- Leaked content of Police Report over Tennis Ball saga - staff member leaked it without his knowledge. (Later turned out it was with his permissison/instruction)
- Having the police collect a $35 cleaning bill - staff member went to police and made request without his knowledge. (Official Information Act request showed his signature on the police forms)
- Playing a part in ending Madeleine Setchell's employment - staff member made calls without his knowledge. (Turns out he forgot that he did intervene)
Benson-Pope clearly has really crappy staff.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI have only discovered your blog, after seeing you comment on DPF's site. Excellent read.
Where did you get the information on DBP's Cleaning Bill?
I 'googled' it, but could find no public record of it apart from yours. I see you used the OIA, but I am surprised I haven't seen it in MSM or on blogs.
Anon
ReplyDeleteIt was me he tried to collect the Bill from, thats how I know.
The original was recorded on TV three news and also in the ODT and the Press. It was raised in the house to from memory.
Matt
You can find it if you search for Benson Pope and Flannagan I think. A lot of sites no longer have it online cause it was not a big story.
ReplyDeleteBasically Matt put some posters on David Benson-Pope's office with some glue highlighting Benson-Pope's word games over the civil union issue and calling for some honesty and consistency with the issue.
It was not an act of vandalism or anything illegal as no damage was done. Matt was very up front that it was him that did it.
Benson-Pope wanted $35 for the cost of cleaning the windows. Although he knew who had done it he chose to get the police to ask us for the $35 cleaning bill - patrol car and uniformed officer arrived at our place to collect the bill.
As this was at the time of 111 call centres sending out taxis as police patrol cars and officers were overstretched naturally we made sure Benson-Pope's use of the police as a personal debt collection agency came out.
It was in the media, on blogs and even brought up in the house as Ron Mark took up the issue. The Otago Daily Times ran a story on it with a photo of us holding $35.
Benson-Pope was challenged as to why the police were running errands for him when victims of crimes were being sent taxis and his response was to deny deny and blame his secretary (or someone in his office). He had no idea that she had asked the police to do this until after the fact...
We did not buy this so requested the files and it was Benson-Pope's signature on the document requesting the police ask us for $35.
Madeleine