Um, a most favourite Water song – background music for the DCC office desk, with a dash of romance to take the edge off PANIC each time it rains in South Dunedin.
NaughtyBoyVEVO Published on Sep 17, 2015 Naughty Boy – Runnin’ (Lose It All) ft. Beyoncé, Arrow Benjamin
Wikipedia: Runnin’ (Lose It All)
The music video for the song was directed by Charlie Robins. It features freedivers Guillaume Néry and Alice Modolo as a man and a woman underwater running towards each other, trying to reunite. The video is inspired by the short film Ocean Gravity. Discussing the conception of the video, Robins said: “In order to achieve the effect we were after we had to film in the middle of a fast, deep and quite dangerous current through a lagoon, this gave us the forward momentum you see in the film. They didn’t use tanks for air so everything you see in the film was done holding their breath, sometimes up to six minutes at a time. I still can’t quite believe how they do it. No CGI was used. Quite something.” The video was filmed at Rangiroa, an atoll northeast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. The video was choreographed by Julie Gaultier, who co-directed Ocean Gravity with Néry, and was shot over four days.
From: Lee Vandervis Sent: Wednesday, 4 November 2015 6:52 a.m. To: Elizabeth Kerr Subject: Re: Suction truck
DCC buying a sucker truck is news to me Elizabeth, especially since they have long been paying contractors to do that job, like most other jobs.
Following my complaints about Dunedin mud tanks in my dog-walking area not being cleaned of sediment for years, the DCC have been occasionally subcontracting an Invercargill mud tank suction company to come up to Dunedin to do ‘selective’ mud tank cleaning, as opposed to doing all of them.
They came up from Invercargill the week after my meeting with DCC staff where the mud tank contractor admitted they had done no sediment removal from Dunedin tanks for a year ‘because their truck was urgently needed to help on-going ChCh earthquake issues’. The Invercargill based sucker truck began at 9am on the mud tank right outside our house at 47 Garfield Avenue! I talked to the guys operating the Invercargill sucker-truck, and they said they hated doing Dunedin mud tanks because most Dunedin tanks had been done so seldom that the road grit set like concrete in the bottom of them and they had to be chipped out with a crowbar before the sediment could be properly sucked out. The sucker-truck operators said that this made doing mud tanks properly in Dunedin a very slow job doing only an average of 35 tanks a day, whereas in properly regularly sucked Invercargill they could do an average of up to 170 tanks a day. Proper maintenance really is better than trying a post-flood cure.
I am happy for you to make this public as I have a good email trail supporting all of the above.
Cheers,
Lee
From a council money-shuffling point of view, ignoring mud tank clearing is quite a good bet. Unlike a fallen power pole or a slip blocking the road, chances are that nobody’s going to notice, not for a long time. So the tank-clearing money is available for spending, lovely lovely spending!
Except in this case the mud tank clearing company was paid to do the job that didn’t get done.
From a mud tank clearing company’s point of view, ignoring mud tank clearing is quite a good bet…….
Until a flood. Then the mud hits the fan, and when it’s “road grit set like concrete in the bottom of them [that] had to be chipped out with a crowbar” that could be painful.
Chances are the fan will need replacing too.
From: Elizabeth Kerr Sent: Wednesday, 4 November 2015 11:25 a.m. To: Grace Ockwell; DCC LGOIMA Information Request Cc: Sandy Graham; Kristy Rusher; Elizabeth Kerr; Sue Bidrose; Grant McKenzie; ODTeditor Subject: DCC LGOIMA official information request – Suction Truck
Dear Grace
Reference No: 524068
Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that DCC may have purchased a “brand new” (mud tank) suction truck very recently. If this is correct, I request formal confirmation of this purchase/acquisition in writing from the relevant DCC department head, general or group manager, or Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO).
### ODT Online Wed, 4 Nov 2015 Civil Defence gets a captain
By John Gibb
Otago’s inaugural regional manager-controller of civil defence Chris Hawker says he was appointed to “captain” the region’s overall civil defence system. […] A recent external assessment report included a comment that Otago’s overall region-wide civil defence emergency management was like a disorganised sports team with six owners and no captain. Read more
From: Kristy Rusher Sent: Wednesday, 4 November 2015 5:29 p.m. To: Elizabeth Cc: Grace Ockwell Subject: RE: Local Government Official Information request – 524068
Hi Elizabeth,
I have checked with our transport team and water team. The DCC has not purchased a suction truck.
I suspect your query relates to the Tanker Jetter unit that City Care have for the 3 Waters Maintenance contract. Reference to this unit is made in some correspondence in response to questions about cleaning of stormwater pipes (as opposed to mud tanks) which has been recently been released under LGOIMA. When the 3 Waters maintenance was outsourced in Feb 2014, part of the arrangement was that City Care provided a dedicated tanker jetter unit as well as a towable jetter unit. They use the large unit for cleaning the wastewater and stormwater sewers (pipes), and the small unit for clearing blockages. This allows DCC to complete more work for less money than the previous situation where we contracted this kind of work on a job by job basis.
The tanker unit is different from the maintenance of mud tanks, and is performed under a different contract. Mud tanks are maintained as part of the Fulton Hogan road maintenance contract, and Fulton Hogan supplies their own equipment.
“Mud tanks are maintained as part of the Fulton Hogan road maintenance contract, and Fulton Hogan supplies their own equipment.” Or NOT! It has been common knowledge for long that the FH suction units were in Christchurch and that the tanks had not been comprehensively maintained nor ‘sucked’ for a long time prior to the flood. Another example of indifference on the part of staff in monitoring contractor’s performances. Doesn’t matter, until it does, then the excuses flow. 600 plus staff and that’s the results we get. PATHETIC! Where is the Mayor on the odd occasion he’s not in China?
RT @odtnews: As the ''adrenaline wears off'', farmers battling floods devised plans yesterday to protect their livelihoods. https://t.co/Rw…9 hours ago
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Just in.
I’m told DCC has bought itself a new suction truck.
Um, a most favourite Water song – background music for the DCC office desk, with a dash of romance to take the edge off PANIC each time it rains in South Dunedin.
NaughtyBoyVEVO Published on Sep 17, 2015
Naughty Boy – Runnin’ (Lose It All) ft. Beyoncé, Arrow Benjamin
Wikipedia: Runnin’ (Lose It All)
The music video for the song was directed by Charlie Robins. It features freedivers Guillaume Néry and Alice Modolo as a man and a woman underwater running towards each other, trying to reunite. The video is inspired by the short film Ocean Gravity. Discussing the conception of the video, Robins said: “In order to achieve the effect we were after we had to film in the middle of a fast, deep and quite dangerous current through a lagoon, this gave us the forward momentum you see in the film. They didn’t use tanks for air so everything you see in the film was done holding their breath, sometimes up to six minutes at a time. I still can’t quite believe how they do it. No CGI was used. Quite something.” The video was filmed at Rangiroa, an atoll northeast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. The video was choreographed by Julie Gaultier, who co-directed Ocean Gravity with Néry, and was shot over four days.
Received.
From: Lee Vandervis
Sent: Wednesday, 4 November 2015 6:52 a.m.
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: Re: Suction truck
DCC buying a sucker truck is news to me Elizabeth, especially since they have long been paying contractors to do that job, like most other jobs.
Following my complaints about Dunedin mud tanks in my dog-walking area not being cleaned of sediment for years, the DCC have been occasionally subcontracting an Invercargill mud tank suction company to come up to Dunedin to do ‘selective’ mud tank cleaning, as opposed to doing all of them.
They came up from Invercargill the week after my meeting with DCC staff where the mud tank contractor admitted they had done no sediment removal from Dunedin tanks for a year ‘because their truck was urgently needed to help on-going ChCh earthquake issues’. The Invercargill based sucker truck began at 9am on the mud tank right outside our house at 47 Garfield Avenue! I talked to the guys operating the Invercargill sucker-truck, and they said they hated doing Dunedin mud tanks because most Dunedin tanks had been done so seldom that the road grit set like concrete in the bottom of them and they had to be chipped out with a crowbar before the sediment could be properly sucked out. The sucker-truck operators said that this made doing mud tanks properly in Dunedin a very slow job doing only an average of 35 tanks a day, whereas in properly regularly sucked Invercargill they could do an average of up to 170 tanks a day. Proper maintenance really is better than trying a post-flood cure.
I am happy for you to make this public as I have a good email trail supporting all of the above.
Cheers,
Lee
From a council money-shuffling point of view, ignoring mud tank clearing is quite a good bet. Unlike a fallen power pole or a slip blocking the road, chances are that nobody’s going to notice, not for a long time. So the tank-clearing money is available for spending, lovely lovely spending!
Except in this case the mud tank clearing company was paid to do the job that didn’t get done.
From a mud tank clearing company’s point of view, ignoring mud tank clearing is quite a good bet…….
Until a flood. Then the mud hits the fan, and when it’s “road grit set like concrete in the bottom of them [that] had to be chipped out with a crowbar” that could be painful.
Chances are the fan will need replacing too.
The election’s coming. Let’s not forget this.
From: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Wednesday, 4 November 2015 11:25 a.m.
To: Grace Ockwell; DCC LGOIMA Information Request
Cc: Sandy Graham; Kristy Rusher; Elizabeth Kerr; Sue Bidrose; Grant McKenzie; ODTeditor
Subject: DCC LGOIMA official information request – Suction Truck
Dear Grace
Reference No: 524068
Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that DCC may have purchased a “brand new” (mud tank) suction truck very recently. If this is correct, I request formal confirmation of this purchase/acquisition in writing from the relevant DCC department head, general or group manager, or Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO).
I look forward to reply, in electronic format.
Kind regards
Elizabeth Kerr
### ODT Online Wed, 4 Nov 2015
Civil Defence gets a captain
By John Gibb
Otago’s inaugural regional manager-controller of civil defence Chris Hawker says he was appointed to “captain” the region’s overall civil defence system. […] A recent external assessment report included a comment that Otago’s overall region-wide civil defence emergency management was like a disorganised sports team with six owners and no captain.
Read more
From: Kristy Rusher
Sent: Wednesday, 4 November 2015 5:29 p.m.
To: Elizabeth
Cc: Grace Ockwell
Subject: RE: Local Government Official Information request – 524068
Hi Elizabeth,
I have checked with our transport team and water team. The DCC has not purchased a suction truck.
I suspect your query relates to the Tanker Jetter unit that City Care have for the 3 Waters Maintenance contract. Reference to this unit is made in some correspondence in response to questions about cleaning of stormwater pipes (as opposed to mud tanks) which has been recently been released under LGOIMA. When the 3 Waters maintenance was outsourced in Feb 2014, part of the arrangement was that City Care provided a dedicated tanker jetter unit as well as a towable jetter unit. They use the large unit for cleaning the wastewater and stormwater sewers (pipes), and the small unit for clearing blockages. This allows DCC to complete more work for less money than the previous situation where we contracted this kind of work on a job by job basis.
The tanker unit is different from the maintenance of mud tanks, and is performed under a different contract. Mud tanks are maintained as part of the Fulton Hogan road maintenance contract, and Fulton Hogan supplies their own equipment.
Regards,
Kristy Rusher.
Dunedin City Council
“Mud tanks are maintained as part of the Fulton Hogan road maintenance contract, and Fulton Hogan supplies their own equipment.” Or NOT! It has been common knowledge for long that the FH suction units were in Christchurch and that the tanks had not been comprehensively maintained nor ‘sucked’ for a long time prior to the flood. Another example of indifference on the part of staff in monitoring contractor’s performances. Doesn’t matter, until it does, then the excuses flow. 600 plus staff and that’s the results we get. PATHETIC! Where is the Mayor on the odd occasion he’s not in China?
Sipping pink gins with SB and inventing more cloud cover.
I think you have got your drinking mates at cross purposes here Elizabeth.
The mind boggles SB drinking with DC.
Council, concoctions, Gurglars.
The cartoon facsimile of true stories for stadium and Citifleet; and mud tanks and filters dressed as climate change….
Hans Christian Andersen had nothing on the DCC