Received.
Another repetitive chore for Mr Cameron while he remains in office.
—
From: Bev Butler
Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2016 12:06 p.m.
To: Glenda McGowan [Delta]; Grady Cameron [Delta]
Subject: Fw: Urgent LGOIMA Request: Delta/Aurora dangerous power poles – reason for financial restraints/invoices further details
Wednesday 14 December 2016
Dear Ms McGowan and Mr Cameron
I wish to follow up further on some of the attached invoices.
The following was reported in the ODT (28/11/16):
“On the issue of the corporate suite, Mr Cameron said like any large business, “from time to time we host our customers to strengthen the working relationships”.
In the past financial year, Delta spent about $9000 on food and beverage hosting customers at the suite…….”
In light of Mr Cameron’s comments in the ODT, there are a number of invoices on which I request further information as follows:
1. Carisbrook Stadium Trust Invoice PSF-26, dated 5 December 2009, 10 Lounge Club Memberships $40,000+gst. Please state the names of those who have access to the 10 Lounge Memberships paid for by Delta. I note on the Forsyth Barr Stadium website the following: “As a Member of Forsyth Barr Stadium you can attend any of our scheduled events and take in the view from your own designated premium seat in the Speight’s Stand (South).”
This is obviously 10 premium seats in the Speight’s Stand on top of the seating in the Delta corporate suite.
2. Invoice 1343, dated 29/06/2012, Highlanders vs Chiefs includes Beverage $711.30+gst and 20 3 course meals @ $67.00 = $1340+gst.
How many of these guests were:
(a) Delta management staff
(b) Other Delta staff
(c) Delta directors
(d) DCHL directors
(e) Mayor and/or councillors
(f) DCC executive management team
(g) DCC staff
(h) Carisbrook Stadium Trustees (CST trustees/rich listers have reputation for receiving ‘gifts’ of tickets/catered meals at the expense of the ratepayers)
(i) Delta clients
(j) other – please state
Please supply the names of those who attended.
3. Invoice 2939, dated 5/02/2013, Paul Simon Concert 6 April 2013, 20 Gold category tickets @ $151.50 = $3030.00 (incl gst)
How many of these guests were:
(a) Delta management staff
(b) Other Delta staff
(c) Delta directors
(d) DCHL directors
(e) Mayor and/or councillors
(f) DCC executive management team
(g) DCC staff
(h) Carisbrook Stadium Trustees (CST trustees/rich listers have reputation for receiving ‘gifts’ of tickets/catered meals at the expense of the ratepayers)
(i) Delta clients
(j) other – please state
Please supply the names of those who attended.
Note $1505.01 (incl gst) was also spent on Beverage and Food
4. Invoice 7173, dated 20/06/2014, Four Nations Rugby League Match 8 November 2014, 12 Member seat tickets $456.00 (incl gst)
How many of these guests were:
(a) Delta management staff
(b) Other Delta staff
(c) Delta directors
(d) DCHL directors
(e) Mayor and/or councillors
(f) DCC executive management team
(g) DCC staff
(h) Carisbrook Stadium Trustees (CST trustees/rich listers have reputation for receiving ‘gifts’ of tickets/catered meals at the expense of the ratepayers)
(i) Delta clients
(j) other – please state
Please supply the names of those who attended.
Note $606.10 (incl gst) was also spent on Beverage and Food
5. Invoice 8161, dated 8/09/2014, Rod Stewart Concert 11 April 2015, 20 Corporate suite tickets @ $134.50 = $2690.00 (incl gst)
How many of these guests were:
(a) Delta management staff
(b) Other Delta staff
(c) Delta directors
(d) DCHL directors
(e) Mayor and/or councillors
(f) DCC executive management team
(g) DCC staff
(h) Carisbrook Stadium Trustees (CST trustees/rich listers have reputation for receiving ‘gifts’ of tickets/catered meals at the expense of the ratepayers)
(i) Delta clients
(j) other – please state
Please supply the names of those who attended.
Note 20 3 course meals @ $65.00+gst = $1495 (incl gst)
6. Invoice 6156, dated 11/08/2015, ITM Otago vs Canterbury Casual Members Tickets 4 @ $50.00 =$200+gst
Please supply the names and position of those given these 4 tickets.
Note $1886.31 (incl gst) was also spent on Beverage and Food for 20 people
7. Invoice 6645, dated 08/10/2015, Fleetwood Mac Concert, 10 suite tickets @ $141.22+gst = $1624.00 (incl gst)
Invoice 6852, dated 04/11/2015, Fleetwood Mac Concert, 2 suite tickets @ $141.22+gst = $324.81 (incl gst)
How many of these guests were:
(a) Delta management staff
(b) Other Delta staff
(c) Delta directors
(d) DCHL directors
(e) Mayor and/or councillors
(f) DCC executive management team
(g) DCC staff
(h) Carisbrook Stadium Trustees (CST trustees/rich listers have reputation for receiving ‘gifts’ of tickets/catered meals at the expense of the ratepayers)
(i) Delta clients
(j) other – please state
Please supply the names of those who attended.
Note $946.57 (incl gst) was also spent on Beverage and Food for 12 people
8. Invoice 6644, dated 08/10/2015, Neil Diamond Concert, 6 suite tickets @ $106.52+gst = $735.00 (incl gst)
Invoice 6727, dated 20/10/2015, Neil Diamond Concert, 2 suite tickets @ $106.52+gst = $245.00 (incl gst)
How many of these guests were:
(a) Delta management staff
(b) Other Delta staff
(c) Delta directors
(d) DCHL directors
(e) Mayor and/or councillors
(f) DCC executive management team
(g) DCC staff
(h) Carisbrook Stadium Trustees (CST trustees/rich listers have reputation for receiving ‘gifts’ of tickets/catered meals at the expense of the ratepayers)
(i) Delta clients
(j) other – please state
Please supply the names of those who attended.
Note $509.52 (incl gst) was also spent on Beverage and Food
Please acknowledge receipt of this request and please send the response electronically.
Sincerely
Bev Butler
[ends]
█ Previous correspondence is recorded at this post:
27.10.16 Bev Butler says ‘Come in, Grady’ #LGOIMA #Delta
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
This post is offered in the public interest.
What if? Dunedin... 
Good on you Bev. We need to have our own version of “draining the swamp”.
This is no trough!
It’s the Mindanao Trench!
Many might remember in the dying days of the Harland/Chin Administration there was much controversy about the coffee culture enjoyed by DCC staff with ‘meetings’ held in nearby cafes close to the Civic Centre.
Things were subsequently tightened concerning such expenditure carried out at the ratepayers’ expense. Such tightening up is something that has to be shamed on any administration for them to do anything.
Yet, still nothing has been done under the Bidrose/ Cull Administration to do something about the scandalous CST expenditure during the stadium build, where Farry and Co wined and dined extensively at our expense, plus the awarding of each other ‘gifts’. Shocking and repulsive given the wealth of these people, quite capable of paying their own way instead of bludging off others. Namely, us.
This Delta ‘entertainment’ rort, shown by these invoices, continues the DCC/Delta tradition of ripping off those they are meant to serve instead of serving themselves.
The promise of real change brought on by Paul Orders has stalled under the current administration. They have joined the party and we are not invited.
People might not understand the intricacies of DCC finances, but they do understand what they see as obscene troughing by public servants.
It is high time there were strict guidelines concerning ‘fun’ expenditure. For a start, DCC/Delta employees should pay for their own booze, food, rugby and concert tickets.
Good for you Bev.
You might have your work cut out once the second separate Aurora/Delta board and management teams are installed if this culture of all-expenses-paid-nights-out at the stadium on the ratepayer continues.
The present culture of largesse has been disgraceful given the woeful performance of Aurora/Delta to date, and indicates an arrogant disdain for Dunedin’s ratepayers, especially in light of the extraordinary salaries that are being paid to these people.
The editorial in today’s ODT lays it all out pretty well. Councillors need to regain the controlling oversight of DCHL’s position. Crombie and Cull set a poor example on Monday by denying councillors adequate time to read the Deloitte report prior to the non-public meeting about it. Withholding that information from the councillors who should be involved in robust debate is an abuse of power. This action was described on National Radio as farcical.
If DCC wants to regain the respect of their ratepayers, and enhance their image on a wider stage, they need to get a few basic things right. Ordinary common courtesies are a useful start, along with a reminder of why they are there, and whose interests they are supposed to be serving.
I always find myself on the brink of laughter reading Bev’s LGOIMA requests. So politely expressed, so matter of fact, so precise, and leaving so little wriggle-room – years of experience with society’s gilded maggots and other wrigglers lie behind that – and I’m reading Subtext, “Factotum Thingge, if it’s not too much trouble just step over here and impale yourself on the pit-full of sharpened bamboo stakes”. And recipient Thingge reads it and wonders if there’s any number of Hail Marys that will make this request go away…..
Hype O’Thermia’s literary eloquence is impressive.
It is hard to decide which is better,
a) the “gilded maggots” description of those charged to oversee ratepayer’s money, or,
b) the “So politely expressed, so matter of fact, so precise and leaving so little wriggle room…” description of Bev Butler.
Without doubt, our Shakespearean O’Thermia friend, is absolutely spot on. Thank you for acknowledging Bev Butler’s exemplary work and her relentless campaigning to hold the feet of those gouging Dunedin’s ratepayers to the fire.
Once you allow public servants free pens, paper, contract bribes, cheap cars and other perks of employment unavailable to private sector employees, there comes an expectation. Rugby tickets-tick, Adele -tick.
From my experience New Zealand has become the most corrupt country in the world because as well as these rorts the legalised rorts caused by legislation, such as the resource management charges, the swamp that has developed around the requirements of the RMA populated by planners and lawyers.
Business would be easier if we eliminated all that stuff and just went back to simple bribery and graft.
Just like China, the mayor would get rich and after a period we could prosecute, cut off his hands and get on with life.
The sense of entitlement for extra goodies can emerge and grow so easily.
The justification is sometimes couched along the lines that ‘we have worked so hard for the place, showing some gratitude for a good job done, by way of freebies, is the least we can do.’
Easy answer is, ‘You have already been paid handsomely for your labour and, actually, the job you have done on our behalf is piss poor.’ Grady take note, in particular.
(And what about those, lower on the food chain, for the work THEY have done?)
(And what about those, lower on the food chain, for the work THEY have done?)
What they get, Peter, is reminders that they are lucky to have a job as there are plenty of other people out there. If they’re not satisfied with their pay, conditions and the safety standard of the workplace….
Yep,that’s about right, Hype. The dog eat dog life of NZ labour relations. The bigger dog being the mongrel.
Interesting comment from Stewie in the ODT today in this article:
“Stadium hurt renewal plans – McLauchlan”
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/stadium-hurt-renewal-plans-mclauchlan
“”You really need to go back to a time when there was a commitment to build the stadium and the request of the holding company [for subvention payments]. I’m talking back to 2006.”
So, according to Stewie, the commitment to fund the Stadium was requested by DCHL (Hudson was chairman at the time) and the commitment was made by Delta/Aurora in 2006, which presumably means that an absolute decision/commitment to build the thing had been made before this time – Stewie’s comment seem to confirm this.
Which means that all the submissions that myself and others put in over 2007-9 were a complete waste of time – as were all the meetings court cases etc… Of course we all knew that, but it is galling to know that being loudly called a “fucking wanker” to my face by a councillor in a Stadium related meeting with Mayor Chin (to which said councillor was not actually invited but crashed it anyway, along with several other pro-stadiumite public representatives) really was all for nothing.
I attended formally as a silent observer, not a participant, and thus said absolutely nothing and thus did nothing at all in that meeting to provoke said comment. If you want to speculate as to who said councillor was, then be my guest.
However, it’s nice to finally have it ‘official’ Innit?