I expect to see several new nominations for Saddle Hill Community board today.
Because, well because.
In a telephone call with Clare Sullivan of the Dunedin City Council today I was initially told that my profile would only be updated if I nominated for another position, such as a community board. When I expressed interest in doing exactly that Clare seemed to change her position and stated that she would need to speak to the Electoral officer, Anthony Morton, who is an employee of electionz.
She then asked me which community board that I was thinking of standing for to which I replied ‘Saddle Hill’. She responded that I would need to get two nominations from the relevant area to do that to which I replied that yes I knew this (actually I assumed it but have yet to check).
Electionz by the way is a private company based in Christchurch who are looking after quite a few of New Zealand’s local elections. Their initial shareholders and directors were all American. From this company.
Here they all are;
I guess one is allowed to assume that Dunedin Inc doesn’t really want me standing for anything (even unrecompensed community boards) at this stage. Here’s the email that I just sent to Clare Sullivan trying to get a better response on these issues.
Hi Clare,
it seems to me a simple matter to change my profile spiels and indeed my photographs. I could understand not being able to if the booklet was being printed tomorrow but there's still just over 24 hours before all the nominations are in and therefore the booklet isn't even settled on yet. It seems in fact a rule made up by electionz (Anthony Morton) which is a private company (with American origins) rather than a specific part of any local election legislation which either of you would be able to point to.
I would like to put my best foot forward here and I'd have thought that solely on democratic principles that I should be allowed to change my submission (150 word spiel, Richard rather than Rich as my running name and my profile photographs). I am already at a disadvantage in this campaign for not being from either of the major parties or of a financial position to advertise myself adequately.
If that is not going to be possible then I do not want to be part of the election booklet and withdraw my permission entirely to use materials that I have so far provided. This is only to be done on the basis that this does not invalidate my nomination.
I do not want to go to a solicitor to attend to this, or withdraw my present nomination and resubmit, but will do so if this is not attended to, to my satisfaction, by the end of business today. It seems though a trivial issue to me so I'd rather not have to do either of those things.
Please also update my name on the DCC website to Richard Seager rather than Rich Seager. That must be a simple edit.
Thanks
Regards
Richard
Update. Anthony just called me and after initially saying that I would not be able to make the changes, except my name change, I said that I could withdraw my nomination and then resubmit with the updated profile spiel and new photos along with another $400 fee which I stated to him that I thought that would work. I'd also asked about which legislation applied here and he said that it was the local government act to which I asked if that was the 2001 Act which he confirmed was the case. I asked what part of this Act stopped me from attending to these edits. The call was perfectly friendly although somewhat frustrating at times.
Anyway Anthony then stated that this would work but I did not have to pay the $400 fee. He stated that they then would have a paper trail and I would not be able to blame them for getting my profile statement wrong. I had pointed out that I'd only sent my profile statement to him once and that this was the one that I wanted to change to.