DVML and ORFU refuse to disclose 2012 Otago Rugby deal

Dunedin Venues chief executive Terry Davies was asked to release details of the “Otago Rugby deal” struck in 2012 as part of the Otago Rugby Football Union recovery package.

Surprise! Mr Davies and ORFU don’t want you to know how much DVML pays ORFU for each rugby game played at Forsyth Barr Stadium, and given DVML is struggling to meet the sponsorship commitment (see previous post). Worse, DVML keeps paying even though ORFU is now flush with funds.

Just how are these payments passing through Council-owned books? The money comes from your rates; piling on top of every other subsidy DCC is gifting to the stadium and professional rugby.

The 2012 deal involved David Davies, the previous DVML chief executive. Who else was involved at ORFU, NZRU and DCC? Was the Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull a signatory? More to come.

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Correspondence received from Bev Butler
Fri, 12 Sep 2014 at 2:38 p.m.

Message: They really don’t want any part of this agreement out.

From: Terry Davies [DVML]
To: Bev Butler
Subject: LGOIMA request: DVML/ORFU venue hire agreement
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 22:28:54 +0000

Dear Bev

Please find attached a response to your email request dated 27 August 2014 as per below. A copy has been posted to you today.

Yours faithfully
Terry Davies [DVML]

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From: Bev Butler
Date: 27 August 2014 10:08:59 am NZST
To: Terry Davies [DVML]
Subject: RE: LGOIMA request: DVML/ORFU venue hire agreement

Thanks, Terry.
I would still appreciate a redacted copy of the agreement.
Thank you.
Regards
Bev

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From: Terry Davies [DVML]
To: Bev Butler
Subject: FW: LGOIMA request: DVML/ORFU venue hire agreement
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 04:19:21 +0000
Dear Bev

Thank you for your email below. Please find attached the response which has also been posted to you.

Yours faithfully

[Terry Davies, DVML]

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From: Bev Butler
Sent: Monday, 28 July 2014 9:01 a.m.
To: Terry Davies [DVML]
Cc: Sandy Graham [DCC]
Subject: LGOIMA request: DVML/ORFU venue hire agreement

Dear Terry

In 2012 DVML signed a venue hire agreement with the ORFU. I request the following:

1. The date of this agreement;
2. The names of the signatories on the agreement;
3. A copy of this agreement.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely
Bev Butler

█ Download: Letter to Bev Butler 11.09.14 (PDF, 49.4 KB)

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Related Posts and Comments:
8.9.14 Jim Harland and the stadium MESS
● 1.8.14 DVML and the “Otago Rugby” deal (sponsorship and payments)
15.7.14 Stadium: Who is being protected?
24.6.14 Stadium: DVML, mothballing, and ‘those TVs’ #LGOIMA
18.6.14 Crowe Horwath Report (May 2014) – Review of DVML Expenses
9.6.14 DVML: Crowe Horwath audit report (Hedderwick)
2.6.14 Stadium costs ballpark at $21.337 million pa, Butler & Oaten
23.5.14 Stadium | DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 ● Benson-Pope…
11.5.14 Stadium: DCC proposes extra funds for stadium debt repayment
9.5.14 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 Submission by Bev Butler
10.4.14 Stadium: Edgar’s $1m donation (private sector fundraising)
3.4.14 DVML: Lost in transaction II (flatscreen TVs)
22.3.14 DVML, ‘Money for jam…..fig jam’
19.3.14 ORFU: Black-tie dinner, theft or fraud?
17.3.14 ORFU: Black-tie dinner on ratepayers
15.3.14 Mayoral DISGRACE: DCC won’t ask ORFU to repay $480K bailout
14.3.14 ORFU flush to pay creditors
4.3.14 Bev Butler: Guy Hedderwick’s departure package (LGOIMA)
7.9.13 Stadium: $266 million, more or less?
30.7.13 Stadium: Accountability, paper trail leads unavoidably to NEWS
4.7.13 Carisbrook: DCC losses
15.2.13 Carisbrook: Call for OAG investigation into DCC / ORFU deals

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: whatifdunedin – re-imaged screenshot from YouTube clip, Terry Davies press conference regarding streaker (ODT 15.6.14)

DVML and the “Otago Rugby” deal (sponsorship and payments)

Is Terry Davies, chief executive of Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, telling porkies about the “Otago Rugby” deal signed in 2012 ???
(DVML/ORFU/NZRU)

Compare Mr Davies’ reply to Bev Butler today with information Whatifdunedin received from a source in mid-July 2014.

The reply to Question 1.(d) is interesting. Mr Davies states that none of the $3 million sponsorship was paid to ORFU but DVML does provide a staff member to assist ORFU with its sponsorship proposals. This is probably Paul Thompson. The other information from a source claims that DVML has to make up the difference to $1 million per year; this is paid to ORFU if less than $1 million in sponsorship is obtained. So the other staff member only spends one hour per week for six months each year?

Question 3. He says there’s no DVML company record of staff movements and NZ/overseas travel in approaching sponsors. Really? If true, that’s a large management failing which the DVML board is ultimately responsible for.

Why the discrepancies, Terry Davies ????

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INFORMATION FROM SOURCE

Received mid-July [paraphrased]
Re the “Otago Rugby” contract – DVML did the Sponsorship but had to guarantee a certain amount. There was a heated exchange over this between Darren Burden (DVML chief executive) and one of his managers who said ‘we work for the ratepayers not rugby’. Burden was going to pay Otago the difference between what was raised and what DVML had to raise in the contract, despite Otago making a profit. The manager said DVML shouldn’t pay Otago, because they were deciding what was sponsorship and what was not.

[One day later]
The Otago Rugby deal is something like this:
DVML assist Otago Rugby with their sponsorship and the target is $1 million per year. DVML’s Paul Thompson was supposed to assist Otago Rugby. In the first two years, sponsorship didn’t reach the $1 million mark.
DVML still pays Otago Rugby to play at the stadium. Ask how much DVML have paid to Otago Rugby in the last two years to keep them afloat despite them making a profit.

[Two days later]
Not sure how it’s recorded in the DVML accounts, it was around $150k in the first year and similar in the second year. This is the difference between the $1 million DVML had to ensure ORFU got for sponsorship and what ORFU got. The deal lasts for three years. So this would be the last.

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From: Bev Butler
To: Neville Frost [DVML]
CC: Kim Barnes [DVML]
Subject: LGOIMA Request: DVML Sponsorships
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 08:57:35 +1300

Tuesday 1st April 2014

Dear Neville

It was reported in the ODT (22/03/14) that Mr Guy Hedderwick played an “integral” part in securing over $3 million in sponsorship for the stadium during the period ie Jan 2010 to Dec 2013.

I request:

1.
(a) How much of this $3 million figure has already been paid to DVML?
(b) Does DVML receive the full $3 million or does some other organisation receive some of this $3 million?
(c) How much of this $3 million is earmarked for the ORFU with payments already received or payments yet to be received?
(d) What percentage of the sponsorships secured by Mr Guy Hedderwick and/or other DVML staff does the ORFU receive?
(e) Is the ORFU making any financial contribution to Mr Hedderwick’s salary or expenses? If so, what percentage?

2.
(a) Did Mr Hedderwick’s salary package include commission on any sponsorship agreements he secured in his role as commercial director of DVML?
(b) What percentage commission did Mr Hedderwick receive for the $3 million sponsorship agreements secured as reported in the ODT (22/03/14)?
(c) Did the commission payments received by Mr Hedderwick exceed the salary range as stated in the DVML annual reports? If so, on what date was the DVML board informed of this?

3.
Thank you for your recent email containing the list of Mr Hedderwick’s DVML business trips. In this list the main reason for the majority of these trips was “meet with potential sponsors”. I request the names of the sponsors which Mr Hedderwick was successful at securing coupled with the name of the city where he met these potential sponsors. For your convenience, I have supplied a summary of these cities and the number of times he visited each city. Note I have included only the cities where it is stated the reason for the trip being “meet with potential sponsors”.

City (Number of trips)………Names of Sponsors
Christchurch (11 times)
Singapore (once)
Sydney (once)
Auckland (20 times)
Wellington (4 times)
New Plymouth (once)
Rotorua (once)

Please respond electronically. Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Bev Butler

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From: Bev Butler
To: Terry Davies [DVML]
Subject: LGOIMA Request: DVML Sponsorships
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:06:59 +1200

Dear Mr Davies

I understand the LGOIMA request I sent below was delayed due to the investigation by Crowe Horwath. Now that the Crowe Horwath report has been released and the report does not answer these questions would you please respond to my LGOIMA request.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Bev Butler

————————————

From: Bev Butler
Sent: Monday, 28 July 2014 2:51 p.m.
To: Terry Davies
Subject: FW: LGOIMA Request: DVML Sponsorships
Importance: High

Monday 28th July 2014

Dear Terry

The LGOIMA request below is still outstanding and has now breached the 20 day requirement under the provisions of LGOIMA.

I would appreciate a response to this request.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Bev Butler

————————————

From: Terry Davies [DVML]
To: Bev Butler
Subject: FW: LGOIMA Request: DVML Sponsorships
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2014 02:56:12 +0000

Dear Bev

Further to your email dated 28 July and original request of 1 April, please find attached the response. A copy of the letter has been posted to you today.

Yours faithfully
Terry Davies

CEO [DVML]

█ B Butler 310714 (PDF, 82.8 KB)

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█ Crowe Horwath Report – Review of DVML Expenses (PDF, 363 KB)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Crowe Horwath Report (May 2014) – Review of DVML Expenses

Dunedin City Council released the following report through the LGOIMA process, in reply to Bev Butler who lodged an information request.

The report by independent auditors Crowe Horwath investigates the work expenses of DVML’s ex Commercial Manager, then part-time contractor Guy Hedderwick.

Download: Crowe Horwath Report – Review of DVML Expenses (PDF, 363 KB)

NOTE: The report is not the result of a forensic audit, which should now take place to provide clarification for Mr Hedderwick and his manager.

QUESTION: Why is Dunedin City Council not seeking requirement for a forensic audit?

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Related Post and Comments:
9.6.14 DVML: Crowe Horwath audit report (Hedderwick)
22.3.14 DVML, Money for jam…..fig jam’ [see links provided]
4.3.14 Bev Butler: Guy Hedderwick’s departure package (LGOIMA)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DVML: Crowe Horwath audit report (Hedderwick)

Updated post 17.6.14

Crowe Horwath Report – Review of DVML Expenses (PDF, 363 KB)

Dunedin City Council has released a report recently completed by independent auditors Crowe Horwath, into the work expenses of DVML’s ex Commercial Manager then part-time contractor Guy Hedderwick. ODT reporter Chris Morris is covering the story.

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[Received]

Readers of this site will recall the efforts that campaigner Bev Butler went through to track down the expenditure incurred by Guy Hedderwick while he was the Commercial Manager for Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML).

After much effort through the LGOIMA process Ms Butler was told that Mr Hedderwick had run up bills of nearly $80,000 during 51 work-related trips since 2010.  

Readers will also recall the reaction by Neville Frost, DVML’s Finance Manager (ODT 22.3.14), who labelled Ms Butler’s claims of this expenditure as “completely inaccurate and ill-informed” while accusing her of “disgraceful” conduct and that she was “lacking in personal integrity”.  

Readers should now be fully informed that the figure of nearly $80,000 was indeed incorrect. The figure arrived at in the report compiled by Crowe Horwath is $144,879 – the amount released by Mr Frost in response to Ms Butler’s LGOIMA request has nearly doubled.

Readers should also be informed that the report found there was almost $4,000 spent by Mr Hedderwick with no evidence of what it was spent on; and a total of over $34,000 with no evidence of any approval.  

City ratepayers now need real answers to some basic questions.

1. Why, when Neville Frost was required to provide accurate information under an LGOIMA request on Guy Hedderwick’s expenditure, did he provide information that was inaccurate and misleading? Readers should not need to be reminded that when Steve Prescott, Manager of Aquatic Facilities at the DCC, did just this recently he resigned.  

2. Now that the full extent of Guy Hedderwick’s spending has been revealed by the Crowe Horwath report, can DVML still maintain as Neville Frost did in his press release, that it was “frugal”?  

3. What is DVML doing to obtain refunds from Guy Hedderwick on those sums incurred where there was no approval, or where there was no evidence of what the expenditure was for? For expenditure where there was no approval, is Neville Frost or Darren Burden at fault for lack of oversight and lack of management, and if so, should they be also responsible for repayment?  

4. What benefit to DVML and the ratepayers occurred from this $144,879 expenditure? Guy Hedderwick seems to have had carte blanche to travel at his own whim and it appears that DVML can’t point to any general or particular benefit from any of it.  

5. What accountability will be enforced by DCC, on behalf of the ratepayers, on the actions of Guy Hedderwick, for Neville Frost’s failure to both financially control this expenditure and to mislead and misinform both Bev Butler as the LGOIMA requestee and the general public by the content of his press release, and on the Board for its failures to contain costs?  

6. A full, comprehensive and public apology must be obtained from Neville Frost for his disgraceful and inaccurate statements made in his press release of March 22, 2014.

Note: Thanks to Bev Butler and Russell Garbutt for these statements.

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Related Posts and Comments:
22.3.14 DVML, Money for jam…..fig jam’ [see links provided]
4.3.14 Bev Butler: Guy Hedderwick’s departure package (LGOIMA)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Audit services to (paying) local bodies #FAIL ● AuditNZ ● OAG ● LynProvost

Typically, local government pays Audit New Zealand to audit and review annual financial statements. It’s a tame, tick-box sort of exercise. Audit NZ does a remarkably poor job and is certainly not in it to protect the Community from institutional or corporate misuse of public funds, or indeed from what amounts to perversion or defeat of the course of justice.

Audit NZ is paid handsomely to not see failures of tansparency and non-accountability — such that the enlightened Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents Association (MRRA) has had Audit NZ sacked from providing audit services to Kaipara District Council.

In an opinion piece last week at Otago Daily Times, City ratepayers let down again, Russell Garbutt cleverly and succinctly summarised the depth of the problem with the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) investigation into Delta Utility Services Ltd. He also noted: “It may seem strange, but if a local government body goes feral, the body which investigates this and the one which provided audit services to that local body are both business units of the Auditor-General.”

Dunedin City Council (DCC) has ‘overseen’ the Auditor-General’s probe into property purchases at Luggate and Jacks Point by Delta Utility Services Ltd, which also involved the council’s holding company (DCHL). A more scandalous, politically slant and irresponsible report from a Government agency it would be difficult to imagine.

(Thank-you, Mayor Dave Cull and the individual Stuart McLaughlan.)

Criminally, the OAG’s Delta report is what passes for ‘honest and comprehensive’ investigation of fraud and corruption in New Zealand… such that the main Delta complainant, Cr Lee Vandervis of Dunedin City, who holds evidence obtained from over 350 emails, was NOT interviewed by the Auditor-General. Nor was his evidence examined.

The fact that for years Audit NZ has refrained from investigating or bringing attention to underhand dealings of the DCC and with respect to DCHL, Delta, Aurora, and Dunedin City Treasury Ltd (DCTL), to identify just some of the ‘group companies’ involved in financial mayhem with public funds, is fully SYMPTOMATIC.

And now we have DCC — and DCHL (again) — in relationship with Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, tied directly to Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU) and The Highlanders through shared staff and facilities at the Stadium, and the facilities at Logan Park. Meaning that DCC continues to squander millions and millions of dollars of public funds each year, yet Audit NZ is nowhere to be seen under ‘the Roof’. Don’t mention the black hole, Carisbrook.

█ Inquiry into property investments by Delta Utility Services Limited at Luggate and Jacks Point. The Auditor-General’s Overview and Full Report are available at http://www.oag.govt.nz/reports/2014/delta

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WHERE TO FROM HERE ???
In yesterday’s Business section of the Sunday Star-Times came inklings of hope that the tide of fraud and corruption created by local bodies and ‘their mates’ is up for possible scrutiny through a change of legislation. Greater public and professional awareness of fraud by local councils and their companies (as well as private trusts and other means used to launder public monies) is coming to bear.

[Message to ALL: Those of us working quietly away to expose Dunedin City Council and Otago Rugby will never give up in a month of Sundays.]

SST Business 30.3.14 (page D5)

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NEWS: SFO has got into Mighty River Power and there are ‘reasons’ for non-disclosure of MRP fraud to the NZX…

A consultant says:

The following article goes on to cite other cases, one from last year mentions two men sentenced to prison and home detention following the payment of $849,000 in council funds for road and berm projects that were never completed.

█ Think DELTA, think AURORA, think DCC, think DCHL, think DCTL, think CWP, think CST (CSCT), think DVML…

█ Think of the individuals you know by name who fail to be prudent and conservative with Dunedin Ratepayer and Resident monies, whose actions (deliberate or otherwise) have been fraudulent and corrupt.

█ These entities and the individuals you know by name have been aided and abetted by Audit New Zealand, the Office of the Auditor-General, the Department of Internal Affairs, and indeed the Serious Fraud Office which doesn’t always show a clean pair of hands in assisting investigations by other Government agencies — if ‘supervised by’ mayors, local body politicians, local body employees, Members of Parliament, and Ministers of the Crown.

Welcome to the underbelly of New Zealand local government and the parties it pleases. STEAL from the poor to FATTEN the rich, by any means. Backed by Central Government.

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SST Business 30.3.14 (pages D1 and D8) [click to enlarge]

*Links to articles not yet available at Stuff.co.nz.

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Related Posts and Comments:
30.3.14 Paul Pope on local body annual plans
27.3.14 Jeff Dickie: Letter to the Auditor-General Lyn Provost
25.3.14 Delta blues . . . and Easy Rider
20.3.14 Delta: Report from Office of the Auditor-General
14.3.14 Delta: Mayor ignores Cr Vandervis’ official complaint
22.3.14 DVML, ‘Money for jam…..fig jam’
19.3.14 ORFU: Black-tie dinner, theft or fraud?
17.3.14 ORFU: Black-tie dinner on ratepayers

For more, enter the terms *carisbrook*, *cst*, *cull*, *cycle*, *dcc*, *delta*, *dia*, *draft annual plan*, *dvml*, *farry*, *orfu*, *nzru*, *pokie rort*, *pokies*, and *stadium* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DVML, ‘Money for jam…..fig jam’

Why does no-one want to discuss invoices created by DVML commercial manager Guy Hedderwick on his extensive travels, except for Dunedin campaigner Bev Butler? Who signed them off? Neville Frost (DVML finance manager) and Darren Burden (ex DVML chief executive). Why is Hedderwick at Adelaide working part-time for DVML when there’s an empty, brand new multimillion-dollar stadium sinking into the mire at Dunedin? Doesn’t Hedderwick also work for the Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU)? What’s really happening?

This morning we have seen media reaction to Bev Butler’s investigation into Guy Hedderwick’s expenses using the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) to obtain invoices —we have also seen Otago Daily Times reporting various replies it has sought from the local burghers about this.

Some invoices show stays in five-star hotel rooms costing up to US$300 per night. There is a swathe of rib-eye steaks and expensive bottles of wine attending Hedderwick’s travel across the world and domestic.

█ What did Butler say in her Media Release to upset DVML finance manager Neville Frost (ex ORFU)? Find out below.

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### ODT Online Sat, 22 Mar 2014
DVML head slams Butler’s allegations
By Chris Morris
Allegations of inappropriate spending by a former manager at Forsyth Barr Stadium have prompted an angry retort from the company running the venue. The claims came from former Stop the Stadium president Bev Butler in response to invoices and other documents released to her by Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, which runs the stadium. The material showed DVML’s former commercial manager, Guy Hedderwick, had accrued nearly $80,000 in travel costs and expenses while taking 51 work-related trips since 2010.
Read more

### ODT Online Sat, 22 Mar 2014
Company threatening to charge for OIA answers
By Chris Morris
The company running Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium is threatening to charge for future responses to official information requests after being inundated with questions from stadium critic Bev Butler. The move by Dunedin Venues Management Ltd was immediately slammed by Ms Butler yesterday, who said it was ”an attempt to keep me off their trail”.
Read more

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█ MEDIA RELEASE Sunday 23 March 2014
By Bev Butler

MONEY FOR JAM…..FIG JAM

Ratepayers of Dunedin will once again be amazed with the news that they have paid over $80,000 for the activities of the “departed” commercial manager of DVML, Guy Hedderwick, to travel the world leading the life of Riley with little noticeable benefit.

Readers of some newspapers will have learned recently that Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML), the Dunedin City Council owned company that runs the stadium, paid out over $54,000 in entitlements to former chief executive David Davies when he returned to Wales, and just on $30,000 when CEO Darren Burden left to run the Christchurch stadium after a year’s work with DVML. The amounts and details of any “entitlements” paid to DVML’s commercial manager were refused on the basis of Mr Hedderwick’s privacy after the DVML board chairman, Canterbury resident, Sir John Hansen was advised by DVML staff that Mr Hedderwick’s privacy outweighed public interest.

While these details remain hidden, what has surfaced is just what it has cost Dunedin ratepayers to keep Mr Hedderwick in the manner to which he clearly has become accustomed.

Mr Hedderwick left Dunedin around August of 2013 to pursue a role with DVML in Adelaide similar to the one he had in Dunedin; with arrangements in place that see DVML continuing to employ Mr Hedderwick and meet his expenses while he pursues his role of attracting acts and sponsors to the stadium. His efforts have been almost totally in vain. The only act to appear at the stadium since Mr Hedderwick has been living in Adelaide has been an Australian based franchised Abba look-alike band, Bjorn Again, who in their previous visit to Dunedin appeared at the Regent Theatre. The act attracted 3500 people to the stadium. It was reported at the time that while a similar event the year before had attracted twice this number, DVML were “pleased” at this response. The rationale for this pleasure is hard to fathom.

But the cost of Mr Hedderwick’s “work” has been, in contrast to his work achievements, simply staggering. The facts behind Mr Hedderwick’s spending have been revealed after constant requests for information by Bev Butler to Neville Frost, financial manager of DVML. The information has had to be teased out over a significant period of time, but now is starting to be revealed in some sunlight.

Mr Hedderwick’s travel, in his quest for acts and sponsors for the stadium, has taken him to:

● Italy
● Singapore
● USA
● Brisbane
● Gold Coast
● Sydney
● Melbourne
● Adelaide
● Auckland
● Wellington
● Christchurch
● Napier
● New Plymouth
● Rotorua
● Hamilton

The vast number of these visits has been listed as “seeking potential sponsors”. Sufficient to say that few new sponsors for the stadium have been notified by DVML or DCC. Mr Hedderwick also seems keen on attending “conferences” around the world. There is no indication or record of any significant contributions that Mr Hedderwick has made to such conferences, nor of any benefit whatsoever to DVML for such attendances.

But it is in Mr Hedderwick’s spending that some light shines upon what appears to be a lavish lifestyle endorsed and approved by Mr Neville Frost and Mr Darren Burden. It is neither reasonable nor justifiable for expenditure down to chewing gum and shaving gear at one end of the spending paradigm, to the luxury of five-star hotels and pursuit of fine wines – an interest of Mr Hedderwick according to his Facebook page* – that really takes the cake.

Mr Hedderwick has visited many of the above destinations on several occasions. The list supplied by Mr Frost for Mr Hedderwick’s travel outside Dunedin numbers 55 trips. However, there appear to be numerous invoices missing from the almost 300 invoices already supplied. Some invoices are for trips not actually listed; and some invoices are for five-star hotel bills (including The Hilton, The Sheraton, and Radisson Resort Gold Coast for as much as $US300 per night in some instances) and rental cars, but no flights to get to the destination. Yet other invoices include expensive meals, blocks of chocolate, boy’s t-shirts, hat and gloves.

With the recent Dunedin City Council announcement of a review of the governance and management of DVML, it would well be advised, in the interests of Dunedin ratepayers, for the council to include a full investigation of all the DVML finances especially the excessive personal expenditure of the DVML management.

Contact for further information:
Bev Butler
Ph (03) 477 6861

[ends]

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*The Facebook page is in dispute, only because Neville Frost went to the wrong page. We refer our readers to Hedderwick’s recent writing (February 2014) for International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM):

### venuenet.iavm.org Mon, Feb 10, 2014 07:15 PM
I am number 9344728427550
By Guy Hedderwick, AEVP
I am number 9344728427550 or at least that is what my loyalty rewards card at my local food store says I am. I presume that large scale food stores issue customers with loyalty cards so they can reward them for their loyalty. I also imagine that it is a great way to collect buying habit information of individual customers so they can target them with relevant advertising, know exactly what products customers buy, when they buy them, monitor their buying patterns and treat them as individuals. […] We live in a small village outside Adelaide […] I am a Million dollar customer […] I wonder how I would be treated as a million dollar customer if I walked into your business.
Venues, along with their teams and ticket providers, have huge amounts of personal data and should understand the emotional reasons guest [sic] attend their events. I don’t really expect my local food store to know me by name, but I do expect to be treated with the dignity “my spend” should demand. There is a huge discussion about big data and the use thereof. How understanding buying patterns and buyer behaviour can be used to sell tickets, merchandise, seat upgrade and improve the customer experience. […] People no longer buy products or services, they buy experiences. We sell the live experience but we need to understand people’s motivations for coming, their behaviours and touch points in order to make the experience truly personal. Then I will happily part with my hard earned dollars. At the end of the day, entertainment and sport (along with good wine) is what makes life worth living.
I am not number 9344728427550, I am Guy Hedderwick and I want to feel like a million dollar customer.
Read full article

● Guy Hedderwick at LinkdIn
● Guy Hedderwick at Twitter @GuyHedd
● Guy Hedderwick (GuyHedd) at Facebook

█ Guy Hedderwick is now General Manager of Arena Stadium Management Pty Ltd (ASM). He took up the appointment at the privately owned Adelaide Arena in 2013. ASM is Adelaide Arena’s new management company formed by joint owners Scouts Stadium Incorporated and Savethearena Pty Ltd. (Link)

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Related Post and Comments:
5.3.14 Stadium: Mayor Cull stuck in his rut, ‘going forward’
4.3.14 Bev Butler: Guy Hedderwick’s departure package (LGOIMA)
24.1.14 Stadium: It came to pass… [stadium review]
30.11.13 DVML in disarray
14.11.11 DVML, Guy, wth ?
26.9.11 Donations – the quest for clarification
26.9.11 Private sector funding (donations) to stadium construction
12.9.11 Stadium: Private sector funding
9.2.11 DCC and DCHL, was there ever any doubt?
5.11.10 International connections
16.2.10 Owing $45.5 million in private sector funding
5.2.10 Commercial manager Guy Hedderwick on stadium sponsorship

For more, enter *dvml*, *hedderwick*, *burden*, *davies*, or *stadium* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr