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A city councilman’s fight over a $ 12 parking ticket has cost his council more than $ 14,000, and the bill will increase as a legal battle looms.
Councilman Lee Vandervis was censured for a dispute with a Dunedin City Council customer service representative over a parking ticket on September 13, 2019.
The outspoken councilor alleged that the investigation, which followed a Code of Conduct complaint, was a deliberate leak to undermine his mayoral campaign at the time.
“The claim that I’ve tried to avoid a $ 12 parking ticket is ridiculous,” he said before his fellow councilors issued a written censure on December 10.
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A report by independent investigator David Benham said the employee was “deeply upset” by the incident and that Vandervis was described as “loud, aggressive and intimidating.”
The staff member alleged that Vandervis wanted his parking ticket waived and refused to fill out a form before saying, “See you in court.”
Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
Coucncillor Lee Vandervis has been censored twice by his fellow councilors in less than a year.
Vandervis alleged that the parking attendant made false claims and did not cancel the ticket. He stated that the customer services representative was rude, refused to accept his verbal complaint, and did not acknowledge the officer’s misconduct.
In a statement prior to Things, Vandervis confirmed that he had personally funded the legal action against the council and the investigator, which will take place in Superior Court later this month.
The council has spent $ 14,148 on the conduct matter so far, including $ 3,144 for Benham and legal costs of $ 11,004.
Those costs are expected to increase due to the upcoming judicial review.
Vandervis declined to comment further before the Superior Court hearing.
The Dunedin City Council also declined to comment on the matter, a spokesperson said.
Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
Lee Vandervis and Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins
New Zealand Taxpayers Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said the situation was “a sad testament to the absurdities of local ego-driven politics.”
Councilman Vandervis could have swallowed his pride and apologized to the staff member he harangued.
“Instead, he has fought tooth and nail against scrutiny, leaving Dunedin taxpayers with a $ 14,000 bill and counting.”
Houlbrooke said city councils have a responsibility to take complaints of conduct seriously, and if a council member does not cooperate or apologize, they must go through a costly process of investigation and censorship.
John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Dunedin Municipal Chambers.
Vandervis was found to have violated the council’s Code of Conduct again last month, after pointing fingers and yelling at Deputy Mayor Christine Garey after a city council meeting on July 28.
The complaint was confirmed and the council then voted unanimously in a meeting on October 27 to censure Vandervis and order him to offer a “public, written and unreserved apology.”
Vandervis refused to apologize.
He announced on social media that he had chosen to resign his appointments to the Otago Museum Board of Trustees and the District Licensing committee, rather than abide by council resolutions.
A council spokesperson confirmed that Vandervis did not provide an official response to the resolutions before the November 3 deadline.
Vandervis, who was the city’s top-voted candidate in the local body’s last election, addressed the council Tuesday afternoon about concerns about its mounting debt.
“We are a council out of control,” he said during his five-minute speech.
Houlbrooke applauded Vandervis for standing up to the board over the rate hikes, but said his misbehavior distracted him from any discussion of the board’s finances.
“And now he’s wasting time in court that he could spend dealing with real criminals.”
