Christchurch

The tip line has been running hot with details of bullying and a hostile environment at the Christchurch City Council.

The huge number of tips all point to the same thing. Apparently the mayor, the CEO and of all people the Mayoress, have issues managing people, and move people on who refuse to be serfs. They force out those who, in their view, have faces that do not fit.

Anyone with more information should send it in via the tipline. There will be a series of posts exposing the shocking employment culture at the Christchurch City Council when I have had time to sift through all this information, and corroborate some of it with some OIAs.

Bob Parker is an idiot. Only he would not be able to see the problem with troughing it up on an overseas trip while his city is in turmoil, firstly from ongoing earthquakes but also from his own vainglorious ineptitude and the foolishness of his CEO. Things aren’t helped either when the Mayoress posts the article on her Facebook page as a sort of in your face “nyah,nyah,nyah, I’m going on a trip” attitude.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker will take part in a two-week tour of Asia less than a fortnight after a Crown observer was appointed to monitor the city council.

Parker said he was comfortable that his absence would not have a significant impact on the council, despite saying last week that the organisation was “standing on the edge of a precipice”.

Local Government Minister Nick Smith said last week that he had appointed former Nelson mayor Kerry Marshall as a Crown observer to monitor the council and report back to the Government.

The move followed criticism of the council’s performance and calls for Government intervention.

Parker and wife Jo Nicholls-Parker will leave next Tuesday for a tour of several Asian countries, including China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The trip has been organised by Christchurch International Airport to encourage more airlines to visit the city.

Airport chief executive Jim Boult said the airport had invited Parker and his wife to take part in the 15-day tour last year, after planning started in mid-2011.

Boult said the couple’s presence had helped the airport to “get in some doors we would otherwise find difficult to get through”.

How about Bob just stays away and doesn’t come back.

Some legacy technology theatre isn’t getting public money to rebuild.

At least someone on the Christchurch City Council is thinking sensibly. When your city is rooted you don’t need multiple theatres. As it is the place is infested with them, and all suck the life blood out of rate payers and tax payers.

Papali’i's paper recommends approving grants of $100,000 to the Court Theatre and $250,000 for the rebuilding of The Loons’ Lyttelton theatre.

Haven’t the people of Christchurch worked out that silent movies where the technology that took over from theatre, talkies took over from silent movies, TV took over from movies and those of us in the modern world use HDTVs and stream shows over the internet. Theatres where only a small number of people can watch are a very expensive way of showing drama. Especially when the bigger drama is all the poor people who have lost their love ones – or houses in the the earthquake.

They get a report saying Tony Marryatt’s pay rise exceeds the norm. They give him a pay rise. Then the LGOIMA requests come in. The report is released. The council look like plonkers.

A controversial pay rise for Christchurch City Council chief executive Tony Marryatt put his salary more than $100,000 above the median pay for similar roles, a report shows.

The report, from remuneration consultant Strategic Pay, was used to help set Marryatt’s $68,000 pay rise, taking his salary to $538,529.

Marryatt said on Friday, after weeks of public criticism, that he had asked the council to stop paying the increase.

The council released the document in response to several Official Information Act requests from media organisations, including The Press.

As I have said previously, the council doesn’t need a review of their communications. They just need to stop doing dumb stuff….and sack Tony Marryatt.

There is no way to spin stuff like this

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker admits Tony Marryatt’s $68,000 pay rise was a ”PR disaster” as the councillors prepare for a last-ditch attempt to save the troubled council.

Speaking on TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning, Parker repeated yesterday’s ineptitude claim, saying the pay rise was “politically inept and it was a PR disaster”.

“Many of the public are angry,” he said.

“The council has to accept blame for that process.”

If Tony Marryatt wasn’t such a prick he wouldn’t have a heap of Christchurch against him. His high handed approached started in Hamilton where he is unpopular, and continued in Christchurch. Amongst the MPs in Christchurch I have spoken to not a single one has a good thing to say about him as he is far too precious to give a mere MP the time of day.

Over a long career in politics one lesson I have learned is that if you aren’t on good terms with important stakeholders like MPs you won’t be on good terms with ordinary voters. Tony Marryatt proves this point, and the council should have known better to reappoint a man who is so unpopular. If there weren’t better candidates then they should have re-advertised the position.

Good to see a Minister put in the hard yards not just a photo op unlike Phil Goff.

A Christmas visit to volunteers helping quake-stricken Christchurch suburbs may see new Minister of Civil Defence, Napier MP Chris Tremain, link government and the Student Volunteer Army.

Mr Tremain, who took up the ministerial role this month, spent yesterday shovelling liquefaction silt with volunteers in the hard-hit eastern suburb of New Brighton.

He also spent part of the day meeting with University of Canterbury student and the army’s co-ordinator, Sam Johnson, discussing ways the government could work with the volunteers.

“I spent about an hour with him talking through some of the issues he had co-ordinating volunteers between Civil Defence and his organisation, and to see if there were ways in the future we could streamline that,” he said.

“I think there needs to be a way that we can close that chasm between professional organisations and the groups of people that team up on the spot, and see if we can help these two types of volunteers to work together.”

Christchurch has suffered another large earthquake:

There has been a large earthquake in Christchurch this afternoon. The quake was described as “violent” by Herald reporter Jarrod Booker who was in his home when the quake hit.

It was quickly followed by at least four strong aftershocks. Geonet said the quake measured 5.8 on the Richter Scale, at a depth of just 8km. It struck just off the coast of Pegasus Bay at 1.58pm.

There have been several strong aftershocks following the intial quake.

Damage from the quake is unknown, but it was felt as far away as Mosgiel near Dunedin.

NZ Herald coverage.

Stuff coverage.

NewtalkZB coverage.

UPDATE: A Second Quake, larger than the forst has struck Christchurch. Poor bastards.

Labour are having a sook about Gerry Brownlee as Local Government Minister:

Labour has accused Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee of making “veiled threats” to Christchurch councillors, after the minister said some officials were slowing the city’s rebuild.

Mr Brownlee told media this afternoon there needed to be greater pace around council decision-making, particularly around consents.

The act that made Gerry Generalissimo of Christchurch means he doesn’t need to make veiled threats he should just make the direct threat “If you don’t sort this out I will take it off you”.

Lianne Dalziel reckons she is going to have a crack at mayor, this after she blogged that she wasn’t going to when prompted by me to comment.

For such an experienced politician Lianne got her lines badly wrong. She talks about herself and not about Christchurch.

Dalziel said yesterday there were no guarantees the seat would remain within its current boundaries, or even exist, after the March 2013 census.

“I will stay full term but I’m not going to rule out going for the mayoralty because I don’t know what’s going to happen to the boundaries,” she said.

What Lianne should have said is “I am a Christchurch woman through and through and I want to contribute to the rebuild of Christchurch the best way I can. The people of Christchurch need fresh leadership, leadership with the vision to include all, to broaden the community’s involvement in the rebuild and to rebuild our city into a better place.”

One thing for certain about Lianne Dalziel, when she says she wont be doing anything it is more likely she is. I called her on this in 2009, she denied it and now with her facing the prospects of a lengthy time in opposition she is no longer offering any guarantees.

National won the Party Vote in the five seats in Christchurch by a wopping 28,212, yet only have one seat and a tie in another.

Looks like Labour forgot how to get people to party vote Labour.