Photo: Chris Putnam
The final year of former Christchurch City Council Chief Executive Dawn Baxendale's turbulent reign has come at a cost.
The council has released details of severance and redundancy payouts, and personal grievance settlements for last year, which totalled $918,000. That's up from $490,000 the year before. David says poor leadership has been a constant criticism and there’s been a downward spiral in staff and ratepayer satisfaction.
David also looks at arts funding, with the city council's 10-year budget not including money for the Arts Centre- a half billion dollar cluster of historic buildings, most of them category one. And SailGP is back in Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour, causing concern in conservation circles about threatened Hector's dolphins.
David Williams is Newsroom's Te Waipounamu South Island Correspondent