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“Sideshow Bob” .... the earthquake .... and the mayoral election

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: December 15, 2010, 08:11:17 pm »


Mayor's media presence criticised

Report: Parker contributed to quake crisis

By BEN HEATHER - The Press | 5:00AM - Wednesday, 15 December 2010

CHRISTCHURCH MAYOR Bob Parker's strong media presence after the September earthquake distorted the extent of the emergency, a civil defence report says.

A draft report written by Environment Canterbury's (ECan) senior civil defence manager said Parker's appearances contributed to a "crisis situation being depicted by the media".

That made efforts to return to relatively normal conditions more difficult, it said.

The comments about Parker were removed from the final version of the report to the Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee because it was deemed contentious.

On public communication, the draft report said "the emphasis on the city mayor appearing in most media opportunities tended to distort the true picture of the extent of the emergency, external perceptions of needs and initial decisions as to appropriate responses".

On governance, it said: "Reliance on mayors as media spokespersons can contribute to an artificial air of crisis that is very difficult to climb down from."

The report said local councils' civil defence management did not initially accept the authority of regional civil defence controllers.

The report was written by Bob Upton, who works for ECan as the Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management Group controller.

Parker said yesterday he found the report upsetting, and he defended the Christchurch City Council's role and his own performance after the quake.

"I put my heart and soul into doing what was best for the community," he said.

He said the report was not helpful and would further damage ECan's relationship with the city council.

Upton referred The Press to his boss, Jon Mitchell.

Mitchell said the comments about Parker were removed at the behest of senior managers from emergency services, government departments and earthquake-affected councils.

He said he was comfortable with both versions of the report, but the managers had decided the draft was too contentious.

"The [draft] report was found to be a little bit difficult to deal with in an open meeting," he said.

The joint committee includes representatives, mostly mayors, from all Canterbury councils, including ECan. Parker sits on the committee but did not attend Monday's committee meeting where the report was presented.

ECan's representative, commissioner Donald Couch, said Upton's comments about Parker were not appropriate and he did not support them.

"Mayors are leaders and we elect them to lead," he said.

He largely agreed with the findings in the rest of the report.

It said that while most agencies performed well individually after the earthquake, there were problems co-ordinating the overall response.

They included the reluctance of some agencies to hand over to regional controllers and inadequate guidance at a national level.

Other points were:

The management of the six welfare centres, with the report asking why people who slept in school halls for more than a week were not moved to hotels or motels.

New Zealand Defence Force helicopters were not used to full capacity.

Schools were closed unnecessarily, with the Education Ministry making a unilateral decision to close all schools without support from local civil defence controllers.

It took three days for the emergency control centre to get a "feel" for the extent of quake damage.

Council emergency operations centres were in buildings that suffered quake damage, impeding communication until other facilities were found.

Poor understanding of civil defence laws and processes among some national and local representatives impeded communication.

The resilience of quake-hit communities, with people responding quickly to help each other without central guidance.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4458323/Mayors-media-presence-criticised
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Magoo
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« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2010, 05:13:53 am »

It really wouldn't matter how much or how little people did, the level of criticism would be the same.   I think Bob needs lots of sympathy, imagine having to wake up next to that funny hair do every morning.   If Bob thinks this is a blond page boy then god knows how he saw the quake.   From goth to ginga.
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« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2010, 08:06:54 am »

mmm... I think that this is more about the senior CD manager not knowing how to use people with people skills effectively.

It is a common fault among engineering types. In Bob Parker (or any other mayor for that matter) he had a tool that was too much for him to use effectively.

I agree with the finding about the Ministry of Ed closing all of the schools. That added problems rather than helped solve them.
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dragontamer
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« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2010, 08:23:20 am »

How did closing schools add to the problem?

Do you honestly think parents were going to send their kids to schools that hadn't been cleared by EQC and building inspectors, while still suffering severe aftershocks?  Do you think teachers wanted to be away from their families and homes while suffering severe aftershocks?

Distorted the extent of the emergency?  Bull shit. 

Anybody who wasn't here can not even begin to imagine what it was like.  Living through any other severe earthquake might give a clue, but not the whole picture.  Whole streets of businesses wiped out - looking like active war zones in third world countries.  Media just presented the same buildings over and over.  They were just the tip of the iceberg.  Not one media outlet took up a position on the top of the Colombo Street overpass and filmed the devastation down Colombo Street, Sydenham.

Emergency managers failed to hand over to National assistance.  Now that's fact.  Ego's inflicted almost as much suffering as the quakes themselves.

Bob Upton had his ego dented.  Bully for him.

Ecan now want 10% of my rates over then next 10 years to fix the Halswell River.  Never mind they have been taking a percentage of my rates for just such an emergency for the last 12 years.  They spent that on their over inflated salaries while they 'managed' funds.  Fucken wankers.
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Magoo
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« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2010, 08:39:49 am »

Quote
Anybody who wasn't here can not even begin to imagine what it was like.
It isn't too late if out of towners have a notion to drop in and see it first hand.   The rest of NZ might be sick to death of hearing about it but try living amongst it and see how sick of it you can be.
A teacher I know is living in a house with two  rooms and his garage sealed off because liquification has bubbled up through the floors to a depth of about a metre.   He is one of many.

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« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2010, 12:00:56 pm »

Quote
Ecan now want 10% of my rates over then next 10 years to fix the Halswell River.  Never mind they have been taking a percentage of my rates for just such an emergency for the last 12 years.  They spent that on their over inflated salaries while they 'managed' funds.  Fucken wankers.

I wondered why the river needs fixing - if a river shifts its bed wouldn't it be better (cheaper) just to let it rather than try divert it back into its former bed? Undecided I am not sold on many of the proposed land repairs either. I can't help thinking that in some areas they should have just relocated and paid out everyone and left the area to revert back to swamp.

That Ecan situation is absolutely deplorable. I can only hope when they say 10% of rates they are refereing to the regional rates and not your entire rates bill. Assuming your regional rates are similar to mine ($17 per month).


Do you honestly think parents were going to send their kids to schools that hadn't been cleared by EQC and building inspectors, while still suffering severe aftershocks?  Do you think teachers wanted to be away from their families and homes while suffering severe aftershocks?


 The point I was trying to make was that the schools were in the most part only suffering minor damage. Less damage than many of the homes people were and are still living in.

Your point about teachers is true but so also is the that fact that many parents had to look after their children instead of returning to their jobs or doing other quake related work. Those children were suffering from the seismic upheaval - true, but they were also suffering from a complete change of routine that would have made matters much worse for many of them. That is something I am very familar with.

It would have been better to give the kids some normality and something to do other than sit at home waiting for the next aftershock.
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« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2010, 12:55:06 pm »

I agree with you over the schools DT.  Imagine the hue and cry if schools hadn't closed and children had been injured or worse because the buildings hadn't been checked.      I have friends in Halswell from when I lived in ChCh and they have talked by phone about the quake.     When I lived there, they used to joke that there was a river under their place and if there ever was an earthquake, that they'd end up down there.    House had minor damage and no one has been to inspect it yet.   One day he was driving over to Hornby on a back road(I think it was) when one of the aftershocks came and he said the road was moving in rolls and was pretty scarey.   Hard to even imagine it if you hadn't experienced it first hand.  My friends opinion is ChCh is stuffed and going to take years to recover. 
I also agree with you about the media and the repeat pictures of the same 2 or 3 buildings week after week.

I did also wonder if my grandparents felt the move, from their resting place at the Bromley Cemetery.
 
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« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2010, 07:10:13 am »

 It is outrageous that people feel the need to criticise someone who clearly put the emergency above his own interests unlike a bet each way Anderton
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« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2010, 08:39:01 pm »


The issues surrounding “Sideshow Bob” that resulted in his popularity plummetting during the leadup to the local body elections (until the earthquake occured) haven't been erased from history. They are still there. If those policies had been supported by the majority of Christchurch citizens, then “Sideshow Bob” would have lead the polling during the ENTIRE leadup to the local body elections, instead of falling way behind, then only gaining sufficient support to win after an earthquake — perhaps BallastedMoth and others could post details about what, apart from an earthquake, caused Sideshow Bob's sudden reversal in the polls from getting his arse well-and-truely-kicked, to winning the mayoralty. Was there actually anything of substance apart from an earthquake and the aftermath? And notice too how Sideshow Bob fronted with all the good news stories, but kept out of the bad-news stories, suddenly being too busy to talk to the media unless it was something that showed him in a positive light.

However, “Sideshow Bob” now thinks that his winning the mayoral election is a vindication of his policies over the previous three years, when in fact it was merely a vindication of how he fronted up on behalf of Christchurch following the earthquake.

But somehow, I suspect many people will fail to comprehend that....until “Sideshow Bob” goes back to his old ways such as his previous history — using ratepayers' funds to purchase and hold property on behalf of one of his rich-prick rip-off mates who has since been adjudged bankrupt with a shitload of ordinary people losing out in the resultant fall-out, approving a fellow councillor's sand-castle junket, supporting Cantabrians being forced to pay rates to a local authority when they were denied their democratic right to elect people to represent them on that rate-setting body, and many other issues that haven't been erased from Sideshow Bob's actual history of being mayor up until the election campaign began.
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dragontamer
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« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2010, 09:19:06 pm »

Or you could look at it that during a crisis he fronted up and got his hands dirty.

Jim didn't. 

The other 10 or 12 mayoral candidates were no-names who did absolutely nothing to make themselves known.
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« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2010, 05:43:05 am »

Jim didn't. 


Jim actually did the decent thing and backed-off from campaigning to let “Sideshow Bob” get on with the job of being mayor following a major natural disaster.

If the tables had been turned, I wonder if “Sideshow Bob” would have backed off and allowed Jim to get on with the job of being mayor following a major natural disaster, or if he would instead have taken advantage of the situation to indulge in a bit of one-sided campaigning while the mayor was otherwise occupied dealing with a disaster?
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dragontamer
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« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2010, 06:19:30 am »

Actually you are wrong.  Anderton bitched and moaned about everything.  He did absolutely nothing to help.  He sounded like a spoilt little brat. 

THAT as much as Bob working swung the vote.  He has nobody but himself to blame.
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« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2010, 09:50:20 am »

 Anderton has been a life long crotchety old man anyone who has ever worked with him only speaks ill of him and he is so vain his party is called his name
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« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2010, 10:24:59 am »


So I take it you two supported Sideshow Bob using ratepayers' money to purchase and hold properties on behalf of Bob's rich-prick mate who ultimately still went bankrupt? Presumably you also support Sideshow Bob's decision to sign off on one of his councillors going on a sandcastle junket to the USA? Presumably you also supported Sideshow Bob burning through ratepayers' money to build a new palace for the council, even though times are extremely tough economically? I guess if you support Sideshow Bob, then you also support all of that wasteful extravagant baggage that comes with him.

Face facts....if it hadn't been for the earthquake, Sideshow Bob would be history, no matter who was standing against him. Otherwise, explain how come he was getting his arse kicked so severely in the polls prior to the earthquake. The only way Sideshow Bob could win the Christchurch mayoralty again was with the help of an earthquake.
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dragontamer
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« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2010, 10:42:07 am »

Why the hell  you are so intent on trying to figure out my politics TJ?

Just to easy your mind..... I can't stand Bob Parker.  But I hate Jim Anderton on a far greater scale. 

The ONLY saving grace Bob has is that he DID get off his arse and was in the middle of Christchurch, vocal and visual, while Jim sat back and grizzled and bitched because he couldn't politic when that was all he knows how to do.  He should have got dirty and tired like the rest of us.

Yes Bob would have been history and he could still have been history if he had someone halfway decent standing against him.  Dumb and dumber were the only other choices.   Wigram is Jim's area - did we see him?  Did we fuck!  Jim Anderton has nobody to blame but himself.
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« Reply #15 on: December 19, 2010, 03:08:27 pm »

 Jim Anderton like all socialists is always totally ungracious
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« Reply #16 on: December 19, 2010, 04:10:18 pm »


BallastedMoth is unable to adequately explain why Sideshow Bob was getting his arse kicked in the polls prior to the earthquake.

Presumably BallastedMoth fully supported Sideshow Bob using ratepayers' funds for dodgy ends?

I guess BallastedMoth also supported the sandcastle junket undertaken by one of Bob's councillors.

After all, Sideshow Bob supported that junket (he signed it off), so if he supported it, then BallastedMoth must support it.
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« Reply #17 on: December 19, 2010, 05:18:39 pm »

Isn't it funny that the two most going at it with respect to the CHCH Mayor aren't even from CHCH. Whinge about the mess in your own back yards before having a dig at someone else's.
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« Reply #18 on: December 27, 2010, 08:19:55 am »


Now I wonder where “Sideshow Bob” was yesterday? 


Oooops, I forgot....he is not currently fighting a losing mayoralty election campaign, so no need to stick his face in front of every television camera he can find, eh? So it must be business as normal.....leave it to the deputy!   
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« Reply #19 on: December 27, 2010, 08:12:48 pm »


Now I wonder where “Sideshow Bob” was yesterday? 


Oooops, I forgot....he is not currently fighting a losing mayoralty election campaign, so no need to stick his face in front of every television camera he can find, eh? So it must be business as normal.....leave it to the deputy!   

Obviously the news in Wellington is pretty boring for a Wellingtonian to stick his nose into affairs in Christchurch. My advice stick to your own region, it has enough problems to keep you occupied.
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Alicat
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« Reply #20 on: December 27, 2010, 08:24:35 pm »

I suspect Bob Parker is out of town on holiday as it was the Deputy Mayor who fronted up on TV One News.
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Magoo
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« Reply #21 on: December 28, 2010, 06:59:27 am »

I suspect Bob Parker is out of town on holiday as it was the Deputy Mayor who fronted up on TV One News.

Or out of the country.   
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« Reply #22 on: December 28, 2010, 03:14:30 pm »

Obviously the news in Wellington is pretty boring for a Wellingtonian to stick his nose into affairs in Christchurch. My advice stick to your own region, it has enough problems to keep you occupied.

The jockey's just making political capital out of the situation. There is no subject on the face of the earth he won't turn into a greens/leftist vs everybody else shitfest.
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