage New Zealand – Registration report and history (List no. 7581)

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### ODT Online Wed, 6 Aug 2014
Trust will lobby to keep pool
By Eileen Goodwin
In a bid to stop the closure of Dunedin’s physio pool, the trust that runs the facility will appeal to Southern District Health Board members in Dunedin tomorrow. An Otago Therapeutic Pool Trust deputation will ask the board to overrule management and keep the pool open. The meeting starts at 9am and is open to the public. In his submission, secretary-treasurer Neville Martin will tell members the health board should work with the trust and Dunedin City Council to resolve the financial issues.
Read more

****

SOUTHERN DISTRICT HEALTH BOARD
█ Meeting – Thursday, 7 August 2014, 9.00 am
Board Room, Level 2, West Wing, Main Block,
Wakari Hospital Campus, 371 Taieri Road, Dunedin

Agenda: http://www.southerndhb.govt.nz/files/14529_2014080585517-1407185717.pdf

Other meeting information and more about the SDHB here: http://www.southerndhb.govt.nz/pages/boardmeetings/

DONATIONS
At the Otago Daily Times today, in response to a letter from Sue Heap there’s an address for donations:

█ Donations can be made to the Otago Therapeutic Pool Trust, c/o Neville Martin, secretary-treasurer, PO Box 870, Dunedin 9054.

For people who dislike using Cheques, contact Mr Martin (OTPT) via the Health Board for the trust’s bank account number and the correct reference for use.

****

Critic Issue 17, 2014 (excerpt):

█ Read the full article posted by Nina Harrap on Sunday 27 July 2014 at 10:15pm

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Related Posts and Comments:
21.8.14 Dirty pool? #SDHB #University
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
5.12.13 Swann case: ODHB/SDHB and friends
10.8.13 Garrick Tremain, excellence
15.7.13 Leave Otago white collar criminals ALONE, and other unfairness

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Gambling Commission shuts down racing’s Bluegrass pokie trust

According to Barry Stewart on Channel 39 there’s a story in tomorrow’s ODT about: “A pokie trust established to fund the racing industry closed down.”

Why wait?

█ The Decision – Gambling Commission

Here’s the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) press release
(in which the devils at DIA, racing and pokie industry make Mike O’Brien the fall guy):

Pokie trust obtained licence by deception – Gambling Commission

5 August 2014

The Department of Internal Affairs has welcomed a decision by the Gambling Commission which has found that a Blenheim based gaming machine society, Bluegrass Holdings Limited, obtained its licence to operate pokie machines by deception and that a decision to cancel its Class 4 operator’s licence was warranted. The Commission’s decision, published today, 5 August 2014, comes after a two year protracted and complicated process between Bluegrass Holdings and the Department.

Internal Affairs’ Acting Director of Gambling Compliance, Raj Krishnan, says action was taken to cancel Bluegrass’s licence in July 2012 because of concerns about the suitability of Bluegrass’s operations including the actions of particular key individuals.

“Bluegrass’s deliberate and repeated efforts to deceive the Secretary were intolerable. There is no room for such behaviour in the gambling sector and we are pleased that those involved will now need to move on. We put a lot of effort into this case as we believe ensuring the integrity of the gambling sector is of great importance. Gaming machine societies exist to distribute funds for the community. Millions of dollars are involved and the utmost integrity is required,” says Mr Krishnan.

The Gambling Commission found that Bluegrass provided false and misleading information to Internal Affairs about its funding, those involved in the society and the role of Blenheim man Mike O’Brien in particular. Mike O’Brien is well-known in the harness racing community and is the son of Patrick O’Brien, former chairman of Harness Racing New Zealand and former chair of Bluegrass, which primarily provided grant money to the racing sector. The Commission says documentary evidence indicates Mike O’Brien “covertly exercised influence over the society’s grants and operation….” (Paragraph 66)

The Commission’s decision notes that the efforts to deceive the Department were repeated and took place from the time of Bluegrass’s initial application, through the investigation process and continued during the course of formal proceedings. The deceit stemmed from Bluegrass’s failure to advise the true source of funding to establish the society as well as the role of Mike O’Brien.

“It is unlikely that the Secretary [of Internal Affairs] would have granted the licence application if he had known either that the money had been advanced by Mike O’Brien or that its ultimate source was three racing clubs. The Appellant obtained its licence by providing materially false and misleading information to the Secretary.” (Paragraph 82)

The Commission also found there was evidence that Bluegrass was open to being influenced by its venue operators, contrary to the Gambling Act 2003 and it believed that allowing venue operators to exercise influence over grants was necessary to its survival. (Paragraph 65)

The Commission found the evidence of Bluegrass’s present chair, Blenheim electrician, Peter Gurr not to be sufficiently credible and compelling to remove the doubts as to Bluegrass’s suitability. The Commission says the nature of the deception means it is appropriate for Bluegrass’s licence to be cancelled to “deter other applicants from similar attempts in the future”.

“The circumstances of the case illustrate that detection of this sort of deception is difficult and it is important therefore that the consequences following detection are sufficiently serious to prevent the operation of licensing regime being undermined by the provision of false or misleading information for the advantage of applicants.” (Paragraph 89)

Mr Krishnan says: “This type of behaviour detracts from the good work of many others who distribute pokie grants for the benefit of the community. We’d encourage operators to take close note of this decision and let it serve as a benchmark as to what is expected from them. This type of deceptive conduct and efforts to mislead are also captured in investigations presently being conducted by Internal Affairs, the Serious Fraud Office and Police.”

Bluegrass Holdings Ltd owns 144 gaming machines (pokies) at eight pubs around New Zealand.

“Internal Affairs is currently assessing the behaviour of the people who are responsible for the gaming machines at those venues. We have a duty to the wider community to ensure that venue operators are ethical and uphold the law. Whether those pubs will be allowed to continue operating pokies will depend on whether we are satisfied that all the relevant criteria are met,” says Mr Krishnan.

In accordance with the Commission’s decision the licence cancellation will come into effect on 18 August 2014.

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Questions and Answers

1. What happens on 18 August to the pokie machines owned by Bluegrass?
Once Bluegrass’s licence to operate is cancelled on 18 August all its machines are turned off. We’d expect the machines to be sold possibly to another gaming machine society. (See Q5 for further details)

2. Doesn’t this action mean less money will go into the community?
There is no evidence to suggest that overall gambling profits will decrease if the venues in question cease to offer gambling. Those who gamble at these venues are likely to simply gamble elsewhere if the venues lose their licences.

3. What happens to the money already collected from people gambling on the machines?
The Gambling Act (2003) specifies that once a society’s licence is cancelled the remaining net proceeds from its Class 4 gambling must be distributed to authorised purposes in the community within 20 working days, unless a further period is agreed to by the Secretary (for Internal Affairs). Internal Affairs will be working with Bluegrass to ensure the correct distribution takes place.

4. What happens to the organisations which received money from Bluegrass last year?
No organisations which have had their funding applications already accepted by Bluegrass should lose out. Bluegrass was set up to primarily distribute funds to the racing sector. There is nothing to stop the racing clubs (or other community organisations) that received funds from Bluegrass from applying for pokie grants from other gaming machine societies, which are the organisations responsible for distributing the proceeds from gaming machines to the community.

5. What happens to the eight pubs which have Bluegrass machines? Can they transfer to another society?
Yes they can, however this requires a fresh licence application to be made to the Department for each venue, and we will assess each application on a case by case basis. We will assess in detail both the behaviour of the venues and the history of compliance of the societies applying to take the venues on. We have a duty to the wider community to ensure that the operators in the gambling sector are ethical and uphold the law. Each time the Secretary (of Internal Affairs) makes an approval decision in respect of an application by a society to take on a new venue, he must be satisfied of both the venue’s ability and the society’s ability to operate in a compliant fashion. We will not grant a venue application until we have worked through the enquiries we need to make to be sure that these venues and societies are compliant in all respects. It should be noted a recent decision by the Gambling Commission emphasises that the onus is on the applicant society to satisfy Internal Affairs that the relevant criteria are met.

6. Does the action of DIA mean that those pubs will go under?
If a venue is compliant with the law and aligns with a compliant gaming machine society, then there is no reason why is should not continue to be able to operate pokie machines. We should point out that pubs host pokie machines voluntarily, and when they do, they are only able to recover the cost associated with hosting those machines, up to a limit. The Gambling Act did not intend for pubs to make profits from hosting pokie machines. Therefore, if these venues are dependent on the money from pokies for their survival something is wrong with the underlying viability of the venue

7. Does this action mean that those involved in Bluegrass will never be able to operate in the pokie sector again?
Yes, it is our intention to ensure the integrity of a sector which generates approximately $800 million per annum in turnover. Given the large amount of funding generated by gambling the highest levels of sector integrity are vital to make sure that the community doesn’t lose out on much needed grant money, and that those in the sector, who comply and do the right thing, aren’t undermined. Our recent actions demonstrate that we will detect unlawful and dishonest behaviour, and take whatever action necessary to reduce and eliminate non-compliance.

Media contact:
Sue Ingram, Communications
Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua
Direct Dial: +64 4 494 0584 | Mobile: +64 27 541 4696

[ends]

DIA Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr