Received from Richard Healey
Friday, 2 December 2016 11:36 p.m.
—
Lies, damned lies and Delta
Today a media statement, produced by Delta senior management, representative staff and the E tū union representative, was released. It is important to stress at this point that I’ve been told that the vote to release was supported by a minority of the Delta workers present. I’m told that 15 hands went up in favour out of the hundred people present.
The decision to release was made by the E tū union organiser present. Are your alarm bells ringing yet? Mine are.
Here’s the bit most people will miss:
Delta senior management, representative staff and the E tū union representative have agreed a joint statement that reflects the belief of all concerned,
You will notice that it does not say that the meeting authorised the release – yet it claims that it reflects the belief of “all concerned”. I’ve had plenty of phone calls from “all concerned” and they have stated categorically that it does not reflect their beliefs, read on…..
Here’s the release:
2 December 2016
Media Release
Joint statement following meeting of Delta management, staff and E tū union
Yesterday, meetings were held with representatives of staff, senior management of Delta, and E tū, the union. Similar discussions are planned involving Central Otago-based staff.
Discussions were held concerning the condition of the Aurora Energy electricity network and how risks are being managed for staff, contractors and the public. All parties are in agreement that it is in everyone’s interests that we work together productively as Delta carries out a significant uplift in capital and maintenance work across the Aurora Energy networks in Dunedin and Central Otago.
Delta senior management, representative staff and the E tū union representative have agreed a joint statement that reflects the belief of all concerned, they commented:
“Firstly, that the Aurora Energy network needs significant asset renewal work and that the age and condition of existing assets presents a higher level of risk than would be preferred.
RJH: That statement sounds suspiciously like an admission that there is a REAL PROBLEM – not merely a problem of perception, as Grady Cameron has consistently maintained. Let us hear that admission from Grady himself, not from a union organiser masquerading as a PR consultant doing the softened story routine. Come on Grady…we are all waiting….
None of us can now change past decisions made over decades about maintenance and investment in the network.
RJH: Man up Grady. My view is simple, it is not credible for you to say that “None of us can now change past decisions made over decades” when you are the person who, for almost all of the last decade, has been key in making those frankly appalling decisions. I’m sure that it would be great for you to be able to brush your past actions under the carpet. Wake up mate, it’s not happening.
We can change the way we manage assets and have already started doing that, however it will take time to address all the issues. Staff and management are committed to working closely together to complete the upgrades with a high level of safety caution and with public safety foremost in our minds.
RJH: Really? You’ve started doing that? Let’s review how that program is going. Your program director just quit, your General Manager asset management just quit, I see an ad today for a new manager of strategic planning, hmmm…. Poles replaced by the “accelerated” program to date? Zero, zip, nada – and counting.
“Secondly, that the health and safety of Delta staff and the public who live around the Aurora network is the primary responsibility of the company, DCHL and the DCC who ultimately own the network.”
RJH: Ah ha, the people who received a detailed report on this problem in 2010, a report that listed harm to staff and the public as potential outcomes of doing nothing, yeah, I feel [there] is a credibility problem here, how about you??
“Thirdly, we would like the public to know that Delta workers are doing their best to continue security of electricity supply and public safety. There may be more periods of planned power outages as we undertake the network upgrades and ask the public to work patiently with us.
RJH: finally, something we can agree on.
“Fourthly, that members of Delta’s technical staff who have hands-on knowledge of reported faults and risks will be engaged in how the company describes events publicly to the extent that is reasonably possible given media constraints and in the knowledge that detailed investigations often take time.”
RJH: Wow, that’s a hard hitter, we will talk to staff, but you know how it is with media deadlines. And those reports can take sooooo looooong to write. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone has forgotten about the problem by the time we get around to reporting on it… in an email… to ourselves.
“Finally, Aurora Energy, and Delta staff, have agreed to work closely together on an enhanced public safety advertising campaign which will start in the near future. This will be about further informing the community about safety around electrical installations, particular hazards that we are working to resolve and general education about safety around the network.”
RJH: What? You’re going to tell people that high voltage lines on the ground really are a danger? Three cheers!!
For media enquiries, please contact:
● Mike Kirwood, Organiser, E tū, 027 591 0038
● Matt Ballard, General Manager Capability and Risk, Delta, 027 703 7044.
Here’s my view.
The majority who did NOT vote to release this statement have not been heard. Their voices are apparently worth nothing. Their voices are, in real terms, valued by Delta as much as their lives. And I think that is not a whole lot.
I believe that the management whom the minority of their colleagues are prepared to ‘work with’ have, for years, knowingly sent these guys to work on an unsafe network with no intent to make it safe…in fact their inaction made it less safe, day by day, year by year.
They have instructed these workers to not apply do not climb tags.
They have manipulated data, the Xivic debacle, on unsafe structures with the effect that the true number of unsafe structures was hidden.
They have failed to investigate asset failures appropriately and often not at all.
They have consistently denied their own workforce access to the information it needs to make decisions which truly are the difference between life and death, for workers and the unwitting public alike.
These same managers were simultaneously accepting awards for exceptional management performance!
Roger Steel must be spinning in his grave.
Shame on you all.
Finally, a word from Delta’s glorious leader at, believe it or not, zeroharm.org.nz on October 19th this year!!
ZeroHarm [click to enlarge]
Source: FB post
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
This post is offered in the public interest.
What if? Dunedin... 
“Monitor what Matters
– What Helps Me
White boards full of lists, notes, spreadsheets, graphs and bits of paper stuck to the walls . . .”
Get out of that “Operations Room” Mr Cameron. Get out into the real world and look at the ramshackle condition of your network, which you expect your staff to work on daily. A network that has deteriorated under your watch. A network that you refused to accept any criticism of – the criticism that cost Richard Healey his job.
At the very least, issue a personal and public apology to Richard Healey over the way that this sudden accelerated pole replacement program has been initiated – by his having to resign and blow a very loud whistle. He has done you, your company and the wider public a huge service for the selfless actions that he took.
Take note of the comments from Queenstown-Lakes and CODC mayors that they want some serious answers to the deadly risks that your rundown network presents to the wider public every time the wing blows.
What have been the KPIs that have grown your very generous salary at the same time that your management of Delta has continually eroded the safety and reliability of the Aurora network? You are living in a dream Mr Cameron. You appear to be disconnected. Unplugged. Not switched on. Major problems for a man of your position in the electricity distribution business..
[screenshot tweaked by whatifdunedin]
In that, the current standard media photo, Cull looks like a bunny trying to appease a big dog. Is he biting his lower lip, or does he just look that way? Fair call mind you, he’s got many reasons to be apprehensive. Not being able to say anything sensible when any kind of difficulty crops up must make for fraught mayoring.
Sat, 3 December 2016
ODT: Report discussion behind closed doors
Discussion of a Deloitte report on troubled council-owned companies Aurora and Delta on Tuesday will be behind closed doors, and it is uncertain when they will make it into the public arena. Mayor Dave Cull said the report was not finished yet, despite predictions of an early December completion date. Cont/
A Dog: ETu organiser Mike Kirwood…..
—
Sat, 3 Dec 2016
ODT: Delta staff, management resolve to work together
Delta management has acceded to staff calls for more open communication with the public and promised to work together in future to fix the network. […] The joint statement from the company and its staff has been criticised by whistleblower Richard Healey, who said it was an admission the company had a problem, funnelled through the union. Cont/
—
Calling on the detested Grader “to make the admission openly, rather than through a joint statement”………
Shaun Colley at Richard’s Facebook:
This is the very reason we left the union over a decade ago. They listen to what is said, decide for themselves if it will rock the boat with management and then bend over and assume the position. Weak as piss and zero backbone, continually not taking our requests to management because “there’s no point, they won’t agree”. They are supposed to act in the guys interests, not feather their own nest. Fs me off that people still have faith in them instead of themselves, to get things going. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
7:05 a.m.
Thankfully, Mayor Jim Boult IS NOT the sham-sparrow Dave Cull is.
Sat, 3 Dec 2016
ODT: Power pole ‘concerns’ to be raised
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult will raise “significant concerns” over Aurora Energy’s potentially dangerous power poles with the company’s chief executive next week. The “please explain” meeting next Friday with Aurora chief executive Grady Cameron follows a terse exchange of letters, which the council has released to the Otago Daily Times. It piles pressure on the beleaguered company, which was upbraided by the Central Otago District Council over the same issue last month. Cont/
I wonder if he will mention the sections at Luggate…?
And on the back of this ‘groundswell’ of staff support (15% didn’t want him lynched there and then….that’s a groundswell, right?) no doubt Grady will organise himself a payrise…y’know, in recognition of his superlative management skills. And one for Matt Ballard too…in the muck up to his armpits…that whole mustering support for himself at special after-hours meetings at his house readying for the post-Grady world he thought was coming…that was just a blip. And don’t forget the cheque for that very accommodating union organiser…
I still think the poles that are clearly dangerous (and they are marked as such) need to be bolstered in some way such as wired to concrete blocks so the public is not in danger. People will be harmed if this goes on for months or years.
Raymond- adding concrete blocks is a bureaucrat’s temporary solution- delaying Finality.
The right answer is forget the contribution to the Stadium.
Replace the bloody Poles!