Campbell Live | TXT POLL: Does NZ need a new flag?

The flag of New Zealand is a defaced Blue Ensign with the Union Flag in the canton, and four red stars with white borders to the right. The stars represent the constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross. More at Wikipedia.

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Tweets 27.2.15 @CampbellLiveNZ [screenshot]:

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### ODT Online Fri, 27 Feb 2015
Chin hoping for ‘huge interest’ in flag debate
By Chris Morris
Mr Chin (73), Dunedin mayor from 2004-10, was yesterday named with 11 others – including prominent New Zealand businessmen, academics, sportsmen and military figures – to sit on the Flag Consideration Panel. Mr Chin (73), Dunedin mayor from 2004-10, was yesterday named with 11 others – including prominent New Zealand businessmen, academics, sportsmen and military figures – to sit on the Flag Consideration Panel. Mr Chin told the Otago Daily Times he was looking forward to the role and hoped public interest in the debate would be “huge”.
Read more

● Binding referendum for NZ flag design.
● No binding referendum for sending NZ troops to Iraq.

Surprise. John Key PM has a super-inflated ego.

█ See Russell Garbutt’s comment & following discussion at Peter Chin positive.

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The Last Of The Rockstars Published on Jan 19, 2014
U2 – Get On Your Boots (Grammys 2009) – HD

Here’s the video screen sans audio:

U2 Spain Uploaded on Mar 3, 2009
U2 – GET ON YOUR BOOTS (Screen 360 Tour)
(No Line on the Horizon)
Alternate video

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Chin resuscitated on flight

Yesterday I was contacted by news media asking if I could identify who the well-known “elderly gentleman” was that had experienced a heart attack on an Air New Zealand flight out of Dunedin. Being off social media for New Year’s Eve, otherwise occupied with a morning meeting and later, sun, good food and friends, news of the incident had escaped me. Idle speculation about town that it was Mayor Cull had been quickly dampened by media giving Daaave a call to check he was still breathing. Affirmative. 2015 is going to be a long year.

[note Bryant as spokesman….]

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### ODT Online Thu, 1 Jan 2015
Peter Chin in hospital after mid-air drama
By Hamish McNeilly + NZME
Former Dunedin mayor Peter Chin is recovering in hospital after being revived by an Air New Zealand crew shortly after take-off, it has been confirmed. The 73-year-old collapsed on Flight NZ5032 from Dunedin to Wellington yesterday morning, prompting the flight to return to Dunedin just before noon following the mid-air incident. Mr Chin was “resting comfortably” in Dunedin Hospital, where his condition was being monitored.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: 3news.co.nz – Peter Chin (tweaked by whatifdunedin)

Auditor-general Lyn Provost #Resign

Link + message received from Anonymous
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 at 11:53 p.m.

Message: What unbelievable crap from Lyn Provost, given her office (OAG) has brushed aside so many public complaints and concerns about Council expenditure that may have prevented the situation she now chooses to alert us all to !!!!

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### stuff.co.nz Last updated 12:39 26/11/2014
Lax councils $7 billion behind in infrastructure
–Dominion Post
Ratepayers are facing a $7 billion bill to replace crumbling roads and water pipes caused, in part, by the “worry about it later” attitude of councils. A report released yesterday by Auditor-General Lyn Provost found councils nationwide have been failing to put enough money aside to maintain their collective $100b of infrastructure assets. The gap between funds needed and reality is tipped to reach $6b to $7b by 2020. Much of the country’s infrastructure was built in two waves, from 1910-30 and 1950-86, and many assets would reach the end of their lives at the same time, the report warned.

“They are storing up a problem for future generations, ” said Bruce Robertson, assistant auditor-general in charge of local government. Will councils step up and deal transparently and effectively with these issues?”

Keeping rates bills down to maintain political popularity was one reason assets were underfunded, and a “worry about it later” mentality also existed, the report stated.[…] Local Government NZ president Lawrence Yule said a $7b shortfall was significant, but it was too early for ratepayers to be pressing the panic button. It was not yet clear how accurate the auditor-general’s findings were, he said.
Read more

Note: These last years Lawrence Yule has been publicising how bloody good debt-funding council activities is. WTF

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████ Report 7 Nov 2014:
Auditor-General’s overview and conclusions
Water and roads: Funding and management challenges
New Zealand has a good reputation internationally for managing assets because of the work of groups such as New Zealand Asset Management Support (NAMS). However, many local authorities’ asset management practices fall short of asset management guidance, such as that developed by NAMS. This report suggests that local authorities need to better understand the local economy to plan for the longer term and that their management of infrastructure and capital needs to improve to meet the challenges ahead. Full Report

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Related Posts and Comments:
21.11.14 Stadium Review: Mayor Cull exposed
31.10.14 Whaleoil on “dodgy ratbag local body politicians” —just like ours at DCC
10.10.14 Cull consorts with losers at LGNZ
9.9.14 Mangawhai, Kaipara: Latest news + Winston Peter’s speech
26.8.14 DCC: Forensics for kids
6.8.14 DCC tightens policy + Auditor-General’s facetious comments
15.7.14 Stadium: Who is being protected?
26.6.14 LGNZ #blaggardliars
31.3.14 Audit services to … local bodies #FAIL ● AuditNZ ● OAG ● LynProvost
20.3.14 Delta: Report from Office of the Auditor-General
7.3.14 Jeff Dickie: Letter to the Auditor-General Lyn Provost
2.2.14 Stadium: ODT editorial (1.2.14) —Garbutt debunks myths
3.12.13 LGNZ: OAG report on Kaipara
28.5.13 Carisbrook: Auditor-General #fails Dunedin residents and ratepayers
21.4.13 Councils “in schtook” —finance & policy analyst Larry.N.Mitchell
31.3.13 DIA and Office of the Auditor General stuff up bigtime #pokierorts
6.3.13 Carisbrook: Cr Vandervis elaborates
15.2.13 Carisbrook: Call for OAG investigation into DCC / ORFU deals
22.11.12 Cull COVERS UP COUNCIL #massage

For more, enter the terms *dcc*, *dchl*, *dvml*, *citifleet*, *stadium*, *carisbrook*, *delta* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Whaleoil on “dodgy ratbag local body politicians” —just like ours at DCC

### whaleoil.co.nz Fri, 31 Oct 2014 at 5:20pm
Why is there no law to rein in dodgy ratbag local body politicians?
By Cameron Slater
Former ARC Councillor Bill Burrill is not the first dodgy ratbag Councillor to trough from abuses of power to his own pecuniary advantage in recent years. A few years back in 2009 Council Watch was calling for a number of Councillors from the Canterbury Regional Council to be prosecuted and sacked from their positions after an investigation by the Auditor General Lyn Provost found that four individuals had broken the law by acting in conflict with their official role. Back then those Canterbury Councillors failed to declare a conflict on interest that [led] to a financial benefit for themselves by participating in discussion and voting on proposals before Council. Under investigation the Auditor General’s office chose not to prosecute stating that whilst the Councillors should have withdrawn as a matter of principle – they had each received and shared legal advice that they could participate. And here in lies the problem. The Auditor General and Office of the Ombudsmen publish clear guidelines for Councillors and council staff but the reality is that the law is erroneously filled with holes that are exploited and there is precious little oversight of Local Government leading to the Auditor General loathing to bother and the Courts uninterested.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Harland to scale

[zoom text with Ctrl + and Ctrl -]

█ Ten years ago. Whoever typed THAT ?

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Related Post and Comments:
8.9.14 Jim Harland and the stadium MESS
27.6.14 Stadium costs $23.4144 million per annum
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 asserts…
9.5.14 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 Submission by Bev Butler
10.4.14 Stadium: Edgar’s $1m donation (private sector fundraising)

For more, enter the terms *harland*, *farry*, *malcolm*, *athol*, *stadium*, *dcc*, *cst*, *dchl*, *dvml*, *orfu* or *rugby* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Jim Harland and Sukhi Turner (via ODT 2.6.04) – supplied by Calvin Oaten

Jim Harland and the stadium MESS

Meanwhile, as Mayor Dave Cull’s council keeps up with massive spending on low priorities and unnecessaries, this comes to light:—

### ODT Online Mon, 8 Sep 2014
Stadium budget help was declined
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council declined an offer of specialist help to keep its Forsyth Barr Stadium budget on track, years before the cost jumped by millions of dollars, it has been confirmed. The decision, revealed in an Audit New Zealand report from 2010, has been criticised by Mayor Dave Cull, who said it was “a function of the attitude of the management and the executive at the time”. Former council chief executive Jim Harland defends the decision, saying the council’s oversight was felt at the time to be “appropriate”. The offer was detailed in the Audit NZ annual report to the council, dated December 2010, which covered the 12-month period to June 30 that year.
Read more

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The decision to build a debt-funded stadium – of which Jim Harland, Malcolm Farry, Athol Stephens, DCC stadium councillors, ORC stadium councillors, and professional rugby cronies are GUILTY – was ALWAYS the decision to bankrupt the Dunedin City Council but more especially, and insidiously, the ratepayers and residents of ‘greater’ Dunedin and Otago.¹

The Audit NZ offer was INANE and in any case a complete waste of time.
Audit NZ is what it is, a basket case. Of sheer incompetence and hypocrisy, nationwide.

Time for a full independent forensic audit of the Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust, fondly known as CST, headed by Malcolm Farry. This will also entail an intimate look at the way Dunedin City Council treated CST invoices, the Council’s spending delegations, and its chief signatories.

Let’s hope somebody goes to clink before the accounting games are over.
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¹Only now are Otago power users waking up to the fact of high line charges being levied by Aurora Energy Ltd to fund subvention payments to ‘the stadium’ (see recent letters to the editor in the Otago Daily Times).
Did the killer consolidated DCC think the people of Otago wouldn’t notice?

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Related Post and Comments:
27.6.14 Stadium costs $23.4144 million per annum
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 asserts…
9.5.14 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 Submission by Bev Butler
10.4.14 Stadium: Edgar’s $1m donation (private sector fundraising)

For more, enter the terms *harland*, *farry*, *malcolm*, *athol*, *stadium*, *dcc*, *cst*, *dchl*, *dvml*, *orfu* or *rugby* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: odt.co.nz (re-imaged by whatifdunedin) – Jim Harland

DCC: Forensics for kids

Fairfax Media has obtained Audit NZ letters of management to the DCC from 2005 to 2012, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. The letters show that in the years 2007-2010 auditors consistently urged the DCC to tighten up its risk-management policies and processes.

Audit NZ expressed concern over what it indicated could be inadequate controls over several internal processes, including verifying signatures of those authorised to sign invoices and purchase orders, independent review of creditor files, and controls of sensitive areas such as sale of council assets to staff. (Fairfax)

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 08:17 26/08/2014
Dunedin council officers ‘not kids’
By Wilma McCorkindale
The Dunedin City Council (DCC) appears to have ignored calls by Audit New Zealand to improve its risk and fraud processes, saying its officers were “supposedly people with integrity … not kids”.

The DCC revealed in June it was investigating a suspected major fraud within its Citifleet unit. The fraud was suspected to have been carried out over a decade. Citifleet team leader Brent Bachop died suddenly in May. His death has been referred to the coroner. Council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said the alleged fraud of $1.5 million included alleged illegal transactions resulting in the loss of profits from the sale of 123 council fleet vehicles. The findings have been passed to the Dunedin police for further investigation.

Fairfax Media has obtained Audit NZ letters of management to the DCC from 2005 to 2012, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. The letters show that in the years 2007-2010 auditors consistently urged the DCC to tighten up its risk-management policies and processes. It appears Audit NZ was compelled to repeat similar advice over the period and noted the DCC met only minimum requirements.

Council managers’ response to the Audit NZ findings in 2010 was to say the council had considered creating an audit and risk committee but concluded its finance and strategy committee adequately performed the role. In December 2010 Audit NZ raised the issue of reviews of areas “susceptible to fraud”, but management commented that specific audits in the “most sensitive areas” had found “no transactions of concern or deficiencies in controls”.
Read more

Five council staff were involved in “employment processes”, with some facing the prospect of losing their jobs, the ODT understands.

[Irony] Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule yesterday told the ODT the “mind-boggling” alleged fraud was the biggest involving a local authority he could recall.

### ODT Online Tue, 26 Aug 2014
Council overlooked audit advice
By Chris Morris
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull concedes a chance to detect the alleged $1.5 million Citifleet fraud may have been missed, after the council twice overlooked advice from Audit New Zealand. The revelation came in Audit New Zealand’s annual reports to the council, obtained by the Otago Daily Times, which highlighted gaps in council processes dating back to 2003. […] The findings have triggered finger-pointing between past and present council staff, councillors and Audit NZ, but council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said responsibility for failing to detect the alleged fraud rested with the council.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
23.8.14 DCC public finance forum 12.8.14 (ten slides)
6.8.14 DCC tightens policy + Auditor-General’s facetious comments
3.7.14 Stuff: Alleged vehicle fraud at DCC
1.7.14 DCC: Far-reaching fraud investigation Citifleet
3.6.14 DCC unit under investigation
2.5.14 DCC $tar-ship enterprise
28.4.14 DCC loses City Property manager in restructuring
7.2.12 DCC ‘money go round’ embedded

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images (tweaked by whatifdunedin): tmba.tv – Tim McGarvey: 3D forensic animation (TMBA Inc. Animation Studio, New York City); scottthornbury.wordpress.com – F is for forensics (illustration by Quentin Blake, from Broughton, G. (1968) Success With English. Harmondsworth: Penguin)

DCC public finance forum 12.8.14 (ten slides)

The ten powerslides presented by DCC group chief financial officer Grant McKenzie, as discussed at the public finance forum held earlier this month are available for download (see PDF below).

Figures might be, but the forum was advertised….

Public notices advertising the forum and the warm invitation extended by Cr Richard Thomson, chair of the Finance Committee, were unfortunately met with low attendance on the night. Few of the well-known vocal commentators on DCC’s financial position, or indeed, leaders of the Otago Chamber of Commerce, bothered to show. Those individuals lose a measure of credibility. Where were all the beleaguered ratepayers and residents? The local ‘interested’ accountants, economists, board directors, investors, and successful business people? Their apologies? Has everybody drowned with rising sea levels or been knocked from their bikes on the one-way? Blame Dave Cull.

Rob Hamlin and ‘JimmyJones’ did make the effort to be there, solidly plying their observations and questions in debate. Other members of the public also engaged. We didn’t hear the names of people who forwarded questions prior to the meeting, or what their questions were. Notwithstanding, the slides are the Council’s attempt to respond to issues commonly raised, in summary.

The first public finance forum was held on 27 November 2013. The second on 12 August was an opportunity to hear Grant McKenzie who arrived at the Council in January. He proves to be approachable, mild-humoured and self-effacing. Grant explores the expanded GCFO role ably supported by senior finance staff; his already onerous duties include the overlay of current fraud investigations, new systems for accountability and risk management, as well as the stadium review (due in September).

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[click slides to enlarge – scanned from forum handout]

1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

█ DCC Finance Forum (powerslides 1-10) (PDF, 18.6 MB)

For more information on DCC, enter the terms *finance*, *dcc*, *dchl*, *delta*, *cst* *dvml* or *stadium* in the search box at right.

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Other Reading – link supplied by Calvin Oaten
Sat, 23 Aug 2014 at 12:08 p.m.

An interconnected world was meant to reduce inequality – but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

### blogs.telegraph.co.uk August 22, 2014 13:18
Finance
Nobel gurus fear globalisation is going horribly wrong (technical)
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
David Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage has broken down after 200 years, or so I learned at the Lindau forum of Nobel laureates in Bavaria. The theory published in 1817 has been a guiding principle of free trade, taken as a given by every student of economics in the modern era. It has served us well, but just as Newton’s theories ran into limits and were overtaken by Einstein’s relativity, comparative advantage no longer explains the world. Under Ricardo’s model, inequality was supposed to narrow within countries as globalisation accelerated exponentially in the Nineties. Instead it is getting wider. The Gini coefficient measuring the spread between rich and poor is narrowing between countries, but is widening almost everywhere within countries, leading to a corrosive concentration….
Read more

● Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has covered world politics and economics for 30 years, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America. He joined the Telegraph in 1991, serving as Washington correspondent and later Europe correspondent in Brussels. He is now International Business Editor in London.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from the top) Facebook – yahoofinance (advert); goodcars.co.nz – Finance your next car (advert); nzvf.co.nz – New Zealand Vehicle Finance (advert)

DCC tightens policy + Auditor-general’s facetious comments

The city council’s Whistleblower policy, originally written by Athol Stephens (!!), has recently been updated.

The proposed change came as independent financial consultant Deloitte continued its investigation into an alleged $1 million fraud within the Dunedin City Council’s Citifleet department. (ODT)

### ODT Online Wed, 6 Aug 2014
Council aims to tighten policies
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council is moving to make it easier for whistle-blowers to speak out, but still has “a fair bit of work to do” to tighten other internal policies, senior managers say. The proposed change came as the council’s audit and risk subcommittee, meeting yesterday for just the second time, considered a schedule of 12 internal council policies it was now responsible for overseeing. The policies, ranging from risk management to staff travel and fraud prevention, were designed to promote good governance while protecting the organisation and its staff.
Read more

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Universally detested (except by a charming coterie of Wellington’s public servants, all living high off the pig’s back), Lyn Provost represents a fat salary-dollar value only. Fully complicit or was that comfortably incompetent, in not getting MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR RORTS and FRAUD stopped across the local authorities of New Zealand. She and her well-paid ‘academic’ staff ask: “Whatever is Crime?” —OHH! “New Zealand’s public sector boasted $240 billion worth of assets and managing them required continuous attention, she said.” (via ODT) …..What attention, steamed up spectacles??!!

Bugger off, Lyn [Photo: liberation.typepad.com]

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### ODT Online Wed, 6 Aug 2014
Praise for DCC’s new internal controls
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council’s move to tighten internal controls has been praised by the Office of the Auditor-general, even as the investigation into an alleged $1 million Citifleet fraud continues. The words of encouragement came from Auditor-general Lyn Provost as she addressed a meeting of the council’s new audit and risk subcommittee during a visit to Dunedin yesterday. But, despite the headlines and unanswered questions about why the alleged fraud was not detected, including by auditors, the word “Citifleet” was not uttered yesterday.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium: Exploiting CST model for new Mosgiel Pool #GOBs

Synchronised: Highlanders-to-be (sports star training at Mosgiel)

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Unaccepted for publication at ODT Online today. Aww.
Hard to sell at Logan Park
new
Submitted by ej kerr on Wed, 16/07/2014 – 11:49am.
What a fine accommodation for professional rugby this aquatic scheme for the Taieri truly is. Shades of the model so well utilised by the earlier trust named after Carisbrook and headed by Malcolm Farry, still operating as a boon to Dunedin city ratepayers. In the months ahead let’s see how many times the new patron leaves out the word ‘Rugby’ (capital R) or the phrase ‘private property development costs on the City’ in favour of philanthropic zeal expressed for healthy retirement living and enhanced aged care facilities (hydrotherapy for aching rugby shoulders and thighs), sunshine and splash for young families – don’t forget schools! – as the Taieri’s high class soils get carved and private forests near Brighton assist the housing build. Yeah, don’t say there’s merely a saint in goggles amongst us, Lord be praised, it’s the second Dollar coming. An epiphany.

ODT article: Gerrard backing pool bid

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Related Posts and Comments:
15.7.14 Stadium: Who is being protected?
15.7.14 Rugby stadiums not filling #SkyTV
13.7.14 Great quote: men
12.2.14 DCC: Growth v development contributions
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
4.2.14 DCC: Mosgiel Pool, closed-door parallels with stadium project…
30.1.14 DCC broke → More PPPs to line private pockets and stuff ratepayers
20.1.14 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 [see this comment & ff]
16.11.13 Community board (Mosgiel-Taieri) clandestine meetings
2.4.13 Dunedin: Developers stoop to resource consents instead of…
25.1.12 Waipori Fund – inane thinkings from a councillor
19.5.10 DScene – Public libraries, Hillside Workshops, stadium, pools
12.4.10 High-performance training pool at stadium?

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: kpbs.org – Men who swim

Bobbling off . . . #Democracy #Dunedin #Stadium

### NZ Herald 5:30 AM Tuesday Jun 18, 2013
Bob Jones: It’s vote-and-hope for competence at top
By Bob Jones
OPINION There was a time when the mayoralty of our major cities commanded considerable prestige as a cap on a successful professional or commercial career. History reveals many important mayors of an earlier age. Sadly no longer. Instead, everywhere there are mayors and councillors devoid of even the faintest credentials for any public office. Indeed, some have never had a job, suggesting they’re financially motivated. Given perks such as the sister cities silliness and ratepayer-funded jaunts to them, free cars, telephones, etc, being mayor is quite appealing for the unaccomplished.

Dunedin is unique as it’s been well served by competent mayors, evidenced by the last half dozen being repeatedly re-elected, in most cases for three terms, before retiring.

I suspect voters are conscious of that as I’ve observed how they repeatedly backlash against the most heavily advertised mayoral candidates, as if suspicious of such hunger for the office. We can only speculate why obvious potential candidates now shy away, but cannot condemn those who do stand, humdrum though they may be. Someone must or we’ll have no democracy.
Read more

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Meanwhile at ODT Online:

“Mr Cull has allowed himself to be captured by the town hall bureaucrats and the self-interest groups in exactly the same way as his predecessors. The Sir Humphreys of this world are clearly alive and well at the Civic Centre.” —Moore1967

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Carisbrook: Call for OAG investigation into DCC / ORFU deals

Time for Public Vote of No Confidence in your Council?

Latest via Fairfax . . . local residents Bev Butler and Russell Garbutt are calling for an investigation into Dunedin City Council deals involving Carisbrook and the ORFU (professional rugby).

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### stuff.co.nz Last updated 10:38 15/02/2013
Call for Carisbrook losses to be investigated
By Wilma McCorkindale – DUNEDIN
Critics of Dunedin City Council say more losses of millions of dollars for city ratepayers from the sale of Carisbrook should be included in a current Auditor General’s investigation. The Office of the Auditor-General is investigating other property deals by the council’s companies.
Russell Garbutt and Bev Butler, both critics of financial arrangements between the council and the Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU), say the millions of dollars in losses incurred by city ratepayers in the sale of Carisbrook require explanation.
The council has entered a conditional sale agreement to unload Carisbrook, which it bought from the financially ailing ORFU for $6 million in 2009. It paid $1 million for adjacent housing owned by an ORFU trust resulting in the council borrowing the $7 million total package price. The council is releasing few other details about the sale agreement but it is being widely reported that construction company Calder Stewart is the buyer, for $3.5 million. Council had reportedly already sold half the car parking for $727,000 and the housing was sold some time ago for $692,000.
Ms Butler believed an investigation should be included in one under way by the Office of the Auditor-General into council-owned company land deals in the Lakes District. ”Obviously there are some questions that still need to be answered in terms of the actual value of the Carisbrook property.”
Mr Garbutt described the Carisbrook deals as extraordinary.
Read more

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Councillors Kate Wilson and Richard Thomson should be DUMPED

### ch9.co.nz February 15, 2013 – 6:49pm
Auditor General advises councillors they can participate
The Auditor General has advised two DCC councillors they can participate in decisions on an Events Attraction Fund. Richard Thomson and Kate Wilson declared their business interests at an Annual Plan Meeting in January. Both said their businesses benefited from the Elton John Concert. They were excluded from participating and voting on proposed events. The Office of the Auditor General says while they were affected in a similar way to the public they would not be prohibited in participating.
Ch9 Link

Related Post and Comments:
29.1.13 Pecuniary interest: Crs Wilson and Thomson in events fund debate

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

chinchin #whatisdebt

### radionz.co.nz Monday 8 August 2011 at 14:10
Afternoons with Jim Mora
Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium
Dunedin ratepayers are facing the prospect of even higher rates to pay for the $200 million stadium. Rates next year could go up by nearly 12 per cent because of a looming budget shortfall. Jim talks to former Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin and project critic Dunedin City Councillor Lee Vandervis.
Audio Ogg Vorbis MP3 (17′10″)

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The dormouse sleeps.

### ODT Online Fri, 5 Aug 2011
Ex-mayor Chin named in constitutional panel
Former Dunedin mayor Peter Chin is among a dozen high-profile New Zealanders who have been selected to oversee a review of the nation’s constitutional arrangements.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

In the news: Heritage goes mayoral~!

First, there was Jim Anderton:

(Media Release)
Make the Gothic buildings of Christchurch a World Heritage Site
05 June 2010 Jim Anderton, Mayoral candidate for the City of Christchurch

Jim Anderton announced today that if he becomes the mayor of Christchurch he will lead moves to achieve World Heritage Status for the city’s unique Gothic Revival buildings. No city in the world has a more complete collection of Gothic Revival buildings, of such high quality and so well preserved.

“These Victorian buildings, date back to the 1850s and, as a group, are of enormous international significance. They represent the outcome of the furthest migration of any group of people in human history,” Jim Anderton said.

“Canterbury was seen as a haven in which the best values of British society could be preserved at a time when the very future of European civilization was perceived to be at risk. The early settlers here brought their values with them, and they expressed it in the architecture of Christchurch. Part of that was an appreciation of open public spaces. They believed that the squares and parks around these buildings were the ‘lungs of a city’. It’s no accident that around the same time, an application for a park in New York was accepted and New York’s Central Park became the first public park in the United States. Christchurch’s ancestors valued quality architecture, from which this generation of New Zealanders could learn. These buildings and precincts represent a remarkable determination to create a better world on the other side of the globe,” Jim Anderton said.

“They are more than bricks and mortar. They are at the heart of our city, and remind us every day that wanting to leave the place where you live in a better state than you found it, is a worthwhile goal.”

The Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust has campaigned for World Heritage Status before but without City Council support. Local authority support is essential in order to advance a claim for World Heritage Status, first at national level and then at a future World Heritage Convention

The proposed sites consist of the most significant 19th-century public buildings associated with the founding of the city. These include Christchurch Cathedral, the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, the Canterbury Museum, and the former Canterbury University site, now the Arts Centre. As the proposal is developed and consultation with all parties takes place, other important sites could be added. The Canterbury Provincial Council buildings are the only complete surviving examples of government buildings from the provincial period of colonial society in New Zealand. The 1865 Council Chamber is internationally recognized as an outstanding example of High Victorian Gothic architecture.

“World Heritage listing for our outstanding Gothic Revival precinct would give Christchurch international visibility and prestige, and attract more people to the city. It would also give local people an increased sense of pride in our city. That’s why, if I become mayor, I will help lead a proposal to push for World Heritage Status for these historic sites which teach us so much about our past and the direction we should take for the future,” says Jim Anderton.

Contact: Jim Anderton on 021 777 680

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Then Banksie, tonight by Tweet:

@mayorjohnbanks Just posted my latest Banksie Bulletin – this one’s about protecting heritage and character across Greater Auckland http://bit.ly/ajK9hC

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But wait… back when (17 May)
At the launch of the University of Otago Campus Master Plan (the vision…), who should put a question at the end of the official presentation but our very own mayor, Peter Chin. He asked about ‘the possibility of the university using the heritage buildings around the Exchange’. Now there’s a heritage campaign for office.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

PS. What’s happening in Wellington???

Facebook. The DCC has lost the plot.

Discussion Board Topic:
The selling of the stadium since 2006
Compiled by Justin Miller. {Page no longer available. – Eds}

Worth a read. Remind yourself of the weird and wonderful claims made by the stadium project makers, when they don’t have a PR company to control runaway tongues or egos.

[The Facebook page might have gone but listen to this: https://soundcloud.com/christopherkeogh/the-dcc-has-lost-the-plot%5D

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

‘Super ward’ + Stevenson chasing votes over apology (ODT)

### ODT Online Tue, 16 Jun 2009
Super ward supported – now it’s over to the public
By David Loughrey
Plans for a “super ward” that could give voters a far greater say on which councillors represent the city have been supported by the Dunedin City Council. It is now the turn of the city’s voters to have their say on the issue before a final ruling is made.
Read more

Stevenson is prone to abstain from voting when the going gets tough; she isn’t backing the super ward idea. This councillor has served a long term and not picked up any chairing or senior responsibilities in all that time. She’s probably feeling a bit threatened by the prospect of representational change. And so she should.

What comes next?
June 22: Council to consider yesterday’s vote.
July 4 to August 4: Public consultation period.
September 15: Final council decision.
October 15: Close of appeal period.
April 10, 2010: Final date for Local Government Commission decision.

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### ODT Online Tue, 16 Jun 2009
Stevenson apology sent to ‘third party’
By Chris Morris
Cr Teresa Stevenson has sent a second apology to Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, but doubts it will be good enough.
Read more

This is nothing more than a bid on Stevenson’s part to attract voter sympathy – but actually we’re sick of it. This protracted stoush between Chin and Stevenson doesn’t deserve the exposure. Grow up.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Contract signed

### Radio New Zealand News Updated at 4:08pm on 27 April 2009
Dunedin mayor signs contract to build stadium
Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin has signed a contract for the construction of the city’s stadium. The $165 million contract with Hawkins Construction means work can start at the Awatea Street site in May.
RNZ Link

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### Channel 9 News April 27, 2009 – 7:24pm
Legal Contract of the Forsyth Barr Stadium signed
The legal contract between the Dunedin City Council and Hawkins Construction for the construction of Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza was signed this afternoon. Mayor Peter Chin put pen to paper during a DCC Extraordinary Meeting today.
Video Link

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█ Construction Contract for the Proposed Forsyth Barr Stadium at the University Plaza – Chief Executive Jim Harland’s report to Dunedin City Council (dated 20 April 2009).

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr