How To See and Be Seen : 1. sit on the floor 2. do not lie #SDHB

At Facebook:

The Dunedin Hospital eye department’s throughput is commendable despite the lack of chairs and wait space provided by the fat cat, high fee-earning Team of Commissioners led by lawyer Kathy Grant….

As a user of the department’s services, there’s been no impediment to my eye treatment and monitoring at any time. I have never had to sit on the floor, nor would I even contemplate doing so —silly Sheep!

The staff were exactly right to complain to their union.

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### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jul 2017
Elderly patients forced to sit on floor
By Eileen Goodwin
Older patients were forced to sit on the floor while waiting for an appointment in the crisis-hit eye department at Dunedin Hospital, prompting a complaint from staff to their union. Public Service Association organiser Julie Morton said the lack of adequate waiting space was a health and safety issue. “There are frequently not enough seats in the waiting room to accommodate those waiting, and they have to sit on the floor,” Mrs Morton wrote to the Southern District Health Board last month. Some of the patients who had to sit on the floor were older people.
Read more

****

D’oh, Ms Kathy Grant doesn’t believe in the value of Democracy in the Southern Region. Does the Southern community want the non-egalitarian, fryable Ms Grant to serve out her term to 2019.

### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jul 2017
Need for elected health board role downplayed
By Eileen Goodwin
The “truly unique” arrangements at Southern District Health Board will not adversely affect the Dunedin Hospital rebuild, commissioner Kathy Grant says. The Government is planning a hospital redevelopment potentially worth more than $1billion, and there are no elected representatives to influence the project because the board was sacked. Mrs Grant said the SDHB’s relationship with the Ministry of Health was no different than if an elected board was in place. “I’m not sure what additional dimension the existence of a traditional board would necessarily bring to that relationship.” […] The Otago Daily Times has been told by a contact, who would not be named, that the Cabinet would consider three options outlined [for the proposed new hospital] in an indicative business case, the most expensive of which costs more than $1 billion. After that decision, the rebuild governance group and the ministry would look at where to build and whether land needed to be acquired.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: dailymail.co.uk – article: Why are my blinking eyes so sore and watery?

Dunedin’s winter power bills —ODT calls for comment at Facebook

Read the many public comments received at the ODT Facebook page.
Are the higher bills because of the crisp weather ? Low levels of the hydro lakes ?
Or something more ‘sinister’ ?

What is the industry regulator, the Commerce Commission, saying.

Personal Aside:
I don’t heat my apartment – chosen because it’s constructed in brick, elevated, insulated, sunny and warm. Before you ask, I pay high market rent to live centrally. I’m a registered low user of power, receive 20% earlybird discounts, and enjoy guaranteed fixed rates on power charges for 12 months by agreement with my electricity supplier. Typically, my power use is constant across the seasons and the years (long-term renter at this address, 2003 to present). I can keep my power use low only because I have good health, lots of warm clothing and furnishings, and I stay active. I’m expecting huge price increases as Dunedin City Council owned Aurora Energy’s programmed neglect of the Otago power network really kicks in.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Council says “bag it” —we can help with that

Although, there’s no indication they like carbon monoxide (CO).
A useful part of the atmosphere in the circumstances.

****

STICK ‘EDUCATION’ UP THE PROVERBIAL

At Facebook:

The Dunedin City Council is keen to “educate all users to ensure enjoyment of our reserves and beaches”.

### ODT Online Fri, 9 June 2017
New horse dung rule pleases, riles
By Shawn McAvinue
Horse droppings must be cleaned from Dunedin tracks by riders but they can remain on footpaths and roads, a new bylaw states. A community board head says the new rules are a “step in the right direction”, but a horseman reckons the bylaw is “ridiculous”. Dunedin City Council recreation and planning facilities manager…said under the recently adopted Reserves and Beaches Bylaw, horse owners were expected to remove horse droppings from  or near access tracks as a courtesy to other users. The bylaw allowed for enforcement, [they] said. […] Council transport group manager Richard Saunders said  under the council’s Roading Bylaw owners were not required to clean up if their horse left droppings on a public road or footpath. The council received few complaints about the issue, he said. […] Horseman Keith Roberts (69), of Berwick, said he had ridden around New Zealand four times on his horse Zara and had never picked up her droppings. The bylaw would not change his behaviour, he said. “Never.”
Read more

TIME TO CLEAN OUT THE STABLE

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 30.5.17 The Boil Over : DCC and Freedom Camping, Reserves and Beaches bylaws
● 13.5.17 Condition of Warrington Domain screwed by DCC lack of enforcement #CampingControlBylaw23
● 9.4.17 DCC obfuscates : Open slather for freedom campers at Warrington
● 16.3.17 WE have the information, unreasonable delay providing it #LGOIMA
● 15.2.17 Warrington : DCC dictates loss of community’s grassed recreation reserve to freeloaders
8.2.17 Hands Off Enjoyment of OUR Beaches #DCC
● 6.2.17 Uncontrolled freedom camping at Warrington Domain this weekend —DCC ‘hell model’ [no enforcement]
● 1.2.17 “Fake news” from DCC boffins & Community Board re freedom camping at Warrington Domain #TheBlight
10.2.16 Dunedin freedom camping #DCC #enforcement
16.12.14 DCC: Freedom Camping issues
7.12.09 Coastal protection zones

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

ALL THESE THINGS BELONG ON BEACHES

Burt Munro Challenge [southlandexpress.co.nz]

[slohorsenews.net]

“We Shall Fight on the Beaches” –Winston Churchill, 4 June 1940

Anne Elliot, too soon

It is Anne Elliot’s funeral on Monday morning at Middlemarch Community Hall.

The energising, intellectual and thoughtful Anne, and her community minded salt-of-the-earth husband Bales Elliot, have been my good friends and associates since Stop The Stadium committee days. Anne was one of the troopers, someone who wrote to the Otago Daily Times protesting the stadium build, and commenting at What if? Dunedin with gravitas.

It has been a ‘country treat’, over recent years, to turn up in the company of friends to Larchgrove Farm – to enjoy the friendship and hospitality of Anne, Bales and son Scott at their historic farmstead. Joining their wider friendship circle in chatter, laughs and broad conversation – with sumptuous farm catering supported by foodie ‘bring a plates’ – to co-celebrate family occasions and milestones. The country life.

Anne hails from Denmark. She grew up in a town nearly 100 km from Copenhagen. A blessed area of the world which seemed to deeply inflect her love of design, exactnesses, and particularity of choice in most aspects of life and enquiry.

Bales and Anne travelled extensively overseas together. Their horizons at all times broad and robust. More recently Anne was happy to chance travel through remote parts to reach family and friends in Scandinavia, by strategic pathmaking and self monitoring.

I deeply admired Anne’s ability to challenge herself in the attempt to stay ahead of medical issues as they presented. She grilled health practitioners. She trawled the net sagely. Although, when last I saw Anne at Otago Hospice and told her she looked remarkably bright (she was), she said she felt better for taking her medications! (Ah-ha, I thought). She enjoyed her short stays for respite care at the Hospice, typically texting a couple of days before her arrival in Dunedin to invite me along for “one of our long chats”. Shortness of breath meant we carefully paced wide-ranging discussion with small snacks and the odd glass of Church Road, one of Anne’s favourite drinkables.

I really loved Anne’s bravery and determination. These qualities, of course, were present in abundance from the time she and I first met – way before oxygen became short. I liked how she made everyone welcome; she was discerning when people acted stupidly and unfairly. Anne was analytical, busy/razor minded, forward thinking, entrepreneurial, and a follower and buyer of latest things ‘Apple’. She was always well turned out. Poised. An in-joke between us, she often lamented she wasn’t learned in budgeting or finance, or didn’t quite know committee business procedure. She would rack my brains! Anne knew to involve fellow conspirators. I’ve been useful here and there when Anne was pushing achievements for her district – or lacked immediate connection with experts of various kinds locally and nationally.

Anne was ‘antistadium’. But more so, she was a kind-hearted, infectious, observant woman and gifted scholar. After all, god loves a plotter and a schemer! A bee in the bonnet…

Tomorrow morning I meet with Anne’s family and friends to say goodbye at Middlemarch in this chilly late part of autumn. 1100 hours.

Clear roads.

ODT 25.5.17 (page 27)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Democracy, a little strange looking here and there

ODT 12.5.17 (page 16)

Not sure the above is the “nature of democracy”.
Ownership more often than not has rights to what Democracy might be, for better or worse. Democracy is the dull moving target around traction of tolerance and accommodation, alternately characterised by recklessness, drilling, handholding, gutless audacity and full oppositional war. And finally, perhaps, it is Comedy of Errors (the big CE) – to do with pique, vanity, providence, chess-like cunning, ill temper and quarrelsome kicks, artful dodging, strange bed fellows, lousy cracks at definition, ruthless assaults and incursions, “Territory”, chiming disgust, stiff ultimatums, the surrender to power, corruption or fraud…..and all notions, wagons, bonfires that encircle ‘the final word’ and last stands, angry trumpet votes to Brexit, chaste lookalikes, injury, ill health….. Jesus weeps.

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### ODT Online Wed, 12 Apr 2017
Hospital rebuild: back off but don’t back down
By Hilary Calvert
OPINION If we asked Otago people what they most want from health services it would likely be health service delivery in the province at least as good as the rest of New Zealand. For example, whatever qualifies for an operation here should be the same that qualifies those up north. The Dunedin School of Medicine is vital to us as well. […] What if harassing of the Government in an imagined party political fashion just makes the Government determined to not give us what we want, since we will likely vote two local Labour people into Parliament this year? If we concentrate on telling the Government what we most want, and stop trying to tell it how it should deliver the services, we have a much better chance of getting the best result.
Read more

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Comment to What if? Dunedin:

Diane Yeldon
April 14, 2017 at 11:10 pm
“Harassing of the Government in an imagined party political fashion.” Well said by Hilary Calvert. Spot on!
Here’s the meeting video for 21 Feb. Starting from 1.58.24 into the video, you can watch the discussion on the resolution which authorised the [Dunedin Hospital SOS] campaign. This was the Notice of Motion put forward by Cr Benson-Pope and seconded by Cr Hawkins.
There was no information in the agenda about how much the ‘asking for support’ would cost or how the ‘asking for support’ would be carried out. Nor did any councillors ask questions about this. Their attention was focused solely on discussing the rights and wrongs of the hospital siting (with only a couple of councillors saying they didn’t think it was any of their business.)
I can’t help wondering if many of the councillors did not understood that this ‘asking for support’ would result in unleashing a full-blown advertising campaign with leaflet drop, website and newspaper ads costing so far $12,000! I wonder if the motion had been taken in two parts with the second part only about the campaign and its full extent and costs disclosed the majority would have still voted in favour.

Dunedin City Council Published on Feb 26, 2017
Dunedin City Council – Public Forum + Council Meeting – 21 February 2017
Minutes, agendas and reports related to this meeting can be found at https://goo.gl/Eis3sK

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[decisionmaker.co.nz] formatted by whatifdunedin

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 8.4.17 Questions over Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS campaign
● 6.4.17 ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild
● 27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
● 26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
● 6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
● 24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
● 9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: batmanrobin by Mike Luckovich 2016 @njc.com [via truthdig.com] tweaked by whatifdunedin

SDHB change management: 59 roles proposed to go

Updated post
Sat, 29 Apr 2017 at 6:37 p.m.

At Facebook:

### ODT Online Fri, 28 Apr 2017
Roles dumped in SDHB proposal
By Eileen Goodwin
The roles of chief operating officer (COO) and deputy chief executive will be dumped in a sweeping management restructure proposal unveiled at the Southern District Health Board. In the formal document released yesterday, chief executive Chris Fleming said a new director of specialist services would replace the COO role. The proposed restructuring would not slim the executive leadership team. Its number would increase by one to 13 (including the chief executive), but there is quite a bit of change in the make-up of the roles. The brunt of job losses would be borne at the next two levels of management.
Read more

****

Restructure proposal appears to break up a joint decision-making model which involves senior doctors and nurses.

Sat, 29 Apr 2017
Proposal devastates nurses
By Eileen Goodwin
Nurses are “devastate” by the proposed restructuring at the Southern District Health Board. New Zealand Nurses Organisation Dunedin organiser Lorraine Lobb said the proposal removed budgetary and operational control from nursing leadership. There would be fewer nurse management roles, and those who remained would have less say in decision-making, Mrs Lobb said. “We’re quite devastated by this proposal. We’re all about safe staffing, [and that] requires nursing leadership,” she said. The proposal would see a net loss of 23 management positions. It was unclear how many were nursing roles. […] The new chief nursing and midwifery officer would have no control over budgets as their underlings would only report to them on professional matters, she said. […] The proposal also removes operational responsibilities from the board’s top doctor, the chief medical officer. On operational matters, medical directors would report to the director of specialist services, rather than the chief medical officer.
Read more

█ SDHB to consider submissions before announcing the final structure in June.

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Related Posts and Comments:
8.4.17 Questions over Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS campaign
6.4.17 ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild
27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

█ For more, enter the terms *hospital*, *sdhb* and *swann* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

DCC obfuscates : Open slather for freedom campers at Warrington

According to the DCC (via LGOIMA) – [but make that the personnel manning desks at the department concerned; not the LGOIMA officials] – the survey results for freedom camping at Warrington Domain WILL NOT be available until a council or community board meeting this month.

The DCC response to my LGOIMA request (13 March) was:

[16 March] Official information request for 577864, KERR, FREEDOM CAMPING SURVEY
I refer to your official information request dated 13-March-2017 for a full copy of the survey results of the Warrington freedom camping survey. We have decided to refuse your request under section 17(d) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, as the information requested will soon be publically (sic) available. Staff are planning to present this as a report to either the Infrastructure Services and Networks committee on April 10, or the next meeting of the Waikouaiti Coast Community Board on April 19….

The agenda for April 10 does not contain the item.
An agenda is not yet available for April 19.

****

NO SURVEY FIGURES
because DCC’s busy with Other things like keeping Lids On, like managing COMPLETE RUBBISH such as the slant grab of public land for corporations that might build cheap leaky Chase-style apartment buildings (that look like hotels)(tall penile ones no longer allowed at CHC) or site the ‘Govt gold mine of revenue’, ACC (that can easily afford any Other property in town), on the best ancillary site to assist the Hospital rebuild; and for the developers of Mosgiel who Must Have an over-specified over-priced pool funded by ratepayers using the successful CST model that sent us all to Penury.

NO SURVEY FIGURES
because the pool site, road names (diversity!?!) and road stopping will be discussed at the meeting on 10 April (Infrastructure Services and Networks Committee); greenhouse gas emissions (Planning and Regulatory Committee meeting, 11 April); and ‘updates’ (glory be, more pressure to Spend rates) for the boondoggles Ara Toi, City of Literature and the Public Art Framework (Community and Culture Committee meeting, 11 April). In amongst this menu of outstanding nothingness, is the item South Dunedin Hub, surely another chance to Delay and Defund that.

Inestimable Joy. And no survey figures.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED to the city council under the present red-green fawning leadership with Corporation Christmas dangling on its mind.

Well, local body politics has ESCALATED on what it does best – supervising with maximum inefficiency, the major time-wasting DCC slushfund (The Bank Of Other People’s Money) using impractical, morally-superior soft-handed ‘councillors’ to push council staff agendas into play.
Piglets are expected to Roast the LTP.

Oui, monsieur. The free lunches, coffees outside The Fix, and council stipends are at an all-time A+ for deficiency and delinquency.

****

Then came a missive from The Star, via ODT this weekend. When all council bad timing and obfuscation had looked to succeed. There it was: NUMBERS.

At Facebook:

Deeply interested, I read further……

TRUCKLOADS…. HUNDREDS….
All down to DCC staff deciding before Christmas NOT TO ENFORCE the current Camping Control Bylaw 23. So to Keep Trouble out of Metropolitan Dunedin.
—Leaving Warrington residents and ratepayers to absorb the antisocial hours, the noise, the indiscriminate toileting and rubbish, the shell fishing defying bag limits, all the unlawful long-stayers, and the Total loss of proper access to their own village green, now rutted by tyre tracks.

Despicable.

DCC should be formally challenged on the lack of enforcement and lack of Health & Safety.

Dear god, don’t let the present threat of disease at Warrington Domain, poorly managed by DCC in the current conditions, involve Typhoid. The deskhuggers won’t cope.

—

Related Posts and Comments:
● 16.3.17 WE have the information, unreasonable delay providing it #LGOIMA
● 15.2.17 Warrington : DCC dictates loss of community’s grassed recreation reserve to freeloaders
8.2.17 Hands Off Enjoyment of OUR Beaches #DCC
● 6.2.17 Uncontrolled freedom camping at Warrington Domain this weekend —DCC ‘hell model’ [no enforcement]
● 1.2.17 “Fake news” from DCC boffins & Community Board re freedom camping at Warrington Domain #TheBlight
10.2.16 Dunedin freedom camping #DCC #enforcement
16.12.14 DCC: Freedom Camping issues
7.12.09 Coastal protection zones

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Questions over Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS campaign

Received from Diane Yeldon
Fri, 7 April 2017 at 4:06 p.m.

OPINION

What’s wrong with the DCC Dunedin Hospital SOS Campaign?

If you clear away all the smoke from the party-political bluster, bickering and name–calling arising over this campaign, has the Dunedin City Council really done anything out of order? Or were some councillors, in fact, a majority, just trying to do their best for the people of Dunedin?

Unfortunately, the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. A council communication cannot be a political advertisement.

The Electoral Act more or less defines a political advertisement as anything which persuades or encourages voters to vote in a particular way. But our democratic rights to participate in government decision-making are not limited to voting once every three years. Citizens also have the right to petition Government, make submissions to select committees and other public authorities and deliberative bodies, and lobby MPs and Government Ministers.

If local councillors had been presented with a motion which proposed the following : that the Council encourages and persuades voters to choose candidate A, they would have rightly been horrified and would have rejected it.

In comparison, a single, short and final paragraph in a council motion which proposes that the Council should ask for public support for ONLY its own preferred position on a central government decision, and that people make such views known to central government, looks harmless and is quite likely to pass unnoticed – and, in fact, did. But it is just as political. It encourages people to use their democratic rights in a particular way.

The council staff should have alerted councillors that this was the case and that such political activism was beyond the proper scope of any local body. The difference in wording may be subtle but the democratic principles involved are significant and far-reaching.

Monday, 3 April 2017

[ends]

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Dunedin City Council’s Dunedin Hospital SOS petition states:
“I demand that central government redevelops Dunedin Hospital in the centre of the city. The government must also make a clear commitment to retain a top flight teaching hospital for Dunedin and the wider Otago/Southland region.
Save Our Site. Save Our Services.”

Petition at the DCC-managed SOS website [framed screenshot]

At the bottom of the webpage, DCC says:
“Dunedin Hospital SOS
The Dunedin City Council (“DCC”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) operates, hosts, or manages a number of websites, including DunedinHospitalSOS.nz. This site was created and funded following a Council resolution (21 February 2017) to communicate to Government its complete opposition to a rebuild of Dunedin Hospital outside the central city. It is not a permanent website.”

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How the petition got off the ground by Council vote (21 February 2017) on the Notice of Motion:

[screenshots – click to enlarge]

DCC Council 21.2.17 Agenda – 15 Notice of Motion Dunedin Hospital Rebuild

DCC Council 21.2.17 Minutes – 15 Notice of Motion Dunedin Hospital Rebuild

****

The DCC Dunedin Hospital SOS flyer and Facebook campaign cost Ratepayers $7,102 (excl GST). Ratepayers also find themselves footing the bill for a DCC-led SOS media campaign:

ODT Online 8.4.17 [screenshot]

—

Related Posts and Comments:
● 6.4.17 ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild
● 27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
● 26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
● 6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
● 24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
● 9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance

█ For more, enter the terms *hospital*, *sdhb* and *swann* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

ODT editor comments strongly #tick —Dunedin Hospital rebuild

Junior councillors should think carefully about how they appear in writing and how they might appear in publicity shots on Frederick St, as a band of politicos.

BRAVO to the ODT Editor:

—

Wisely, this editorial had already put dogsbodies in their place:

### ODT Online Thu, 30 Mar 2017
Editorial: Hospital central to city’s needs
OPINION What a shame the Dunedin City Council is divided over its campaign to keep the city’s hospital in the central city. This is an issue which should unite Dunedin. The squabbling is distressing. The council has initiated an effort to keep the rebuilt hospital right in town, with three councillors, Lee Vandervis, Mike Lord and Doug Hall, voting against. Dunedin-based National-list MP Michael Woodhouse waded in late last week, implying the campaign was a front for the Labour Party […] There are two fundamental issues. First, on the siting of the hospital, and second on whether the council should campaign on that. As as been pointed out strongly on this newspaper’s opinion page by two distinguished Dunedin residents, Sir David Skegg (a former University of Otago vice-chancellor) and Emeritus Prof David Jones (a former university medical division head), close links between the medical school and the hospital are vital.
Read more

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DCC’s ‘Dunedin Hospital SOS’ flyer and Facebook campaign cost Ratepayers $7,102 (excl GST).

[click to enlarge]

DCC says 55,000 campaign flyers were printed, with 50,000 supposedly delivered to households (however, thickish piles of flyers have been found by cleaners about town —gathering dust in corporate office tearooms and reception areas)….

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ODT 25.3.17 (page 1) – tweaked by whatifdunedin

### ODT Online Sat, 25 Mar 2017
Woodhouse blasts DCC
By Eileen Goodwin
National list MP Michael Woodhouse has lashed out at the Dunedin City Council over its hospital rebuild campaign, implying it is a front for the Labour Party. And Mr Woodhouse said the council’s stance was “confusing” — on the one hand it wants a central city rebuild, but it granted the Accident Compensation Corporation the right to consider buying the Frederick St car park. ACC has a 12-month timeframe to look at development options for the site. […] Mr Woodhouse is also ACC Minister, and he made it clear he was speaking as a local MP.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 27.3.17 Site Notice #DunedinHospital
● 26.2.17 Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment
● 6.2.17 Let the Ombudsman recommend for democracy at SDHB
● 24.1.17 SDHB/Govt : Physio Pool GRIEF
● 9.1.17 Audit NZ admonishes commissioner Grant and SDHB #Health
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
20.11.16 Delta at Dunedin Hospital #worseluck
7.11.16 SDHB #FAILS with Healthcare Communication and Governance
3.9.16 SDHB ‘food’ : Our eyes glaze over . . . .
23.8.16 Win! to DCC candidate Paul Pope #DunedinHospital
22.6.16 SDHB Commissioners speed-bleed health system
1.5.16 Hospital food according to Gurglars
23.12.15 SDHB underfunded, no bandage
3.11.15 SDHB will ‘takeaway’ more than freshly cooked meals and a head chef
30.10.15 Dunedin Hospital #despair
● 17.6.15 Southern District Health Board sacked !!!
9.6.15 Southern District Health Board
16.4.15 Talk of replacing Southern District Health Board with commissioner
21.8.14 Dirty pool? #SDHB #University
6.8.14 Otago Therapeutic Pool at Dunedin Hospital
1.5.14 Dunedin Hospital buildings SORRY STATE
14.1.14 DCC: Hospital area parking changes #cyclelanes
5.12.13 Swann case: ODHB/SDHB and friends
3.8.12 Extraordinary editorials

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Town Belt Traverse 2017

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Brain Injury #Concussion

Flyers available from the main foyer display at Dunedin Hospital:

[click to enlarge]

****

### ODT Online Sat, 25 Mar 2017
Editorial: Using your head over concussion
OPINION It is the headache that will not go away. Concussion in sport is again in the headlines and has, sadly, shown the vast difference in how two high-impact codes, rugby and league, handle the issue and the welfare of their players. […] It has taken a long time for sports bodies to accept the full impact of concussion. In years gone by it was considered “a knock to the head” and players were encouraged to get back on their feet and into the game. Last year, The New Zealand Herald wrote a compelling series about the long-term effect of head knocks in sport. It discovered five cases of dementia among the successful Taranaki rugby side of 1964, which their families attributed to concussion during their playing days. […] The NZRU this year launched a blue card initiative, which is aimed at getting concussed players off the field. The blue card can be issued when a referee suspects a player has suffered a concussion. The player must immediately stand down for at least three weeks, and obtain medical clearance to return to play.
Read more

[2016 concussion series at nzherald.co.nz]
█ The Longest Goodbye: Rugby and the Dementia Dilemma

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### NZ Herald 5:00 AM Sun, 26 Mar 2017
New study finds stronger necks mean fewer concussions
By Kirsty Wynn – Herald on Sunday
Rugby coaches are being urged to concentrate on improving players’ neck strength in a bid to avoid debilitating concussions. A ground-breaking New Zealand study has found players with weaker and uneven neck strength are more vulnerable to severe impacts that may cause concussion. The experiment by Otago University’s Dr Hamish Osborne and Research Fellow Dr Danielle Salmon used bluetooth sensors behind the ears of 23 players in the Otago Mitre 10 Cup rugby team to measure acceleration, or g forces, during impacts in five games. The neck strength of each player was also measured using especially designed equipment. Salmon said the weaker the neck the more severe the damaging “whip-lash” type movement. A higher acceleration force was also recorded.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Mosgiel Pool site options, survey twists

At Facebook:

****

### ODT Online Mon, 27 Mar 2017
Delay in approving pool site irks trust
By John Lewis
The Taieri Community Facilities Trust has made a decision on the preferred site for the new Mosgiel pool, but will have to wait another two weeks before it is considered by the Dunedin City Council …. [Trust chairwoman Irene Mosley] said the trust voted about 10 days ago to ask the DCC to go with an amended Site A, which was near the existing pool. “The trust had 447 responses; 52% were for Site B (Memorial Gardens), and 40% were for Site A …. However, once the comments were taken into consideration, along with the actual votes, the trust discovered that many of those in favour of Site B were in favour because of concerns about the existing pool being closed during the new pool build, potential parking issues and road safety concerns at the proposed entrance off Gordon Rd. The trust believes by locating the new pool further into the existing caravan park, and moving the park towards the Reid Ave side of the fields, these concerns can be mitigated.”
Read more

****

Old footage / older survey:

Channel 39 Published on Aug 13, 2015
Proposed Mosgiel pool site submissions being analysed
More than three hundred public submissions on the proposed Mosgiel pool site are being analysed. The city council’s earmarked four possible locations for a new swimming complex. And a clash with existing assets is upsetting some residents.

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Related Post and Comments:
14.12.16 Mosgiel pool site options —muddy water from mainstreet businesses

█ For more, enter the term *mosgiel pool* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Site Notice #DunedinHospital

This afternoon David Benson-Pope requested an unreserved apology from the website owner following publication of an image and various comments at a now deleted post concerning the Save Our Hospital campaign that was highlighted in a newspaper story published on 25 March 2017.

The website owner unreservedly apologises to Mr Benson-Pope for the publication of this material and any resulting discomfort or distress it may have caused.

An apology will be emailed to Mr Benson-Pope shortly, copy Sandy Graham, DCC.

Elizabeth Kerr
Site Owner

—

Reference:

### ODT Online Sat, 25 Mar 2017
Woodhouse blasts DCC
By Eileen Goodwin
National list MP Michael Woodhouse has lashed out at the Dunedin City Council over its hospital rebuild campaign, implying it is a front for the Labour Party. And Mr Woodhouse said the council’s stance was “confusing” — on the one hand it wants a central city rebuild, but it granted the Accident Compensation Corporation the right to consider buying the Frederick St car park. ACC has a 12-month timeframe to look at development options for the site. […] Mr Woodhouse is also ACC Minister, and he made it clear he was speaking as a local MP.
Read more

[ends]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

DCC Proposed Reserves and Beaches Bylaw : Real-deal submission

[click to enlarge]

Dunedin City Council
Current consultations: Proposed Reserves and Beaches Bylaw 2017

****

Received from JimmyJones
Sat, 17 Mar 2017 at 10:03 p.m.

Subject: RE: Reserves and beaches consultation failure

Message: Find attached an outstanding submission on the horse-hating bylaw. I am sure there were many good subs, but I noticed this one from an 11-year-old who has a horse called Tonka. She makes a very good case for freedom. Like many of the other submitters, she bypassed the professionally organised DCC misinformation and understood that the DCC are threatening a total ban on horses on beaches.

I think other people should see it, I have removed her name from the submission in case she wasn’t expecting widespread publicity.

The submitters tell us that no other Council has a ban on horse riding on beaches in New Zealand.

—

Related Post and Comments:
8.2.17 Hands Off Enjoyment of OUR Beaches #DCC

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

WE have the information, unreasonable delay providing it #LGOIMA

Contrary to DCC Bylaw 23 no camping restriction applied over summer

DCC’s delay in providing official information on freedom camping numbers (Which Is Available) appears to equate with what happened over LGOIMA requests lodged after the South Dunedin Flood of June 2015. Delay, derferment, and obfuscation occurred then as now. There is no reason to believe anything has changed internally, magnified by today’s ‘official response’.

[redacted screenshot – click to enlarge]

****

DCC now has a laborious text response as first acknowledgement of the LGOIMA requests it receives. An associate has been working on improvements to the below on suggestion back to the system. The short information request is highlighted by whatifdunedin:

From: officialinformation @dcc.govt.nz
Sent: Monday, 13 March 2017 7:55 a.m.
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: Confirmation of receipt of LGOIMA request – 577864

Dear Elizabeth

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your official information request dated 13 Mar 2017 7:55am

We support public access to official information. Our obligation under the Local Government Official Information Act 1987 (the Act) is to provide you the information requested as soon as reasonably practicable unless there is a good reason for withholding it.

We will process information requests as below:

1. We will let you know as soon as we can (and in any case within 20 working days) whether your request will be granted or declined, and if the request is declined why we have declined it.

1. In some cases it may be necessary for our decision to be made after 20 working days. When this occurs we will advise you the anticipated delivery date together with the reason why it is necessary to extend that time within the 20 working days.

1. If your request is complex or requires a large amount of collation and research, we may contact you with a view to either refining your request or discussing the possibility of charging for aspects of your request in line with the DCC charging policy.

1. If we decide to release the information, we aim to provide it at the same time as we give our decision. If this is not possible we will provide the information as soon as reasonably practicable.

If you need to contact us about your request, please email officialinformation@dcc.govt.nz or call 03 477 4000. Please quote reference number: 577864

The timeliness of our decisions and the reasons for them are reviewable by the Office of the Ombudsman. You can view the Ombudsman’s guidelines for the processing of information requests at http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by calling freephone: 0800 802 602.

Yours sincerely,

Official Information Request Service

Below are the details of the request

Your request:

New information request – Warrington Domain

I have been informed that DCC recently ran a survey of the freedom campers at Warrington Domain, asking (in no particular order here):

1. where they were from
2. their age
3. how much they were spending
4. what activities they were doing in Dunedin, and
5. what type of vehicle they were in.

I’m told the survey ran for two weeks; and that it was conducted by Ashley Reid.

I request a full copy of the survey results (with names of campers redacted for privacy), to be received by email at earliest convenience.

I note hearings for the Proposed Reserves and Beaches Bylaw will be held this week. Prompt receipt of the survey information would be enabling. Thanks.

File attachment
No file uploaded

[ends]

*****

Points:

1. The Reserves and Beaches Bylaw review that had hearings this week did not include a review of freedom camping; freedom camping is specifically excluded from this bylaw review. The freedom camping bylaw review is heralded to take place in about a month’s time.

2. The point numbering error in the response of 13 March above is the DCC’s.

3. The running foot, or footer, italicised in red (“Dance like no one is watching; Email like it may one day be read aloud in a deposition.”) in the redacted screenshot above, has been raised with senior staff this afternoon and has since been sorted.

4. The LGOIMA response received today must be seen in light of a response to another request I made for information about Warrington Domain lodged on 22.1.17 [ref no. 570874]:

[excerpt; my underlining]

14. How many freedom campers have been staying at Warrington Domain nightly from 1 July 2016 to 15 January 2017? (please state number of vehicles; and number of individuals if known)

15. What is the average length of stay per vehicle at the Domain?

DCC response (28.2.17):

14) We do not perform a count of freedom campers at each site daily. An estimate may be available as a result of a recent survey that was conducted across camping sites within the city. Please advise if you wish to refine your request to include an estimate of numbers.

15) See the answer to question (14) above.

****

whatifdunedin’s ‘amateur’ response and translation:

WE have the information —WE are going to control it. Let’s play cat and mouse, if it turns out the information is ‘maybe’ awkward or not in OUR political favour [before a Bylaw review]. Besides, WE need processing time to [‘line up ducks’] before the information, analysed…… hits the iPads of elected representatives. Micromanaging is GOOD. Vive la DCC Operatives !!

—

Related Posts and Comments:
● 15.2.17 Warrington : DCC dictates loss of community’s grassed recreation reserve to freeloaders
8.2.17 Hands Off Enjoyment of OUR Beaches #DCC
● 6.2.17 Uncontrolled freedom camping at Warrington Domain this weekend —DCC ‘hell model’ [no enforcement]
● 1.2.17 “Fake news” from DCC boffins & Community Board re freedom camping at Warrington Domain #TheBlight
10.2.16 Dunedin freedom camping #DCC #enforcement
16.12.14 DCC: Freedom Camping issues
7.12.09 Coastal protection zones

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: warrington domain, cropped detail of supplied colour photograph taken 14.2.17

Councillor don’t tell us, we know Dunedin industry and manufacturing is Tops

But Rachel Elder did need to inform Mr Mayor, since it’s he who opines that [singularly ???] “weightless” manufacturing will one day make Dunedin great.
A while back Mr Mayor lauded expansion at Speight’s, Emerson’s and Greggs ….but recently, dreadfully, when interviewed by John Campbell on RNZ Checkpoint, Mr Mayor had trouble remembering these and other multimillion-dollar manufacturing investments in the good people, raw products and knowhow of Dunedin City. As well, he slipped past the convenient fact that the deputy mayor is a director of Scott Technology Ltd, and his old flower Mr McLauchlan, advisor and confidant, is the company’s board chairman.

Notwithstanding, Ms Elder thought it necessary to set herself a free writing project, an op-ed to ‘tell’ Mr Mayor, as well as advertise her paid work skills. Yes, yes, we’re all for free speech and pumping political mileage; however, we are the converted and connected, we know just how great Dunedin manufacturing is and can be —if not for DCC.

It must be said, though, that Mr Mayor’s speech at the Cadbury protest in the Octagon last Saturday was a large complimentary step up from the fatal Checkpoint phone interview.

—

“Messaging that it is too expensive to export from Dunedin and that we are too far away from markets and that manufacturing is best not done here does not support the many families and individuals who work in this sector.”
–Rachel (take that Dave Cull) Elder

### ODT Online Wed, 15 Mar 2017
We have skilled workers and can make it all here
By Rachel Elder
OPINION As an employment consultant and someone who advocates for a wide range of jobs in Dunedin, I am keen for Dunedin to be advertised nationwide as a place that is great for manufacturing and production as this will supply jobs to our skilled workers. The fact is Cadbury is owned by a multinational that has caused its demise. Manufacturing can be done here well and efficiently.
Read more

Comment published at ODT Online:

ej kerr Wed, 15/03/2017 – 7:59pm #
As a city councillor Ms Elder should be overtly aware that the Dunedin City Council-owned power distribution company Aurora Energy Ltd does not and cannot offer a safe and secure electricity supply network for businesses, manufacturers and other large power users (this aside from the now obvious inability to offer safe supply to residential users). The mayor and councillors are not listening and not communicating clearly on the state of Aurora’s burnt asset. Thankfully, the Otago Daily Times has filled that void with strong news reporting. At a cost of one billion dollars to repair and upgrade the existing lines and facilities – not counting the cost of new development work required in Central Otago and Lakes District to meet growth and increasing infrastructural demand – there will shortly be a very heavy impost landing on all local businesses via rates increases. Such an unpopular debating topic at the head-in-the-sand Dunedin City Council.

****

Truly fine examples of the sort of thing your grandmother and mother will tell you about Dunedin that Mr Mayor can’t:
. . . .

McMeeking Manufacturing, 123 Maclaggan St

Jaytee Baking Cups have been a household name since the 1930s, when the company was founded by a printing engineer James Thomas Williamson, hence the name Jaytee. Since acquiring the company in 1979, McMeeking Manufacturing has been the largest supplier of Baking Cups in New Zealand with exports to Australia and the Pacific Islands. Due to the dramatic increase in bakeries, cafes etc, the range of products – all manufactured in the Dunedin factory – has grown to fulfil customers requirements and follow the latest trends. Read more at https://www.jaytee.co.nz/

. . . .

### ODT Online Wed, 15 Mar 2017
Machine tool smart, versatile
By Simon Hartley
Farra Engineering’s latest $1.3 million machining kit not only has the capacity to work 24/7, but can text its progress to operators day and night. The DMG Mori “multi-pallet (work bench) horizontal machining centre”, supplied by a German-Japanese merged company, has been running for about a fortnight, at Farra Engineering, Dunedin, chief executive John Whitaker said. The DMG Mori could work on castings weighing just a few grams, on pieces weighing up to three tonnes, and castings up to 1.4cu m in size. “Being so productive, we’re going to the marketplace to fill the spare capacity,” Mr Whitaker said.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: jaytee.co.nz – jaytee baking cups

Dellers at Breitbart.com : ‘Same dreary losers are still in charge’ #Brexit

Link received from Douglas (Mick) Field
Sat, 11 Mar 2017 at 9:45 p.m.

### breitbart.com 10 Mar 2017
DELINGPOLE: We Won Brexit But the Same Dreary Losers Are Still In Charge
by James Delingpole
There is still much dispute as to precisely what it was that persuaded 17.4 million Britons to vote for Brexit last year. Some may have done it to regain Britain’s sovereignty, some to curb immigration, some because they realised correctly that everyone on the Remain side of the argument from one-hit-wonder gobshite Bob Geldof to that preening renter of overpriced desert islands Richard Branson was a weapons-grade, copper-bottomed tick.
But here’s one thing of which we can be pretty sure: nobody voted Brexit – the biggest public vote in favour of anything in UK history – in order to get more of the same old, same old.
Brexit was, perhaps more than anything, a cri de coeur from the silent majority who had been ignored for too long. It sprung from the same impulse that saw Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency – what political economist (and friend to the Donald) Ted Malloch has argued is a paradigm shift in global politics.
If you had to sum up that impulse in a phrase, it would go something like “Enough of this shit, already.”
Sure we might differ on our preferred solutions, but we’re all agreed what the general problem is. For too long a remote, democratically unaccountable, smug, corrupt, self-serving liberal elite has been making all the rules and all the running, while the rest of us just feel poorer, less fairly treated and more constrained by stupid, politically correct rules, regulations, and taxes in a failing system which wastes lots of our money yet gives us little in return.
The good news is that, against the odds, we won Brexit.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: theguardian.com – brexit

How Safe Are We/Our Businesses with the Corporate Disaster that’s Aurora, owned by DCC ? #reliability

Latest Aurora ‘safety’ ads at ODT Online this week [screenshots]

—

A N O T H E R ● L E A K —Aurora confirms it has breached standards over the average amount of time power has been cut per customer after its data was leaked to the Otago Daily Times.

### ODT Online Sat, 11 Mar 2017
Aurora fails reliability for third year
By Vaughan Elder
Aurora Energy could be fined or face court action after breaching a limit on power interruptions for the third year running. The Dunedin City Council-owned company said it took the breaches “seriously” and would probably ask the Commerce Commission to relax its reliability standards. If the Commerce Commission agreed, Aurora would be only the second lines company to operate under relaxed standards under a system called a customised price-quality path. The only other company to operate under such a system was Orion, after its infrastructure was damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes. Meeting the standards is important because the Commerce Commission takes into account liability when setting limits on how much lines companies can earn. …[Aurora] would not be drawn over whether a lack of investment had contributed to the breaches. […] A Commerce Commission spokesman said it was not aware of the reported breach as Aurora was not required to provide the information until June. However, if Aurora had breached standards its response could range from warning letters to administrative settlements and court proceedings. It could also penalise Aurora by cutting up to 1% of its revenue.
Read more

—

We hear poor Steve Thompson is not coping with all these leaks….

Related Posts and Comments:
16.12.16 Tim Hunter, NBR —Aurora/Delta, DCC and ComCom
12.11.16 Delta/Aurora : Current strategy to “fix on failure” [extreme neglect]
22.10.16 DCC struggles with Governance…. Delta/Aurora/DCHL in slipslidy mode
● 9.6.16 Aurora Energy Ltd warned by regulator

█ For more, enter the terms *aurora*, *delta*, *grady*, *poles*, *asset management plan*, *dchl*, *auditor-general*, *epicpolefail* or *epic fraud* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Bill English PM : Super changes

“New Zealanders are healthier and living longer so adjusting the long-term settings of NZ Super while there is time for people to adapt is the right thing to do.” –Bill English PM

### NZ Herald Mon, 6 Mar 2017 3:19 PM
PM Bill English announces Super changes [+ Videos]
The eligibility age for superannuation will rise to 67 years old by 2040, Prime Minister Bill English revealed this afternoon. In a major political development, English promised to begin progressively lifting the threshold from 65 to 67 years old in 2037. That means the changes will not affect anyone born on or before 30 June, 1972. The Government will not act on the promise until after the general election in September.

English said the major change would be legislated for next year. The Government will also limit superannuation eligibility to people who have lived in New Zealand for 20 years, rather than 10 years. That is lower than the commissioner’s recommendation of 25 years. English said the new residency requirement would apply to people who arrived in the country after the law was passed – likely to be next year if the National-led Government remains in power.

Other settings such as linking NZ Super to the average wage and universal Super without means-testing would remain unchanged. The age at which people could access Kiwisaver would remain at 65.

In justifying the change, English noted that even someone who retired at age 67 was likely to receive NZ Super for longer than someone who retired at age 64 today. “That is because average life expectancy is increasing by about 1.3 years each decade.”

The changes to the age of eligibility and residency requirements would save the Government at estimated 0.6 per cent of GDP or $4 billion once fully phased in.

Finance Minister Steven Joyce said New Zealanders’ life expectancy had risen by 12 years over the past 60 years. “When the age was set at 65 in 2001, a retiree could expect to spend about a fifth of their life receiving NZ Super. That has since increased to about a quarter. Following this change, those eligible for NZ Super at 67 in 2040 can still expect to receive it for a quarter of their life on average.”

Experts have said the Government will have to do more than raise the age of eligibility to keep the Super scheme affordable. The cost of the scheme is expected to triple in the next 20 years from $11 billion to $36b as more people reach the over-65 age-group and live for longer.

….English said raising the retirement age in 2037 would more fairly spread the costs and benefits of NZ Super between generations, ensure it remained affordable, and would give people time to adjust. It would also bring New Zealand into line with other countries like Australia, the UK, Denmark, Germany and the United States. English said he did not think his proposals would damage National’s chance of winning a fourth term. “I think they will enhance it,” he said.
Read more

****

At Facebook:

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: stuff.co.nz – John Key (54) and Bill English (54) in August 2015. Photo by David White/Fairfax, tweaked by whatifdunedin

Seeking the New Grady #Delta

(try to ignore that sick feeling)

● https://www.seek.co.nz/job/32939468

Advt also at Otago Daily Times, Saturday, 4 Feb 2017
(Employment, page 51)

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Mr Trump, help !!! [councils gunked up on Mythical man-made climate change, Again] #!$%^&!@#

D R A I N ● T H E ● S W A M P ● A T ● D U D

[trumparmy.net] branco 2016 at comicallyincorrect.com (abbrev.)

****

Dunedin City Council – Media Release
International review of rising groundwater protection options

This item was published on 02 Mar 2017

International experience in managing rising groundwater is being reviewed as part of a broad project on the future of South Dunedin.

The Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council are preparing a programme of work that will develop possible options to mitigate or manage the effects of rising groundwater in South Dunedin. Any options developed will have to be investigated further and discussed with the community.
DCC Group Manager Water and Waste Laura McElhone says, “To help us with this overall project, we want to have a better understanding of how communities elsewhere in the world have managed the challenge of rising groundwater, particularly in areas that have similar social, economic and environmental settings to South Dunedin.”
The two councils have jointly contracted global environmental specialists Golder Associates to carry out an international review of places where protection options have been, or are being, put in place to manage rising groundwater. Golder Associates, which has a strong New Zealand presence, will be working with not-for-profit organisation Deltares, based in the Netherlands, which has international experience in this field. The two councils will pay an equal share of the $36,000 contract.
ORC Director Engineering, Hazards and Science Gavin Palmer says many cities around the world are facing the same issue of rising groundwater so much can be learned from experience elsewhere. “This review will incorporate what protection options have been used elsewhere, what has worked and lessons learnt. This information, along with our own science and monitoring, will help us and the community to identify viable options for South Dunedin.”
The contract was awarded last month and the work is expected to take about 10 weeks. The DCC and ORC are working together to develop and deliver a programme that responds to the climate challenges facing South Dunedin, while recognising the broader impacts across Dunedin and the wider region. The Otago Regional Council released a report in July 2016 outlining the hazards facing South Dunedin. The report pulls together information and analysis gathered over seven years, particularly regarding the increased likelihood of surface flooding associated with rising sea level. This was followed up by drop-in public information sessions held jointly with the DCC. The two councils are also collaborating with other groups and agencies in South Dunedin to develop more effective communication channels.
Dr McElhone says, “We are at the beginning of a long term project to plan for climate change. Once we have a lot of this technical information together, we will be able to discuss next steps with the community.”

Contact Group Manager Water and Waste on 03 477 4000.

DCC Link

****

K E E P ● T H E ● F A R K I N G ● P I P E S ● M A I N T A I N E D

[usbacklash.org]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

D’oh [Mayor Cull can’t name all the successful manufacturers at #Dunedin]

Rather, Daaave promotes the SHONKY programmed spend on non-essential CBD tart-ups. Not reprioritising council budgets then, Daaave….. to solve the Superduper-Mystery of council-owned Aurora/Delta LOST OR MISPLACED FUNDS, WHERE DID THEY GO ? WHERE WERE THEY SPENT ? Hundreds of millions of dollars lost from Otago ratepayers and electricity users, Daaave…..
You are going to make them pay again.

ODT 25.2.17 (page 34) tweaked

[click to enlarge]

Otago Manufacturers need a Safe and Secure supply of Electricity.
The Mayor of Dunedin is making sure this won’t happen.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Dunedin Hospital Redevelopment

ODT Online public notice:

[SDHB media release]

Public forum chance to learn more about Dunedin Hospital facilities

Friday, 17 February 2017

The public is being given the opportunity to learn more about how Dunedin’s new hospital facilities might be configured at an event being held at the end of this month.

A public forum will be held on the evening of Tuesday 28 February to update interested members of the Dunedin community on the redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital.

“The public forum is an opportunity for people to get a better understanding of how we are deciding what facilities we need and where to deliver the best health outcomes for the Southern district. It will provide a great opportunity for people to understand the kinds of issues the team has to find answers for before the architects can complete their work, and the time frames involved in the design and building process,” Chair of the Southern Partnership Group Andrew Blair says.

The forum will include a presentation, followed by a question and answer session.

Southern DHB Commissioner Kathy Grant says the forum will give the community an opportunity to learn how the project is about more than just replacing buildings.

“We want to take this opportunity for members of the public to come along and get a better understanding of this exciting project and the opportunity it presents for developing facilities that can support a modern healthcare system capable of addressing the needs of the next 40-50 years.”

Further information on the project is available at: http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/hospital-redevelopment-projects/dunedin-hospital-redevelopment-project

Public forum details
Date: Tuesday 28 February
Time: 6-7pm
Location: Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum, 419 Gt King Street, Dunedin

Media contact:
SPG Chair Andrew Blair
andrew @blairconsulting.co.nz

SDHB Link

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Aurora Energy at ODT 24.2.17 follows #LGOIMA

Broad spectrum (?!) LGOIMA request from earlier this week and interim acknowledgement:

From: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Monday, 20 February 2017 7:24 PM
To: Grady Cameron
Cc: Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: Aurora Energy Ltd – Official Information Request (LGOIMA)

Attention Grady Cameron
Chief Executive, Aurora Energy Ltd

Dear Grady

How is Aurora Energy Ltd funding the $30million pole replacement programme you speak about – from capex (capital expenditure), opex (operational expenditure), a combination of the two? or by other means? (please state)

Will Aurora Energy Ltd attempt to raise line charges for Otago power consumers, to achieve the number of (dangerous) pole replacements required in the next 3-5 years – how soon will line charges increase and by how much given regulatory scrutiny by the Commerce Commission?*

Is Aurora Energy Ltd solvent at this time? Explain.

Please provide any financial detail(s) salient to these matters.

Sincerely

Elizabeth Kerr
Dunedin

*emphasis added 24.2.17

—————————————-

From: Grady Cameron
Sent: Wednesday, 22 February 2017 1:02 p.m.
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: Aurora Energy Ltd – Official Information Request (LGOIMA)

Dear Elizabeth

Thank you for your enquiry. We acknowledge receipt of your official information request received by us on 21 February regarding Aurora Energy (our reference 0945).

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 21 March, being 20 working days after the day your request was received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.

Kind regards,
Glenda

****

Received.
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 at 1:58 a.m.

[click to enlarge]

ODT 24.2.17 (page 4)

ODT 24.2.17 (page 5)

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

DCC overlooks due process and Environment Court rulings for Mosgiel road hierarchy

Taieri Times / Otago Daily Times fails to understand or elaborate (no research!) the issues raised by local resident and business owner Brian Miller in his submission to the Transportation section of the proposed 2GP.

Mr Miller and his family have lived on Riccarton Rd for the last thirty years. In that time, variously, DCC have planned – and carried out supporting construction works – to enable Hagart-Alexander Dr (HAD) as an arterial route taking heavy vehicles ‘safely’; DCC have been to Environment Court on the matter, receiving clear rulings and sets of conditions bringing about these construction works; since then, however, DCC have formed the view – contrary to the Court rulings and agreed structure plans – that the arterial route should be Riccarton Rd, not HAD. Former city councillor and deputy mayor Sydney Brown has a residential subdivision to HAD.

Who is pulling whose chain here ?
DCC, in changing your minds, where is the due (fair and proper) process of public consultation ?

Are flicks of the pen all that DCC does now.

The Sin : City Planning, in its 2GP recommendations for the Taieri roading hierarchy fails to acknowledge legal determinations of the Environment Court of New Zealand and insodoing the council may be seen as INJUDICIOUS. Court rulings cannot be ignored holus-bolus to suit DCC fairyland futures for the Taieri.

[Sources at Dunedin say this is not the only case of DCC’s recent lack of regard for the Court.]

Further, to underline…. during the ‘Revised Planner’s Recommendations’ on February 10, the city planner was heard to say they regarded information presented in submission(s) as “old” – the strong inference being that Environment Court rulings do not count; or worse, that they had no idea any matters had, in fact, been to court. The City thus appears sunk on a problem of integrity, lawful or otherwise.

This situation simply would not arise if greater supervision and TRAINING was provided to salaried council underlings involved in 2GP processes. They must be fully cognisant of the history and implications of relevant legal rulings made in respect of council activities. That way they could see the trees for the wood when the likes of ex staff appear for ‘advice’ to hearing in trite bouncy-rat mode.

[The implications of contempt should perhaps be underscored instead of multiple teabreaks culture at the Civic Centre.]

Lastly, in god we trust…. the independent commissioners Messrs Collins and Rae are NO FOOLS.

WAKE UP DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL, or
We The People will see you in Court.

[ends]

****

2GP Hearing Topic: Transportation
Hearing dates: February 1, 2, 3, 8
Revised Planner’s Recommendations: February 10 [● DCC to upload]
Commissioners: David Collins (Chair), Gary Rae, David Benson-Pope, Aaron Hawkins, Jinty MacTavish, Kate Wilson

THE SUBMISSION | Statement tabled at hearing

Note: Brian Miller gave his family trust’s 28-page submission (plus attachments) on the 2GP Transportation topic in the hearing of independent commissioners David Collins and Gary Rae, only. To avoid conflicts of interest, at Mr Miller’s request and with the Chair’s agreement, no councillor commissioners were present for the submission.

█ H180-421 BJ & AJ Miller family trust (PDF format)

In an email to Elizabeth Kerr (6.2.17), Brian Miller said: “Probably the most important part of our submission is point 3.3, pages 20 to 22.” :

[click to enlarge]

****

[click to enlarge]
2GP Data Map (Roads)

2GP Zone Map

****

█ 2GP Hearing Topic: Transportation Link

Council Evidence (PDF format)
● Section 42A Report
● Appendix 1 DCC Operative Plan Road Hierarchy
● Appendix 2 Road DCC submission – road classification hierarchy corrections
● Appendix 3 Christchurch District Plan Replacement abstract
● Appendix 4 Transportation figures
● Appendix 5 2GP Section 6 – Transportation
● Statement of Evidence of Ian Clark
● Statement of evidence – Grant Fisher
● Amendment to Section 42a Report Transportation

Statement tabled at hearing (PDF format)
█ Transport Advice from Sarah Connolly – Principal Consultant Transport Planning – MWH

—

Related Posts and Comments:
5.2.17 Maurice Prendergast : Defence of 60 year old arterial corridor #2GP
30.5.16 Non-arterial Riccarton Road : Brian Miller stirred by community board
5.6.14 DCC Transport Strategy and Riccarton Road
24.4.14 DCC promotes Riccarton Rd as sole heavy traffic bypass

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.