DCC, DCHL, debt, democracy (and professional rugby)

Cr Vandervis told yesterday’s meeting the council holding company would borrow $6 million to help fund dividend payments to the council in the 2012-13 year. The council would also draw another $3 million from the Waipori Fund in the same period, and taking money from other “places it doesn’t exist”.

Cr Kate Wilson denied the council was engaged in “trickery”… describing Cr Vandervis’ comments as “lies”.

### ODT Online Tue, 7 Aug 2012
Ire and apology at heated meeting
By Chris Morris
Allegations and threats flew when a Dunedin City Council meeting erupted yesterday over claims the organisation was relying on millions of dollars in loans to keep rates down. Cr Lee Vandervis began a verbal melee at yesterday’s meeting by claiming borrowing by Dunedin City Holdings Ltd continued to offset council rates. The suggestion was quickly rejected by DCHL chairman Denham Shale, who last night confirmed to the Otago Daily Times the practice had ceased under the company’s new board as of July 1.
Read more

It’s interesting Cr Syd Brown has inside knowledge on (the latest iteration of) DCHL’s financial manipulations, while other councillors appear not to. Since when has Audit New Zealand been the last ‘honest’ word on (iffy) council accounting and book shuffling. We built the stadium didn’t we, and we fund professional rugby as if we ACCEPT this as council core business. You’re excused for thinking Audit New Zealand has hands in pockets; we do know it runs a conveniently narrow brief for audit purposes. But isn’t this FUN FOR SYD.

Cr Syd Brown, chairman of the finance, strategy and development committee, said the community should be reassured the 5% rates increase had been struck for 2012-13. That followed a democratic process accepted by councillors, which had also been “given the all clear” by Audit New Zealand, he said. He also reassured councillors DCHL had committed to paying dividend payments without borrowing to do so.

Do we accept Sydney Brown as Apologist for Dunedin City Council?

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Who is DCHL now? (spot the token woman)

Arthur William BAYLIS (Queenstown)
Appointment Date: 31 Oct 2011

Graham William CROMBIE (Dunedin)
17 Jul 2012

Kathleen Enid GRANT (Mosgiel)
17 Jul 2012

James Denham SHALE (Auckland)
31 Oct 2011

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### ODT Online Tue, 7 Aug 2012
Councillors back four-year term
By Chris Morris
Chants of “four more years” could soon be ringing out inside the Dunedin City Council chambers. That is if Dunedin city councillors get their way after voting yesterday to support a push to extend three-year local body terms to four years. The idea was already being promoted by councils in Christchurch and Wellington in their submissions on the Government’s better local government reforms, which are before a select committee.
Read more

How to lock in sheer incompetence for four years… Is this more or less DEMOCRACY? What would we know, people keep voting back in the likes of Brown, Hudson, Collins and Stevenson.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin City Council security for borrowings

Read: how to finance a stadium for a rainy day.

This was tabled today at the meeting of the Dunedin City Council:

Report – Council – 16/08/2010 (PDF, 322.5 kb, new window)
Security for Borrowings

You will note the recommendations in the report:

1
That the report be received.

2
That the Council approves the setting of a rate of $0.000291 in the dollar (plus GST at the prevailing rate) on the capital value of Dunedin City as security for the borrowing of up to $50,137,200 from Dunedin City Treasury Ltd. That borrowings made under this resolution be repaid to the Lender in equal quarterly instalments of interest and principal over 20 years.

3
That the Council grant to the Chief Executive authority to drawdown debt in tranches, as and when required, up to a limit of $50,137,200.

4
That the Council approves the setting of a rate of $0.000246 in the dollar (plus GST at the prevailing rate) on the capital value of Dunedin City as security for the borrowing of up to $42,339,500 from Dunedin City Treasury Ltd. That borrowings made under this resolution be repaid to the Lender when the Forsyth Barr Stadium is transferred into a Council-owned Company.

5
That the Council grant to the Chief Executive authority to drawdown debt, for the purpose of the new stadium, as and when required, up to a limit of $149,000,000.

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Think what you will of this, folks, and let the good debate flow.

It is considered that the resolutions were voted through without Councillors understanding the meaning or import. WHY are we not surprised.

Let’s refer back to Ian Pillans’ letter, with our bolding added:

### ODT Monday 9 August 2010 (page 8)
Letters to the editor
Ratepayers the rock for council debt
By Ian Pillans, Dunedin
….The simple truth is that this council is recklessly spendthrift and the city’s finances depend on continued borrowing against its assets…. Its access to funds is not, as Cr Walls suggests, the result of a respected record of loan repayment but solely because it can borrow to dangerous levels on the personal guarantees of its ratepayers….

The full letter is available in print and digital editions of the newspaper.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Councillor Walls lets rip!

Yesterday and today, spurred by the stadium debate, Richard Walls provides opinion in the Otago Daily Times on Council debt levels, borrowings, investment and effect on rates. The newspaper properly credits the writer as a Dunedin ratepayer, city councillor and chair of the DCC’s Finance and Strategy committee. Far be it from us to add the word redoubtable before the good Councillor’s name.

### ODT Online: Opinion Thu, 12 Feb 2009
Answering stadium critics
Debt (read borrowings) has become something of a touchstone for those who oppose a particular capital works project. Indeed at times, I and others wonder if the confusing mix of opinion and “own fact” by regular critics of council borrowing is really another imaginative creation from the Miramar workshops of Weta!

### ODT Online: Opinion Fri, 13 Feb 2009
Actual borrowings by DCC ‘low’
Why does the Dunedin City Council borrow and how has Dunedin City Holdings Ltd performed over the past 15 years? In the second of a two-part article Richard Walls defends the council’s rates record.

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Cr Walls was always going to have his field day. It would be no surprise then if he earned a stinging rebuttal from local resident Calvin Oaten who is mentioned severally throughout the mountains and valleys of Cr Walls’ thought.

We persisted with his views, not sure if other Councillors would share them or the historical account proffered to get us where we might be today. Nevertheless, we thank him for his trouble.

By the end of the read, perhaps, we had suffered or become faithless – or had slaved as devotees. But at any rate (!!) there is the tendency to become less critical of the stadium project itself at the expense of disproportionate rise in critical appreciation of the Council and its moral baggage, not all of it in a good calm light.

We look forward to public reaction as may suit writers, speakers and users of gestures!