Dirty Deeds

Althought it has now been more than 7 years since I left my job in New Zealand working for a local authority, still waters continue to run deep. As I have likely mentioned previously, I accepted employment with the property department at Dunedin City Council, knowing already that we were going to be moving to Sweden. I knew that I needed to update my qualifications before moving to Sweden, and the only workplace where I would have sufficient free time to focus on this was, at a local authority. My job with City Property was perfect as I could complete a week's work in a couple of days, and then spend the rest of my time studying. Not that I had any less work than others, I just wasn't as skilled as some when it came to stretching out the work to fill in the time available.

 

Having spent quite a few years working in the private sector, I often would myself in conflict with the methodologies employed within local authorities. Especially when working at City Property, where I was working in my field of expertise. In the beginning, I rather foolishly thought that I could change their ways. Unfortunately that usually resulted in a ganging-up response, and me being shoved back in to my corner. In the end I gave up and focused on the happier task of preparing for our move to Sweden. But I was still neither blind nor deaf, and continued to be irritated by the levels of corruption and self serving empire building that appeared to be all around me.

 

At one point during my employment, still believing that justice would win the day, I took a particular corruption concern directly to the CEO of the council. While I shouldn't have been surprised, I was genuinely disappointed when my concerns were simply batted away, without so much as a quick review. Despite having gathered up a very large pile of evidence, that was the first and last time that I approached anyone, internal or external to council. Bad people usually win.

 

Now, it may have taken 7 years, but maybe there is still some hope left in the World. Around the same time as my departure, my department manager also resigned. Supposedly to pursue greater glory. It hasn't quite worked out for him and he continues to be hunted today by his former employer with regard to several very dodgy property deals which DCC don't seem to be able to shake.

 

While that pleased me to learn, the best was yet to come. The deputy manager of the property department, who had been running the biggest contract scams for years, finally got found out a couple of months back, and was duely immediately escorted from the building. Minus keys and golden handshakes. The scam that did her in, in the end, was the same insider trading scam I had tried to bring to the attention of the CEO 7 years earlier. It took 3 Changes of CEO Before they found one with enough morals and common sense to listen to people.

 

While I missed the opportunity to be a part of the process, I take comfort in the result. I had enough infomration to take down the corrupt leadership within City Property, but chose (save my one 5 minute chat with the then CEO) never to use it. Turns out that the villans involved didn't need anyone's help after all.

A Fool and His Money

Although we're now into our 6th year living in Sweden, I do still like to keep myself up to date with the significant comings and goings at my former home town of Dunedin in New Zealand. I am 5th generation born and raised in the small city, which made our family one of the oldest in town. It was a litle sad to leave, in that respect, knowing that the line was being broken. I was the last one out after 5 generations. There is probably a message in the fact that our family was completely stable in the city until about 10 or 12 years ago. Now we are all gone, right down to my parents and extended family members. All of us left hoping for something better, all of disillusioned with the state of the city today and the way that we knew it could be with the right attitudes at the top.

 

In my opinion the rot started when local celebrities started getting voted in to office. People who had made careers out of fooling people into liking them. I guess that it's a similar story in many local or central government organistations. Swedish politics, as I have observed it during my brief time, is a bit more serious. Compared to what I experienced in New Zealand, Swedish politicians are generally more suitably qualified for their roles. I say generally, there are always exceptions. But the ones I have spoken to here, know their topic. Dunedin, well you can't quite say the same about the current crop. The mayor is a former tv home handyman presenter. Think Tim the Toolman Taylor, but without the likeable persona. He is abley supported by a retired radio announcer, a 1980s singer impersonator, a local property developer (no conflict of interest there), and a northern lawyer who fled south with a dodgy past and bought a cafe out in the middle of nowhere. That's the cream of the crop with a few bit part players thrown in to make up numbers. In effect, not a single person in power with any experience or qualification in local government management. Hence the problem, and hence the continuing exodus from the city of anyone with half a brain.

 

The final nail in the coffin for Dunedin has been the insane idea to build, and fully fund, a new football stadium. Build It And They Will Come, was the battle cry. Guys, that was a movie, it didn't actually happen. Anyway, under the capable expert leadership of a local dentist, the city fathers of Dunedin bought into the whole bizarre concept and plunged the city it a debt level which has capped out at somewhere near 10 times the "pre-stadium" debt. And surprise, surprise, They Didn't Come.

 

The myth that stadia produce wealth for a region has been debunked so many times that it is almost impossible to find any Google reference to the contrary. A stadium doesn't produce wealth, it merely centralises existing disposable income that would have been spent elsewhere. If a family buys tickets to a football match, it means that they don't go to the local swimming pool that week, or hire a movie from the local video store. There is no additional money coming in, one business wins at the expense of another business. A stadium has a zero income nett effect.

 

So zero money coming into the region, but the facility still has to be paid for and operated. This is where the duely elected members of the Dunedin City Council chose to ignore global expert industry advice, and go with the magic show presented by, yup, a dentist. The decision for a local government body to fund a stadium in order to retain a sporting team results in an immediate loss of power for the party carrying the greatest risk, in this case the city council. Suddenly, the council becomes fully dependant on the sporting team using the venue and that puts the sporting team in a position of power. Sporting teams are mobile, they can play anywhere. They need a stadium, but not necessarily that stadium. The stadium, conversely, needs that sporting team. That allows the sporting team to dictate the terms of use. And that, as with every other stadium in the world, is exactly what happened in Dunedin. The city funds the entire cost for operating the venue, while the sporting team pays a nominal rental fee (sometimes they pay nothing) which equates to about 10% of the actual cost. Bizarre as it sounds, it would actually be cheaper to close the stadium than it is to open it up for football matches. Every time a match is played at Forsyth Barr Stadium, the level of debt being carried by the ratepayers of Dunedin City increases. Other cities around the wold now require the local sporting team to fund their own stadia, or at least share in the financial risk. I guess that they don't employ the use of dentists during the feasibility study phase. Their loss.

The Price of Fame

I don't have a lot of claims to fame. I once held the national 800m track record for my age. For about 5 minutes. So long ago now that I don't even remember when or where it was. But hey, it must have been something. About a year or so ago, I discovered that this blog site was linked on an official government web site as a source of information for people moving to Sweden. I can only think that they were wanting to reduce the rate of immigration. Kind of funny though, they obviously hadn't read in any depth.

Recently though, I seem to have hit the headlines again. Albeit with a different and more niche audience. Before moving to Sweden, I worked as a department manager for the local city council where I lived. I had previously worked for the same council for about 10 years, some years prior. Anyway, coming back in after a few years out in the real world, I was pretty shocked to see the high instances of poor practice, general incompetancy, and straight out dodgy dealings. I guess I didn't been in a postition before to see and appreciate the scope of things, but it was pretty shocking to say the least.

My reason for returning to the council was probably not the most ethical. At that stage we had decided that we would be moving to Sweden. As part of the process I decided to update my qualifications and bring them more in line with Swedish practices. My qualifications and experience were fine in a country where everyone in the industry knew me, but starting out in a new country meant needing to have bigger guns. I had worked out that it would likely take me a couple of years studying part time to get me to the level I wanted. I had a pretty high pressure job at the time with not a lot of free or stress-free time. I knew that I could do the job back at the council in my sleep and that would give me the time I needed to prepare myself for the big move. And it turned out well. I managed to study, work, and have free time. Thank God for the Public Service.

Because I knew that this job was only a temporary stop for me, I didn't feel threatened or worried about my employment. Not really needing the job gave me a greater sense of freedom in how I viewed my employment world. As a result, when I saw something which I felt was not in the best interests of the tax payer, I made it known. Only ever in-house mind, I was always loyal to my employer. I managed to win a few battles, which felt good. Along the way however, I managed to piss off a couple of life-long managers who seemed to think that I should just shut up and mind my place. I believe that (and you know who you are, Harland / McKenzie / Abercrombie) they were frightened that other people might find out exactly how bad they were. I was privy to a lot of sensitive dealings and knew about most of the dodgy inside deals, payments, etc. The stupid part is that I was the one person they need never have worried about in the whole organisation. As I said, I only ever spoke out within the organisation, never outside.

Anyway, when I left to move to Sweden, I had a formal interview. I took the opportunity to express my disappointment about some of the things I had witnessed and how I had expected better from some people. I've seen enough of those exit interviews to know that they get tossed into the trash, so I never really gave any weight to the idea that it was anything more than a rubber stamping exercise. 3 days later I flew out of the country and haven't given the place another thought.

Fast forward 4 years. I've kept an eye on media reports from "The Old Country" and I know that my former council employer has got themselves into a bit of financial trouble recently over some poor business decisions which have, in turn, highlighted poor internal practices. I was mildly interested to read the reports, but nothing more than that. So, I was quite shocked to be contacted by the owner of an internet commentary site to advise me that there had been a sudden spate of searches being made on my name and the name of my former employer. It seems that I have made more of an impression that I originally thought.

You know what, Jim, Dave and Rhonda ? From Day One I had enough information to sink the empire. But I never used that position of privilage to take advantage. Not once. Despite having every opportunity. Remember that. It's funny how some people mistakenly think that their own level of self-interest and disloyalty must automatically apply to everyone else. If you keep screwing the system, you're going to get caught eventually. And you don't need my help to do that.

Nuff said.