Vbase bailout blamed for 5.32% rates-hike plan
GLENN CONWAY
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A multimillion-dollar bailout of a stadium operator and an accelerated City Plan review are mainly to blame for proposed Christchurch rates increase, city bosses say.
The Christchurch City Council's 2011-12 draft annual plan proposes a 5.32 per cent rates increase.
However, more than 2 per cent of that increase was because of a planned $45m lifeline to venue manager Vbase and councillors wanting a City Plan review to start a year earlier than planned.
Council chief executive Tony Marryatt said the rates rise would have been 4.28 per cent without the district plan review.
He and council corporate services manager Paul Anderson attended a hastily arranged media conference after revelations in The Press yesterday of the proposed rates rise.
Marryatt said he was "disappointed" with the Vbase situation, but "we can't just sit back and let a council company go broke".
The present council had "inherited" a 2007 council decision to accept Vbase's business plan for an AMI Stadium upgrade.
Councillors wanted the district plan review sped up.
Marryatt said the 16-year-old document was out of date and did not give the council the protection it needed.
"When you have 41 private plan changes out there, then something's broken," Marryatt said.
He also defended Mayor Bob Parker's stance on keeping rate rises below 4 per cent.
"The only reason we have a proposed rates increase of more than 4 per cent is because of the district plan review and the Vbase matter," he said.
"I can tell you that when councillors sit down next year to review the long-term plan, they will be trying to get [rises of less than 4 per cent] back."
Other features of the draft annual plan include:
A $305,000 budget increase for computer software maintenance
A $275,000 increase for more data storage
A $1.26m parking revenue cut
A $480,000 increase for street lighting charges.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/3621144/Losses-of-14m-projected-for-Vbase
Quite a Quantum shift in outlook in such a short space of time? Something has to be seriously wrong
lol,
Recycling Henderson
Potential T&G
And these weren't / aren't even council owned, Tony wont want a Council owned business to go bust while he is still employed it will make him look bad when he goes for his next role (mind you a few more years he'll be well set and not to have to worry).
Maybe its time these floundering Council owned business are put into administration so that independent and Qualified persons can assess their likely hood of solvency.
To Cary #13, under the Local Government Act the directors are covered, they are not accountable if they based their decisions on what they believed to be true and sound advice. even though it may be panning out not to have been.
I have seen many company venture into acquisitions that look good on paper, and have had "reputable" companies do studies, the main issues arise is that assumptions are made and disclaimers put in place to safeguard even these organisations as a number of times the company doing the study has no concept of the actual "Operational" aspects of the business and in the not too distant future these ventures fail.
Time for Rodney Hide to appoint a commissioner to investigate the continuing secret decisions of Bob & Tony including if Tony still lives in Hamilton and if so are ratepayers paying for his travel on top of his grossly overinflated salary - more than the PM and more than the CEO of County Durham in the UK who is paid about 160, 000 pounds to look after a bigger area with a greater population than Christchurch and is probably making a better job of it. He may like to en quire why six months after the quake practically nothing of any real benefit to property and business owners has been done and why rates are being extorted from properties that are unusable - if rates are a service then no services are being provided as they cannot be used so rates are a tax so Gst on rates is a tax on a tax.
Unbelievable, so incompetent badly run business gets propped up?, why not let it fail Tony?, after all CCC rates and lack of action have caused hundreds of businesses to fail in Christchurch since Sept 4th I am absolutely gob smacked that my rates are funding this, that whole stadiums a millstone around our necks and should have been funded and run by the people using it ie Rugby and Cricket, not ratepayers. Between this and the Henderson fiasco we have spent millions, yet look at the roads were driving on, the state of our footpaths, damn council should concentrate on services not being a businessor at least one thats so useless it has to steal from ratepayers to operate. Anywhere else this would be fraud.
Yo Tony Forgetaboutit your mate is back to take over the PR duties...You looked terrible on CTV News last night. I'm surprised Sideshow Bob did not give you some TV Pointers since he's a professional in front of the camera.
Someone on behalf of the Minister of Local Government advises me that correspondence regarding concerns can be sent to Mr Hide at: r.hide@ministers.govt.nz and / or cc to rodney@epsom.govt.nz (04) 817 6984 The Associate Minister for Local Government is John Carter (National) j.carter@ministers.govt.nz (04) 817 6822. Chris Finlayson is Attorney-general c.finlayson@ministers.govt.nz (04) 817 6808
16 and 18 Bring in etcetera, I think this is justified and should happen.
Enough,
It is high time the Auditor General and Solicitor General took a full and thorough look into the legailities of the ACT and the credibility and accuaracy of financial forecasts that have been presented to Councillors and Directors of Council Owned entities on which to base their decisions.
It is apparent that over the last few years, Decisions have been push through / rushed through, and people have chosen to use Commercial Snesitivity as a way to avoid accountability and scruntiny prior to embarking on poor decisions.
If this carrys on CHCH will have the equivalent of 20 Hamilton V8's, these have already cost the the Hamilton area in excess of $30M. Go back and see who was in the Drivers seat without clear forward vision when this was taken on. (Here's a hint, an overpaid accountant)
http://www.cchl.co.nz/cchl/directors/
CCHL "monitor" Vbase with its own set of Council appointed Directors.
CCHL have lost massively on contracts, such as the Red Bus service and I have seen Citycare replaced by Transpacific throughout the city. Checking out the Airport overruns and Civic Building costings might be worth a squizz too.
Surely the Port company is paying for itself(?)
We do have Barry & Bob at the helm. I seem to remeber something about Barry and his last board?
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Do you cycle in Christchurch?
Let us hope that the 500,000 dollar man donates at least half his salary for the next three years of his appointed time as CEO of Christchurch City Council to the displaced, the recently redundant, and for the rebuild of Christchurch city - I'm sure he could manage on $250,000. Just let him think about those who have had nothing, but charity and benefits, since September last year. And for all those who came back after the Boxing Day Quake to support the inner city retailers of Cashel Mall - on Paul Lonsdale's brilliant idea of Boxing Day replay early February.