Hard News: It was a munted year
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
what else can we do?
We can remember, come election time we can agitate and remind.
I doubt we can guilt the man into leaving.
He seems to have a Roger Douglas-like sense of entitlement!
Though most of the letters in today’s Press are strongly
against this pay rise, and only one comment I saw on their
website supported it – I have little faith in the silent majority
of this rapidly degenerating wild west (ok east) city……and to be honest, leaving Chchch is high on the agenda…
the place and council, coupled with getting Nicky Wagner
as my elected MP is just too depressing to think about… -
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
is just too depressing to think about…
There's a lot of that going about.It feels we're being slowly sucked into the vortex .
Did you ask about Brendon or am I confused? Does anyone know, is Brendon going to be set up anywhere or has he officially left the Labour Party? Is their a green member anywhere with an office? I know there must be rent constraints but what about a container? If one can shop in one...? Imagine only Wagner. yuk. All about the 1%. Oh sorry Ian. I wont go on. See,it's the vortex. -
Lilith __, in reply to
to be honest, leaving Chchch is high on the agenda
Oh Ian, our average IQ would plummet! You'd be a one-person brain drain.
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Roger, in reply to
Russell, I believe you accurately repeated what Parker was reported to have said – I too wondered , and searched , and could only find main sewer truck
By the way...
For pedants, the normal usage would be 'main trunk sewer'
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Oh Ian, our average IQ would plummet!
Duh, ditto that :-(
Ian:
I doubt we can guilt the man into leaving.
He seems to have a Roger Douglas-like sense of entitlement!I was thinking more of Putin and Medvedev. It seems that the Russians are rather more given to asserting themselves in the face of this kind of political ordure.
It’s sweet of Dean Peter Beck to give it a go, but even he seems in thrall to the Sauron-like cult of Marryatt when he refers to him as a ‘leader’. He isn’t, FFS, he’s what used to be called a town clerk, and he’s our appointed, not elected, servant.
Sofie:
Did you ask about Brendon or am I confused? Does anyone know, is Brendon going to be set up anywhere or has he officially left the Labour Party?
Wagner is at least showing up at community events, though I’d be surprised if she were to appear to give even tacit support to anyone directly disadvantaged by the quakes. While I’d had mixed feelings about Burns when I lived in his electorate – there was a sense that he somehow considered us fortunate to have him as an MP – at the Latimer Square rally a week before the election he definitely had the fire in his belly, and had been putting in the hard yards beyond mere duty.
Ian’s earlier point about Christchurch being ill-served by Labour’s low list ranking of Burns is all too true. Since the election there are a number of issues continuing to play out – notably the dodgy dealings surrounding the Cathedral demolition – about which we’re all rather better informed thanks to initiatives taken by Burns.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
‘main trunk sewer’
Like Taumarunui on the main trunk...
</coat> -
Ana Simkiss, in reply to
Samuel you're not dreaming, the Dominion Post did indeed put "nek minute" on the front page. I attach photographic evidence (let's see if this attachment thingy works...)
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Nek Minnit the Auckland City (rate payers) baling out NZTA:
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/12416416/auckland-council-coughs-up-more-for-roads/
This govt's has been diving head first into the trough that is the treasury benches and is swilling back so hard they have over looked implementing policy to a budget and planning and they have now found the NZTA trough to be empty.
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nzlemming, in reply to
What a huge fucking surprise. Not.
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I had a go at Marryatt and his inflated wage bill on The Panel this afternoon.
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Onya Geoff, much obliged. That obscene payrise is the second thing that's made me shout at the paper in recent days (the first was a total rates rebate for Port Hills 'rock-risk' evictees).
I rather enjoyed reading the Press letters page today - every single one of them expressing various shades of outrage at the total disconnect between pay, performance & the rest of the universe...
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Thanks Geoff.
Compared to other Council CEOs, Auckland’s Doug McKay is on $675,000 and Wellington’s Garry Poole is on around $420,000 a year.By way of comparison with Australia, the latest figures I could find were two years old, when the Sydney district, with a population around that of NZ, had 37 council general managers pulling a total of $9.5 million. The top earner was City of Sydney’s Monica Barone, on a package worth $372,628 a year. At the time this was seen as excessive, as it was more than Kevin Rudd was earning. Now Marryatt is paid more dollar for dollar than Julia Gillard.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Tiny Emirate...
Now Marryatt is paid more dollar for dollar than Julia Gillard.
Now Marryatt is paid more than $1 for every person in Christchurch...
I think we should all be allowed to personally deliver our dollar to him
(I'm thinking of him in a silo that we can drop the coins in it and make him say "thank you, I'm here to serve..." while he does his Scrooge McDuck impersonation...
Oh and he should quit his other 5 jobs (paid directorships) as well,
to better concentrate on earning his mammothly munificent Mammon.I'm gonna lose karmic points for this I know...
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Islander, in reply to
’m gonna lose karmic points for this I know…
Report
Gained at least as many as the obscenely out-of-touch Marryatt gets each year-
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When you compare Marryat's compensation to other council "CEOs" of major NZ cities it's apparent they are all greatly overpaid. There's a cult of 'I'm special, I deserve more' - compounded as these special people are surrounded by others, who also feel they are worth more, and who often form a quorum that can vote themselves more.
I'm not surprised he's getting a beating in the media. This is a city where many folks are paying rates (you can apply for a 40% abatement!) on dwellings that are awaiting demolition. I hope The Press is naming and shaming each and every Councillor who voted for this tosh. When did the People's Republic of Christchurch become the Greedy Guzzling Trough? -
Kumara Republic, in reply to
I hope The Press is naming and shaming each and every Councillor who voted for this tosh. When did the People’s Republic of Christchurch become the Greedy Guzzling Trough?
Nek minnit… a rates boycott. Maryatt is increasingly looking like Roger Estall 2.0.
And here's the where the councillors voted on him.
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Geoff Lealand, in reply to
But the good news is that the Defence Ministry 'charges' against Jon Stephenson have been dropped, which suggests they were just bluster and bluff.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Maryatt is increasingly looking like Roger Estall 2.0.
Maybe, but Mayor Bob did threaten to resign if Marryatt wasn't reappointed, and now Brownlee's making extremely thinly veiled threats to pull an ECAN on those councillors who'd diss His Bobness.
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The Gerry-mandering continues…
Wake to a grey morning, headline on The Press
"Quake Minister Brownlee scolds council" – a ray of hope methinks…
but no, I’m still living in a fools paradise!
Rather than chastise their fiscal imprudence…Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has accused “parts” of the Christchurch City Council of slowing the earthquake recovery and has refused to rule out sacking councillors.
Days after being reappointed, Brownlee waded into Christchurch politics, accusing some councillors of being ill-informed and not supporting Mayor Bob Parker.
“There is a case for some elected members of the council to step up and learn a little more about what is going on than they know at the moment.
“We need to get past the idea that we are waiting for someone else to do it,” he said.
“I have great sympathy for the mayor. I don’t know that he is all that well supported by the council.”So Brownlee will maintain the status quo (Bob and his motley ‘A Team’ crew of ex media faces and clowns), and get rid of any voices raised in question on behalf of the ratepayers (the so-called ‘B Team’ of people who are doing what they were elected to do).
It’s gonna be a long three years…
Bastards…<snap - Joe ! - nice comment at the Press website yesterday, too>
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
So Brownlee will maintain the status quo (Bob and his motley 'A Team' crew of ex media faces and clowns), and get rid of any voices raised in question on behalf of the ratepayers (the so-called 'B Team' of people who are doing what they were elected to do).
It's gonna a long three years...
Bastards...This makes me inexpressibly angry. As you say, the councillors who are implicitly threatened here are those who have shown the most concern for the people who elected them and for doing their jobs well; Glenn Livingstone, for example, is part of this co-op project to make new sections affordable for red zone residents, the sort of thing the government and council should have done but haven't.
Brownlee seems to be taking the whole joke about him being appointed dictator of Canterbury just a little too seriously. He and Parker are defining any dissent whatsoever with their decisions as unacceptable. It's sickening.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Ian, I'm bloody spewing here, it's like a slow-motion train wreck.
Yesterday on the Press's discussion thread re. Marryatt's obscene antics there were calls for Brownlee to intervene and set things aright.
O the shrieking naivety.Should the paranoid scenario play out, we can be certain that it'll be the excesses of the Parker-Marryatt camp that'll provide the excuse, while those who opposed them will cop the blame.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Dominion of the damned...
Glenn Livingstone, for example, is part of this co-op project to make new sections affordable for red zone residents, the sort of thing the government and council should have done but haven’t.
Too, true - removing property caveats such as those that hampered the Haywoods would have helped many more folk as well...
I think Brownlee only exercises 'Special Powers' that cause grief and pain, he has done very little (if anything) that has had a beneficial effect at a human level.
I sometimes wonder if this whole thing isn't part of a much larger Magickal working, because someone is gonna have to send all these pesky demons back to whence they came when this is all over... -
Bart Janssen, in reply to
CEOs
grrr they’re all a bunch of greedy #&^%$#*^%(
Actually there are some very good ones. The problem in New Zealand is that there are not enough good CEOs to provide an example of how the job is meant to be done. As a result we have a considerable number who believe that the job is about delegating responsibility and setting KPIs that ensure the biggest bonuses possible.
Really good leadership is so very very important. And for CHCH even more so.
Oh and that argument about having to pay more the get good leaders – bullshit pure and utter. The really good leaders take a fair salary, by no means small but also they are aware of what is excessive, that’s why they are good.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
I think Brownlee only exercises ‘Special Powers’
For the 1%, by the1%.
Brownlee has got them as long as National are in Govt. Alongside sits Bob Poodle Parker
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I rather like this notion. I've heard the argument that what CEOs do is important. But I think about all those council wastewater workers who got our sewers working again. Now THOSE are important jobs, and I'd be surprised if the pay wasn't...shitty.
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