Only two councillors have been quoted and there was “nothing sinister” in Cr Vandervis not being considered one of them. The article quotes Cr Thomson and refers to different councillors elevating concerns within the assembly but Cr Kate Wilson is the one different councillor quoted and talked about by name. Lee Vandervis, a Dunedin city councillor, has complained about a image revealed in the Otago Daily Times on February 19, 2015 which depicted a debate in the council chambers about quarrying on Saddle Hill. More than $55,000 of ratepayers’ money has been spent investigating Dunedin City Council code of conduct complaints for the rationale that 2019 election. The council might have averted its reported $100,000 authorized bill by accepting it had carried out wrong, he says.

You can create a business registration with the confirmation code despatched to your company e-mail account. This firm doesn’t at present have a enterprise account, if you are the owner of the corporate, you can open a enterprise account immediately. In mid June 2022, Vandervis drew media attention when he questioned the facts of the September 11 attacks, disputing official and eyewitness accounts that two planes had destroyed the World Trade Center’s skyscrapers. In July 2017, Vandervis settled a defamation lawsuit towards Mayor Cull for NZ$50,000 due to authorized delays and spiralling prices. Vandervis had sued Cull following an exchange in December 2015 during which Vandervis alleged that Cull paid a bribe to safe a council contract within the Nineteen Eighties. Vandervis claimed that Cull, in his response to the allegations, had defamed him.

We’ll hold you recent with the most recent function artist, guest critiques, what’s top of the Unearthed charts and any new Australian music you must know about. You’ll additionally get a heads up for any competitions we’re running. Award-winning author and writer Steve Braunias brings you one of the best literary coverage in NZ with reviews, essays, and yarns to entertain and inform you every Saturday. That feels like a sentiment attention-seeking Vandervis would share, significantly in the event that they solid their votes in his course. “Perhaps they don’t understand or care in regards to the points, however the level is anything that reminds individuals there’s an election on could additionally be a good factor for voter turnout,” Hayward says.

If he wins in court, he will be out of pocket by about $30,000 and shall be seeking prices. As recently as September 1, Vandervis provided a mea culpa in an Otago Daily Times story for strolling out of a council meeting. He exited rather than apologise, as demanded by Hawkins, for remarks taken to suggest former mayor Cull, a latter-day “lycra-clad cyclist”, personally benefitted from a roading project on Otago Peninsula. Highly advocate this service, employed this gentleman to clean my Sportage last week.

No other particular person appearing within the shot was named within the caption or quoted in the article. The smaller photograph showed Cr Vandervis apparently taking notes on the assembly, including weight to the editor’s competition that photograph choice was not motivated by a need to indicate him in a bad light. Mr Kirkness mentioned the reporter supplied an accurate abstract of the assembly not a verbatim transcript.

If the Government relieves Dunedin of its ingesting water, waste-water and stormwater infrastructure, Vandervis says, ratepayers will lose a $3 billion asset that the city may borrow towards. And individuals shouldn’t let themselves be fooled that the assets will stay in public possession, as a outcome of the Government may resolve to privatise them, he says. Vandervis is unabashed about his approach of drawing consideration to himself to tug issues such as council debt and contracting inadequacies into the daylight.

As a councillor, he says, he has saved the city “millions”, and as mayor he might save far more. Mainstream media be damned – his most well-liked way to attain supporters is Facebook. It goes against our guidelines to supply incentives for evaluations.

He says this was compounded by the text accompanying the photo which didn’t point out his active contribution to the talk “reinforcing the photographic sleep deception”. I thought it was some type of ridiculous satire from a jaded councilmember at first, but a few of the allegations are fairly severe. Suggesting conspiracy among native MPs and council members looks navostore reviews like defamation fodder. I should give Vandervis some credit for calling the ODT “the Otago Denied Truth”, which sounds exactly like something somebody who used to put in writing for the ODT would say. Subsequently, he utilized unsuccessfully to the High Court for a judicial review of the council’s choice. He then took the matter to the Court of Appeal which was also unsuccessful.

In mid-September 2019, a twelfth criticism was lodged against Vandervis after he allegedly verbally abused some DCC workers members over a parking ticket. Vandervis contested the complaint and uploaded a CCTV video on social media to help his claim that he didn’t verbally abuse. David Benham, chairman of the Otago Regional Council’s audit and risk subcommittee, was tasked with conducting an impartial investigation into the matter. On 10 December, Vandervis was censured by his fellow councillors for the parking ticket incident. In response, he alleged that his privacy was breached at a important time of the election campaign.