Lee Vandervis

Lee Vandervis
Personal details
Born	c. 1955 Balclutha, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealander
Occupation	Businessman, politician
Known for	Dunedin mayoral candidate Critic of funding process of Forsyth Barr Stadium and many City Council contracting and tendering systems.
Website	Official website

Lee Vandervis is a local-body politician who was first elected to the Dunedin City Council in the 2004 local elections. Vandervis has run for mayor in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019; finishing second in 2019. He is currently an elected councillor.

Personal life

Lee Vandervis was born in Balclutha in 1955. He is the second son of Dutch immigrant parents, who settled in New Zealand after the Second World War. He attended Rosebank School (where he was dux), South Otago High School, and Kaikorai Valley High School. Vandervis later acquired a BA in Philosophy (Logic and Aesthetics) from the University of Otago, and has worked as an electronics manufacturing technician for many years. In the mid 1970s he went to the United Kingdom and worked as an engineer and then production manager for Midas Audio UK Ltd. and later for Red Acoustics Ltd. In 1981, Vandervis returned to Dunedin and set up Vandervision Lighting Audio and Video service and hire business.

Lee Vandervis is the father of New Zealand actress Ria Vandervis. Vandervis is married to Antonie Vandervis. They have eight children with the youngest being severely autistic. Vandervis is also an avid listener of classical and progressive rock music and names Johann Sebastian Bach, Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd as some of his favourite composers. Vandervis also plays the piano, and violin, and was a member of the Dunedin band Prometheus. Vandervis is also a fan of classic authors and particularly liked American author Neal Stephenson's speculative fiction novel Cryptonomicon.

Politics

In 1984 Vandervis had a brief foray into politics standing for Bob Jones' New Zealand Party in the Dunedin North electorate. He polled in third place.

2004–2013 terms

In 2004 Vandervis successfully stood for the Dunedin City as a Council councillor and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor coming third with 9.1% of the vote. In the 2007 election he stood on a platform opposing the misrepresentation and funding of the proposed replacement stadium for Carisbrook. He was defeated both as a councillor (by a margin of four votes after the counting of the special votes), as well as a mayoral candidate.

Vandervis was re-elected as a Councillor in 2010 and again in 2013.

As of November 2012, Vandervis is the Chair of the Dunedin City Council Heritage Fund and the Heritage Buildings Re-use Committee. He is also on the Board of the Otago Settlers Museum.

Vandervis states that he is focused on challenging misrepresented projects and bureaucratic waste. At times he is controversial. His recent criticism of Community Boards being remunerated and a waste of money better spent on Community projects raised their ire. He has also had clashes over Council-owned Company forays into subdivision developments that lost many millions at Jack's Point/Luggate and again later at Yaldhurst in Christchurch. He has criticised DCC-owned electricity lines company Aurora and Delta for deferred maintenance, mismanagement, and borrowing to pay DCC dividends.

Vandervis has suggested that Christchurch's proposed stadium would be a waste of money based on his experience with funding Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium. Vandervis supports the rebuild of the Christchurch Cathedral, which was partially destroyed in the earthquakes.

2013–2016 terms

Lee Vandervis stood for re-election in the October 2013 local election as a Dunedin City Councillor; he also contested the Dunedin mayoralty for the fourth time. He was elected as to Council and placed third for the mayoralty. The Mayor, Dave Cull, did not appoint Vandervis to any committees, commenting that he had no confidence he could contribute constructively, nor maintain any of the relationships needed to do the work effectively.

On 16 March 2015, Lee Vandervis was subject to a code of conduct hearing dealing with three complaints against him for his alleged bullying, aggressive, and misleading behaviour. Vandervis has defended his actions. The city councillor had been involved in an argument with the Dunedin City Council's chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose and had criticized the council and the local police's investigation of the illegal sale of 150 the Council's Cityfleet vehicles to local residents. On 1 May 2015, Vandervis was temporarily stripped of his voting rights after failing to apologize for these actions. According to the Otago Daily Times journalist Kim Dungey, Vandervis was well known within Dunedin circles for his acrimonious relationship with Mayor Cull and several city councillors; taking issue with the council's alleged misspending of public money, the Cityfleet fraud case, and property speculation by Council's Delta Utility Services. In addition, Vandervis has also opposed a 3.8% rates increase and has called for the council to cut back on staff numbers and to "be run more like a business."

In 2016 Vandervis again increased his Councillor vote but again failed to win the Mayoralty.

In July 2017, Vandervis settled a defamation lawsuit against Mayor Cull receiving only NZ$50,000 because he could no longer afford the legal delays and spiraling costs. Vandervis had sued Cull following a heated exchange in December 2015 after Vandervis claimed on-going contract irregularities and that a bribe to a senior DCC manager had been necessary to secure a council contract in the 1980s. Vandervis alleged that Cull had defamed him when responding to that claim.

2019 local body election

In late August 2019 prior to the October election, the Otago Daily Times reported that Vandervis was the subject of 11 complaints of inappropriate behaviour collated by CEO Bidrose over many years, including angry shouting, insulting, threatening, unsubstantiated allegations of corruption, and intimidating behaviour against several Dunedin City Council staff members. Vandervis was also criticised by Mayor Cull and several fellow councillors including Rachel Elder, Aaron Hawkins, and Mike Lord for alleged bullying and intimidating behaviour. In response, Vandervis defended his actions and claimed that he was the victim of a smear campaign timed to coincide with the 2019 Dunedin mayoral election. Vandervis had publicly criticised CEO Bidrose for being absent from her office for 150 of the previous 365 days. Vandervis had also criticised CEO Bidrose for failing for two years to action a unanimous Council resolution which he had moved to get a report on the pros and cons of a Unitary Council for Dunedin.

In early September 2019, Vandervis drew criticism when he made the remark that many young voters were ignorant or did not care about candidates during a mayoral debate organised by the Otago University Students' Association. Vandervis then apologised to those who had turned up to the debate for his remark.

In mid-September 2019, a twelfth complaint was lodged against Vandervis through CEO Bidrose after he allegedly verbally abused a DCC staff member for refusing to note the details of a faulty parking machine. Video evidence of this claimed abusive interaction was initially withheld by the DCC but later forced into the public arena by Vandervis' appeal to the Ombudsman. Leaks from the DCC to social and local print media falsely recast Vandervis' complaint of a staff member as an attempt by Vandervis to get off a $12 parking ticket.

The unprecedented use of the DCC Code of Conduct by a staff member, and alleged abuse of process and misrepresentation of the Code of Conduct by the investigator and CEO Bidrose has been the subject of a Judicial Review brought against the DCC and the investigator by Vandervis, currently going through appeal against Judge Gendal's negative ruling in the High Court. Vandervis contested the complaint and uploaded a CCTV video on social media to support his claim that he did not verbally abuse the staff member. On 10 December, Vandervis was censured by his fellow councillors for the staff alleged abuse incident.

On 12 October 2019, Vandervis was re-elected to the Dunedin City Council as a councillor but narrowly lost the mayoral contest to Greens candidate Aaron Hawkins.

2019–2022 term

In mid-October 2020, independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg found that Vandervis had engaged in intimidatory behaviour during an argument with Deputy Mayor Christine Garey in late July 2020. While apologising for his conduct, Vandervis defended his efforts to hold city councillors and staff to account for allegedly "not doing their job." During a conduct hearing held on 27 October, Vandervis' fellow councillors called on him to apologise for his behaviour and seek professional help with anger management, with Mayor Aaron Hawkins likening him to a four-year old. Vandervis remained defiant during the hearing, alleging that the problem was council mismanagement and misrepresentation. The Dunedin City Council also warned Vandervis that they would revoke his membership of the Otago Museum Trust Board and the district licensing committee if a "suitable apology" was not delivered.Vandervis refused to apologise and resigned from both positions.

In August 2021, Vandervis disagreed with the Dunedin City Council's proposal for a destination playground,^[1] instead advocating much cheaper and widespread adventure playgrounds where children and young people can play with water, fire, and build with pallets. Vandervis' views were supported by University of Otago geography Professor Claire Freeman, who said that contemporary children experienced less freedom than previous generations, reducing their ability to handle risk.

In mid-September 2021, Vandervis attracted media attention and criticism after he published several COVID-19–related social media posts questioning the effectiveness of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the right of government to fire unvaccinated employees, and advocating the use of the Dr. Borody Covid treatment protocol including Ivermectin for treating COVID-19.

In early October 2021, Vandervis delivered a Freedom of Choice speech at an anti-lockdown "Families Freedom Picnic" that was held in Dunedin's Queens Gardens. During the protest, Vandervis spoke about the effects of lockdown regulations on people's freedoms, and local businesses, abuses of the NZ Bill of Rights Act, and government mandated pressures to be vaccinated.

In early December 2021, Vandervis objected to the Dunedin City Council's vaccine pass requirement for accessing council premises and services as part of the New Zealand Government's COVID-19 Protection Framework. Since Vandervis had chosen not to get vaccinated for COVID-19, he was told he was only allowed to attend virtual DCC meetings. He claimed that the Governments' COVID-19 policies breached the right to refuse medical treatment under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, free speech, lawful assembly, and justice. On 7 December, Vandervis was trespassed from the Dunedin City Council for three months after attending a scheduled Council meeting without a COVID-19 vaccine pass. The meeting was moved and rescheduled without the required public or personal notice to Vandervis. Vandervis objected to the trespass notice, claiming that access to essential services like local government could not be restricted based on vaccine status, quoting NZ Ministry of Health guidelines for Doctors..

Notes

1.^ "Destination playgrounds are typically larger playgrounds set in a location that may require a drive to reach."

External links

• Lee Vandervis at Local Elections 2010

News

• Loughrey, David (27 September 2010). "Poll shows two-horse race". Otago Daily Times.
• Loughrey, David (6 October 2010). "Cull leads in latest poll". Otago Daily Times.