The $12 parking ticket costing council the equivalent of 8473 tickets
Dates, dicks and taxpayer rants
Do you remember the saga about the Dunedin city councillor and the $12 parking ticket.
Of course you do.
As an aside, Cr Lee Vandervis hates it when media reference the cost of the ticket.
You may recall this email he sent me on April 6, 2022.
“Your continuing pushing of an irrelevant 12$ parking ticket as an issue through your foul stuff media outlet conforms to the political obscenity ‘if you are going to tell a lie, make it a big one and tell it often’.”
“Do you sleep at night, and if so how? You lying fiction-writing creep.”
(ED: I still sleep well at night.)
That response was after I asked Vandervis about the parking ticket at the centre of the spat, which I found out was paid for by a mysterious third party.
I’m still in the dark (maybe that’s how I sleep so well at night…).
Anyway, time for a quick recap. Deep breath.
On September 13, 2019, Vandervis was issued with a parking ticket.
As the High Court noted in its decision to knock back his judicial review:
“That relatively innocuous event was the catalyst for what followed.”
Vandervis became involved in a verbal spat with an unnamed council customer service representative, after complaining about poor signage on a parking meter that led to him being issued with the ticket.
That altercation took place at the council’s civic centre, and a video - minus the sound - was later shown to council.
He was later censured by council, after an investigation following a Code of Conduct complaint, but the matter did not end there.
It led to a judicial review, and later a case before the Court of Appeal, with that decision reserved.
In November 2020, Stuff reported that Vandervis’ fight over the $12 parking ticket had cost more than $14,000 – and the bill was expected to rise.
That last part wasn’t fiction.
I filed a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA to those playing at home) with the council for an update on those costs.
Those were released today (Wednesday).
It can be revealed that those costs now stand at $101,682.85, GST inclusive.
That’s the equivalent of 8473 $12 parking tickets.
A breakdown of those costs show the matter cost council:
Initial investigation/Code of Conduct $14,148
Judicial Review in High Court $56,678.44
Court of Appeal (to date) $30,856.41
It is important to note the council has paid the costs listed above.
But it is even more important to note that costs were awarded after the High Court decision, and those were yet to be determined, pending the outcome of the Court of Appeal process.
The High Court decision noted that no submissions on costs were made at the hearing of this matter, and they would be decided at a later date.
Attempts to get comment from Cr Vandervis were unsuccessful.
And now for something completely different.
Anyone catch this in the Otago Daily Times on Saturday?
Well, on Monday, I gave the number a call.
I wasn’t the first person to call him - that was a mysterious woman (he reckons a troll with sexual promises) - but I could offer him something waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more rewarding: an interview.
The man, who declined to be named, told me the ad was tongue-in-cheek.
So was he ugly, rude, slovenly, insincere, uneducated, and untrustworthy?
“I’m obviously none of those things, in fact I am the exact opposite.”
He was 60-years-old and “presented well”.
“I’m not a bad looking guy. I like myself, I think I am a good human being.”
The Dunedin man said he wanted to have a relationship/companionship with a woman, after a “period of absence”.
“I thought, what sort of woman do I want to attract? I want to attract a strong woman with a sense of humour and sense of adventure, and how do I go about this?”
A woman who replied to an ad like the one above, would have all those attributes, he reasoned.
The man was adamant he didn’t want to get involved in online dating, “I don’t want to do that”.
He noted that many personal ads tended to feature people saying they liked walks on the beaches.
“You would think the beaches would be full of people looking for relationships.”
It had been three or four years since he had a relationship, as during that time he had battled cancer.
Anyway, if you are interested give him a call, or flick me a message.
ICYMI, a couple yarns from the last week worth a read when you have time.
I did one on local legend Sam Sharpe and his ‘dicks’ sign.
The only downside to that story was all the pro-life people bombarding me with emails, many involving BLOCK CAPITALS.
I wrote this heartbreaker about a young mum who had a baby at 14, and later graduated as a surveyor. She was six months into her job and had just bought a house when she was killed in a crash caused by a 17-year-old driver.
In other news we had a vending machine installed at our house, courtesy of our seven-year-old.
My Tweet of the Week was too easy.
Brilliant.
And music fans would have seen the below do the rounds.
It got me thinking about any local releases during that time?
Turns out. Yes. And a bloody great one.
Fish Tales/Swarthy Songs for Swabs Album Information Release Date October 8, 1991
This was released in the United States - just a fortnight after Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Interestingly, Nirvana’s only New Zealand show featured Dunedin’s finest in the support slot. You can read about it here.
Here is Nimmo’s Dream, one of the ‘quieter’ tracks from the album.
It was great to see former Dunedin-based musician Anthonie Tonnon receive the 2022 Taite Prize.
What wasn’t great was seeing this tweet from the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.
However, the replies are amazing.
Enjoy your week and please have a listen.
Nice. Real nice.
"You lying fiction-writing creep."
LOL. I've grown to like Lee, unlike the shit mayor that we have, he was friendly on the campaign trail in 2019 and he has not submitted to the COVID nonsense. In fact he gave his followers on his blog some very good advice in March or April 2020.
Yes he does have a temper. But that's a chicken egg question.
And I may disagree with him on Climate, bikes and maybe the DCC debt (about who started it) but he's the only democratic councilor on the DCC right now. I'd rather work with him than any of the others. Though if Steve would drop his Labour alliance he could be a good councilor too. I don't think anybody else has it in them.
So, Hamish, sorry to be thick, but does this translate into Council is paying this vast amount to fight this $12 parking ticket, funded presumably from coffers provided by our rates? The only winners possibly are lawyers.