My Correspondence with Andrew Williams

I will give Andrew Williams, the Mayor of the North Shore of Auckland this, he does reply to his correspondence and you cant say that about many politicians.

He really needs some anger management though, as you will see at the end of this post.

I initially emailed him on Monday about a piece I wrote on Political Animal about his shenanigans with ratepayer money, principally his use of NZ$1342 to buy wine for his political allies to popularise his opposition to John Banks and his great idea for one Auckland, one mayor.

My initial email:

-----Original Message-----

From: Darren Rickard

Sent: Monday, 23 March 2009 9:05 p.m.

To: mayor@northshorecity.govt.nz

Subject: Article in Political Animal on Andrew Williams

Dear Mr Andrews,

please see the article below that was published on Monday 23 March. I attach

it as a courtesy to you and hope you take it on board...

Regards,  Darren Rickard.

The Mayor's reply:

date Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 1:21 AM

subject RE: Article in Political Animal on Andrew Williams

mailed-bynorthshorecity.govt.nz

Hi Darren

Thanks for emailing me this info. Much appreciated. The media love to sensationalise trivia but ignore all the positive work I am doing, and the results of my council.

Regards 

Andrew Williams Mayor Andrew Williams

He thought I was supporting him which would have been bizarre because the content of Monday's Political Animal post wasn't exactly complimentary. It is clear that both the emailer(me) and the writer were the same.

I tried once again with a similar reply.

I then emailed this last night to finally get my point across:

-----Original Message-----

From: Darren Rickard

Sent: Tuesday, 24 March 2009 10:43 p.m.

To: Mayor Andrew Williams

Subject: Re: Article in Political Animal on Andrew Williams

Hi Andrew,

I do NOT support you. Your arrogant, money wasting, rude and sometimes

downright nutty antics as Mayor led me to write this.

Regards, Darren Rickard.

To be sure the content of this email might seem a little strong and my article was even stronger but they are facts as I see them and they are shared my a large majority of people who live on the North Shore of Auckland and the Mayor has been, well , nutty.

Here is Andrew's unedited reply, 

from Mayor Andrew Williams

to Darren Rickard

date Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 8:51 AM

subject RE: Article in Political Animal on Andrew Williams

mailed-bynorthshorecity.govt.nz

You selfish, selfish, selfish nasty person. How dare you email me in such a mannerwith total ignorance of the facts.

I work long hours day, night and at weekends helping people and groups all over the Shore. Every day people ask me for help with issues and I assist them. And I also have taken leadership with my council to sort out big problems such as PAK n SAVE, Birkenhead Library, TAKAPUNAkiosk, Albany high school, Long Bay Great Park, Whenuapai airport., Chelsea heritage park. And the list goes on.

I have revised budgets and expenditure to reduce rate increases from 8.4% to 5.9%. Efficiencies have been found across council spending.

And yes 15 yr old filthy shabby couches have been replaced. As they should be for important VIP guests to NZ's 4th latgest city. And for 20 years and before that there has been a civic events budget, including wine. This council has had the lowest wine use I am told. We didn't even have wine at our swearing in function.

The bridge at Campbells Bay has been a 10 year community project. To provide safe access across an all too often sizeable tide of water. To provide safe access to the toilets and playground. Council officers have however over engineered it, OSH rules have added cost. We will deliver this community project at lower cost.

So, don't email me with uninformed slaggings. You should be grateful that this Mayor is a hands-on Mayor who gets on with the business, takes a 'can do' attitude, and is leading this city strongly...to get the best outcomes for our city.

What have you ever done for anyone else but yourself?. And what have you done for our city? ANYTHING APART FROM MOAN AND SLAG OFF AT THE MAYOR???

Andrew Wiliams

Mayor

My only conclusion is that Andrew thinks it is OK to waste ratepayers money on expensive bottles of wine for political reasons and that his record rate rise because of his wasteful spending is hunky dory as well.

Interesting the kind of people that we vote to represent ourselves huh?

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Dead Cats and Vicious Bears

If you are a short termer in the stockmarket of late you would have done well over the last week or so depending on the stock that you purchased.

I am thinking you might want to cut and run soon.

Stocks like Fletcher Building [FBU.NZ] are up more than 20% on recent lows, Mainfreight [MFT.NZ] up by nearly 20%, Sky City Entertainment [SKC.NZ], Goodman Fielder [GFF.NZ], Briscoe Group [BGR.NZ], Hallenstein Glasson [HLG.NZ] and Ryman Healthcare [RYM.NZ] all up over 10%.

The NZX is up nearly 200 points, 43 of them today.

Markets around the world are up dizzying amounts over the last week and a half, the DOW alone leaping around 1000 points off 13 year lows. It gained nearly 500 points today in the third highest ever percentage gain in the indexes history.

Dizzying stats huh?

What does all this upwards activity really mean though?

In my not so humble opinion it means very little at all.

The impetus for all this upwards frenzy is Barack Obama and his manufacturing money supply in the trillions, just over the last few weeks alone to "ease the credit crises". Apparently it is a positive move.

People investing back into the stockmarket now think this is all over so they send the DOW 500 points higher?

Have we all forgotten the reality that the world is in a deep recession?

I believe moves made by Obama over the last few days mean caution flags should be raised in investors minds. His moves will make things worse in the long term.

The market should have gone down.

Once the detail of this is digested, the market will wake up to reality and continue to fall.

It is a sucker Dead Cat rally and it ain't the kind of pussycat one wants to take home.

Disclosure: I own all the shares mentioned in this article.


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"Crunchy the Clown" Andrew William's drunken joke

"I represent the people of North Shore and the best interests of my citizens". Andrew Williams, North Shore Mayor.

I voted for Andrew Williams, the Loony Mayor of Auckland's North Shore, because he promised to focus on cutting costs to ratepayers and bringing an open an honest way of operating the council.

Not only are we going to get a another massive hike in rates this year but Andrew and his mates have been busy spending millions on buying beach front houses to "make parks", putting in swing bridges in Castor Bay at the bottom of his street at the cost of half a million, spending up large on food and alcohol for himself and councilors and allowing private contractors to increase their bills on Council works projects when quotes were given at a set price.

The latest money wasting exercise is William's use of over $1300 of ratepayer money (see video below) to buy private label wine at 18 bucks a bottle to give to political allies and friends.

The wine is labeled "Stop Banks" and is a reference to John Banks and his advocacy for a "Super City" for Auckland, which Williams is against because he wouldn't stand a shit show of getting anywhere near being elected, because the guy is barking.

William's priorities are wrong, he has broken most of his pre-election policies and this latest scandal should surely mean he falls on his highly paddled arsehole and give the Mayoral chains to someone who has respect for the office of Mayor and the ratepayers who have paid for his grand schemes and this latest little tawdry muck fest.

William's Mayoral term thus far has been mired in controversy, arrogance, paranoid rantings, stupidity and downright nuttiness at times.

I am truly ashamed that I voted for this mad prick. I wish I could take my vote back.

Tell Crunchy what you think of his disrespectful ways at mayor@northshorecity.govt.nz  Dont be nasty just state your opinion forcefully.

More Mad Mayoral Musings

"Crunchy the Clown" article

Breakfast TV pokes fun at Mr Williams

William's goes ballistic at North Shore Events Centre

Andrewwilliamsismad.blogspot.com

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Freedom of choice at centre of new Holiday Law

The opposition to a move by National to allow a week of employees holidays to be "sold" to employers is perplexing to say the least. 

It will mean that those employees will now have a choice to sell and or work that week and get in effect double the pay.

Unions and the Labour Party are bleating that this will effect "workers rights" but it is clear that the former setup rather than the new one impinges on those workers rights.

The new law will allow workers more freedom of choice, something the left hates.

It cannot be left to those Unionists within and outside the Labour Party (very hard to tell which is which now that Andrew Little is inside Labour) to tell vulnerable workers what to do, and how long they should take for a holiday. It is nobody else's business but the employees and employers.

Unions and their bully boy tactics are best assigned to the past, where they well and truly belong.

The only problem with the National's plan is that it will only come in April 1 2010 and it will only be for 1 week of the 4 week entitlement.

The whole 4 weeks should be up for negotiation.

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