'You lying fiction-writing creep'
... And Absolutely Positively George Street
Like many stories, it started with a phone call, a text and an email.
Unlike many stories, it quickly escalated.
The subject, as you can see in the email below, was ‘Parking ticket’, the recipient, as you can also see below, was Lee Vandervis.
From: Hamish McNeilly <hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz>
Date: Wednesday, 6 April 2022 at 2:53 PM
To: Lee Vandervis
Subject: Parking ticket
Hi Lee,
Hope you are well,
I got confirmation from the council that your $12 parking ticket was paid, anonymously via cash in an envelope in January 2020.
Were you aware of this?
Keen for your thoughts.
Kind regards,
Hamish McNeilly
The Dunedin councillor is currently taking his case of the aforementioned parking ticket to the Court of Appeal.
The decision has been reserved.
The last story I wrote for Stuff, summed-up the case like this:
The long-serving councillor was involved in a verbal spat with a council staff member after he complained about signage on a parking meter that led to him being issued with the ticket.
A complaint about his behaviour towards the staff member led to an investigation and then a written censure by his fellow councillors.
It also led Vandervis to apply for a judicial review from the High Court, and when that was upheld he last month went to the Court of Appeal.
It was while covering that case that I heard his lawyer say that Cr Vandervis had never paid the ticket, but had anyone else?
Last week a council spokesperson confirmed “We can confirm the parking ticket was paid by an anonymous third party who sent the Dunedin City Council an envelope containing $12’’.
“This payment was received on 31 January 2020.”
So that is why I approached Cr Vandervis to get his take on this. While it is not the biggest issue, a $12 parking ticket, the same cannot be said for the court case.
After all, how many councillors take their own council to the Court of Appeal?
So I didn’t get a reply to my text, or phone call, but I did get a reply to the above email.
Cr Lee Vandervis
On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 4:57 PM Lee Vandervis wrote:
The Council confirmation you claim below is untrue Hamish.
Somebody unknown to me apparently made the offer of payment of the inappropriate ticket on my behalf which the DCC advised me of, and which I refused, as payment was wholly inappropriate as I had more than paid for the time parked.
I specifically advised the DCC that no payment was to be made by any third party on my behalf as the ticket was an inappropriate result of a faulty parking meter.
As I have said publicly, the ticket was inappropriate, payment was never demanded of me and it was never paid.Your on-going misrepresentation of the alleged but untrue ticket avoidance is noted.
Regards,
Lee
His position is pretty clear, although I note he is now talking about a faulty parking meter rather than signage, but that is a small matter.
But I didn’t get that last sentence: Your on-going misrepresentation of the alleged but untrue ticket avoidance is noted.
So I sent him a reply straight back and also to the person he had CC’d into the email: Sandy Graham, the Dunedin City Council chief executive.
From: Hamish McNeilly <hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz>
Date: Wednesday, 6 April 2022 at 5:16 PM
To: Lee Vandervis
Cc: Sandy Graham
Subject: Re: Parking ticket
Hi Lee, and I guess Sandy.
Where's the misrepresentation? It is the statement I had from council.
By the time I got a reply, I was at home trying to negotiate bath time with a seven-year-old when my phone pinged.
On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 5:50 PM Lee Vandervis wrote:
You know damn well Hamish that you have lied publicly about the Judicial Review High Court case which traversed real non-ticket issues of my complaint against DCC staff going nowhere and instead an unprecedented misuse of the DCC Code of Conduct by the DCC and DCC staff leaking falsehoods to media to smear me with untruths prior to the 2019 Mayoral election which I lost only on second preference votes as I had the majority of first preference votes despite your stuff and ODT misreporting.
Your specific public lie in stuff that it was the DCC that took me to court when you sat through the actual proceedings and know it was I that took the case against the DCC is barefaced slanderous lying yet to be resolved.
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.Cr. Vandervis
There’s a lot to unpack here.
But first lets address the lying he alleges. It stems from a story I wrote about Vandervis sharing how he got access to ivermectin, an unproven drug touted as a Covid-19 treatment.
If you read that link you will notice the last line, and the clarification under it.
Vandervis is no stranger to making national headlines, including for a high-profile altercation with a council staff member over a $12 parking ticket, which resulted in a written censure and a costly judicial review.
Correction: Court action was not taken against Lee Vandervis as stated in an earlier version of this story. He sought a judicial review of the written censure. Amended October 15, 2021, 12.25pm.
Vandervis was unhappy with the story, but the clarification was the only thing we changed. It is important to report the facts, and more important to clarify or correct anything that is wrong.
So that is a bit of a background to this ‘‘Your specific public lie in stuff that it was the DCC that took me to court when you sat through the actual proceedings and know it was I that took the case against the DCC is barefaced slanderous lying yet to be resolved’’.
Yes. I knew it was Vandervis to took them to Court. Yes, I sat through ALL the proceedings. The mistake was corrected as soon as it was pointed out.
But that hasn’t helped my relationship with Vandervis.
As for this:
Do you sleep at night, and if so how? You lying fiction-writing creep.
That was the last straw. I emailed him straight back.
Hamish McNeilly <hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz>
Wed, Apr 6, 5:57 PM (6 days ago)
To Lee, Sandy
Hi Lee, That's really offensive. I think I'll take this further..I expect an apology.
Lee Vandervis <lee@vandervision.co.nz>
Apr 6, 2022, 8:38 PM (6 days ago)
to me, Sandy
You should take it to further your Democracy-destroying career Hamish, add it to your CV and it might help you get a cushy more publicly-funded job like your doppelgänger Chris at the DCC.
And don’t keep lying about or to me – you expected nothing like an apology.
I don’t know what’s more insulting that I destroy democracy, want a publicly-funded job, or have been likened to my former Otago Daily Times’ colleague Chris Morris, who now works at council.
SHOTS. FIRED.
By then I’d had enough. With my kids now in bed I sent this email.
Hamish McNeilly <hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz>
Apr 6, 2022, 8:42 PM (6 days ago)
to Lee, Sandy
Lee,
Do us all a favour. Give it a rest.
Take a deep breath (this is what I tell my kids if they misbehave), and go have some quiet time to reflect on your actions.
When you’re able to talk maturely let’s make some time and catch up.
All the best
We haven’t spoken since.
I’ll be watching the council meeting via YouTube on Thursday, when councillors discuss the proposed $28.2 million George St makeover.
They had a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the project, dubbed Totally Georgeous (give that person a payrise!!)
It looks amazing.
A few quick takeaways from the project.
It will incorporate the history and whakapapa of the area
Be more accessible to those with disabilities
Will feature a small play area outside the Meridian. Nice!
The block outside Farmers (which is also across an outspoken opponent of the plan) will be the first block to be transformed
The work on the paving was partially inspired by the corner of the kete
Mana whenua has indicated a desire for a significant artwork
Other retailers based elsewhere in New Zealand have expressed interest in investing in a Dunedin store due to the development
Get this: Tree placements would be aligned along certain facades, but not in front of character buildings.
Planting will include a ‘seasonal symphony’. Sounds cool.
No anti-teen Barry Manilow music, and no hostile architecture for the homeless
Feature lighting would include above catenary lighting
May feature long tables for dining, or shared kai
Another artist image.
And another.
If you want to see how much Dunedin’s CBD has changed, check this great video out:
My Tweet of the Week goes to this sexy thing (the bird, not the tweeter)
LOOK. AT. IT.
It is going to be a big week for Arthur Taylor and Hazel Heal, who featured in The Mish last week. They are involved in summing-up of their case.
It is also a big week for the Octagon. Will the grass grow? Stay tuned!
The Octagon on Wednesday morning.
ICYMI (which I discovered only recently means ‘In case you missed it’) check out this yarn I wrote last week about a man and his jigger.
A man and his jigger
Let’s finish with The Sneaky Feelings, for no other reason than the singer/guitarist, Matthew Bannister, once wrote a book about the Dunedin music scene called: Positively George Street.
Indeed.
Make sure you watch until the band performs the most awkward dance moves ever performed on a beach.
See you next week, and keep those emails coming (well, most of you) to hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz
Glad to see you doing an expose on Vandervis - the more people who know his true nature the better, and I hope for Dunedins sake he is never re-elected to Council.
Unfortunately many people seem to think he’s a ‘bit of fun’ and harmless - how else can his high polling be explained.
He is neither fun nor harmless as you’ve recently discovered - he is an obstructive bigoted menace.
Hi, I was unaware of this story until reading just now. Good on you for standing up for ethical journalism and shining light on a journalist being unfairly abused.