I became aware of corruption at the former Carterton Community Centre Inc after it was brought to my attention by members in 1999. In April 2001 committee Chairman Tony Feinson assaulted me in the office of the Carterton Community Centre, in response to numerous complaints and concerns from members, evidenced in the Minutes and other documentation. I was Secretary and Finance Officer.
The assault was serious and broke two teeth. Police wrote me a rude letter after I opposed their suggestion of Diversion, “Dear Madam, you’ve obviously been misinformed about Diversion” blah blah, before granting it anyway.
The same prosecutor then wrote a grovelling letter to the attacker, Feinson, apologising for the delay in organising his Diversion, blaming me for the delay, and informing Feinson he would be let off if he paid $50 to Women’s Refuge and attended ONE stopping violence assessment session. Feinson never wrote a letter of apology, but the police prosecutor told the Court that he did - an outright lie, like “ACC will pay for what Feinson did.” It cost me around $850. Three mandatory conditions of Diversion, according to the Police policy and procedures manual, are that the offender ‘fess up at the earliest opportunity, which Feinson did not, he wasted the time of the Court repeatedly, lying through his teeth, secondly that the offender make a written apology to the victim, and thirdly that the offender pay reparation to the victim.
The police prosecutor told the Court that ACC would pay for my dental costs, which was untrue, they only paid for 50%, as the prosecutor should have been well aware.
I sent Feinson monthly accounts for the medical and dental expenses, and asked Constable Wakefield for the tooth back which I had entrusted to the police as evidence of the attack. Wakefield said he had “thrown the tooth away in accordance with normal police practice.” The policy and procedures manual clearly states that evidence is to be returned to the owner by police when no longer required, especially something culturally significant like a tooth. Then Wakefield started telling people that it wasn’t an attack it was an “incident”.
Feinson hired local lawyer Peter Stevens to help him take proceedings against me in the Court for alleged harassment for sending him the medical and dental bills. The Court wisely threw Feinson’s application out, but not until after I had had to attend Court numerous times and a considerable amount of tax payers money had been spent on the offender Feinson.
On 8th May 2001 Mark Hinton of Wollerman Cooke and McClure wrote to police on behalf of the group of people associated with the Carterton District Council, who had taken the Centre over illegally, alleging that I had stolen property belonging to the incorporated society. I told police that for one thing the ‘group’ had copies of everything I had, and for another thing, I would hand the financial records over to an auditor, not to the Carterton District Council, who were deeply involved in the fraud and misfeasance which typified the administration of the Carterton Community Centre and the ten bank accounts the committee controlled. Councillor Elaine Brazendale refused to meet with an auditor and hand over the information the group held (after punching me in the face and changing the locks on the building.)
On 11 June 2001 a Sergeant Reid of the Masterton Police wrote a letter to Ainslie Hewton’s law firm, who were representing me (or so I thought,) to say that police had thoroughly investigated the allegations made by John Crawford, John Gordon and the rest of the group who took over the Centre, in the letter from Mark Hinton of Wollerman Cooke and McClure, and found that I had broken no criminal laws and was perfectly entitled to possession of the Miinutes Book and the copies of the financial records of the Carterton Community Centre. Councillor Bill Knowles stupidly accused me of obstructing the audit by retaining the only copies of the financial records - what utter lies - Knowles knows perfectly well that Brazendale, Carter, Hallam, Greathead, Hyde, etc, NEVER APPOINTED AN AUDITOR, REFUSED TO MEET WITH AN AUDITOR, AND HAVE COPIES OF ALL THE FINANCIAL RECORDS.
The locks were changed by Council employee Jerry Rotman, acting on instructions from Councillors Brazendale, Carter, Greathead and Julie Hallam, acting in their capacity as trustees of the Carterton District Community Trust. Their lack of community spirit and unsuitability for the role of Trustees is evidenced by their letter refusing permission for the community to hold a meeting at the site of the former Community Centre, on 5 September 2003. Rotman changed the locks while he was meant to be working for the Council!
The other letter at the previous link is from the local Area Commander, and is most extraordinary indeed. It claims that because this senior police officer is aware that Georgina Beyer discussed matters around the closure of the Centre, it is most unlikely and criminal laws have been broken - this is Corruption. the police knew perfectly well that criminal laws had been broken, I had been assaulted in my workplace and there had been serious fraud among other things.
I wrote a number of letters to Police and Ombudsmen, etc, making formal complaints regarding the theft of the mail and funds and assets belonging to the incorporated society by the group who had taken it over illegally, and about the fraud and misfeasance, assaults, etc. I made specific complaints about various matters including the personal grievance payments which were made against specific legal advice and without any justification for the payments, and regarding the fraudulent manner in which the payments were made and the manner in which money was stolen from various other organisations in order to fund the payments, and that the committee, which consisted of people associated with the Carterton District Council, a major funder of the Centre was acting unlawfully, Jill Greathead was making considerable pecuniary gain from her “e-centre”, set up after the group closed our e-centre and community resource centre. All my complaints, supported by letters from several lawyers and a substantial petition, were scoffed at and ignored by local police, and Sgt Reid abruptly disappeared.
Then, on 20th June 2001 Alan Royal of Riversdale Road Carterton wrote to my lawyer Ainslie Hewton, and to the Masterton and Carterton Police, formally complaining in writing about a caravan which Royal alleges “disappeared” from the site of the Carterton Community Gardens. Royal states in this letter to police that he has authority from Jonathon Hooker, but Hooker, an ex police officer who perfed out of the “Force” and set up a church of which he was the prophet, a la Brian Tamaki, wrote a letter soundly refuting this and making it clear that Royal and his mates on the Council, etc, made several deliberately false, and politically motivated, complaints to police. Royal knew several things when he wrote this letter, he knew that he had no authority from Oasis, and he knew that he had no authority whatsoever in fact because the Carterton Community Centre had signed over everything to do with the Gardens to Oasis Trust in January 2001 after forcing the closure of the Gardens by making the illegal payments. This was a deliberately false complaint to the police and it wasted considerable time and resources, and Royal, Crawford, Gordon and their mates on the Committee should be charged without further delay and be forced to reimburse the tax payers for this waste of time and money, and charged with the gross misfeasance at the former Community Centre as well.
On 6 August 2002 Constable Cunningham wrote me a letter stating that there had been a complaint of trespass made against me at the Carterton Community Centre on 3 July 2002. The minutes of the AGM held on that date, and the Incident Report, written by the group who took over the Centre illegally, show that the meeting was adjourned due to my mere arrival, there is not mention of me doing or saying anything before I was verbally abused and ordered to leave by John Crawford and John Gordon, etc.
The Minutes of the Carterton Community Centre AGM held on 3 July 2002 are well worth noting. They show that Carterton District Councillor Elaine Brazendale gave attendees of the AGM a verbal “overview of the current prepared Financial Accounts” which had been “prepared” by A Fraser, according to the Minutes. The following is quoted from the Minutes:
____________________________________________________________
REPORTS:
Chairperson's Report: Was read by the current Chairperson -John Crawford.
The closure of the VOSP Programme was discussed and also a current complaint to WINZ from an unknown complainant was added to the report verbally. It was discussed that the CCC may have to go to a lawyer to finally end this harassment.
Motion: That the Chairpersons report be accepted.
Moved: J Gordon Seconded; B Brazendale
Carried
Community Centre Report - There was no Community Centre Report. The present administrator is new and has not been in the position long enough to issue a report.
VOSP report was read by John Gordon.
Motion That the VOSP report be accepted.
Moved: Elaine Brazendale
Seconded: E Hyde
Carried.
CONSTITUTION:
J Hallam, reasoning that the Constitution needs to be clearer and simpler suggested changes to the proposed Constitution. After any changes are made, a lawyer should check the Constitution. Also recommended that the roles of Hon. Secretary and Hon Finance Officer be removed.
Motion: That the interim constitution be accepted until a special general meeting to resolve the final constitution is held.
Moved: J Gordon
Seconded; H Crawford
Carried
Motion: That a clause of limitation of liability and indemnity be included.
Moved: J Hallam
Seconded: N Thomas Carried
AMEND MENTS:
Recommended that the Constitution is amended to reflect the above changes and any other deemed necessary and that the document be forwarded to the Centre's Solicitor for perusal to ensure that all legal requirements are met.
That a Special meeting of the Carterton Community Centre be scheduled for the 7th August 2002 to adopt the Constitution.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS:
The nominations were read out by John Crawford and then the meeting was asked if there was any further nominations.
Motion That the nominations be closed.
Moved: E Brazendale
Seconded: J Gordon Carried
Nominations-
Chairperson: John Crawford (for the next year only)
Vice Chairperson: John Gordon (for the next year only Secretary and Finance Officer positions left vacant.
Committee: Elaine Brazendale
Frank Craig
Maureen Craig
Evelyn Dearnley
John Fairbrother
J Hallam
J Wilson, the Administrator will carry out the roles of Secretary and Finance Officer. in the interim.
Motion- That there being no other nominations, that these be accepted.
Moved: E Brazendale
Seconded; J Gordon
Carried
Noted that the position of Patron has been eliminated.
GENERAL BUSINESS
A thank you to the previous manager and the current manager of the VOSP Programme was noted.
Moved: E Brazendale
Seconded: J Crawford
Carried
The implementation of Craft Programmes was discussed. These would be set up to eventually include people from all walks of life in the Community.
The Information centre now a major project. All Committee involved in developing this concept.
MEETING CLOSED at 9.15 pm
____________________________________________________________
Carterton District Council “Support Services Manager” Julie Hallam moved that the Constitution of the incorporated society CCC be changed, and a clause of limitation of liability and indemnity be included, before forwarding it to the Society’s solicitor to ensure that all legal requirements were met. There was already such a clause in the Constitution, this shows Hallam’s priorities, make sure the committee is indemnified against legal action for fraud first and foremost. The Constitution should have been forwarded to the solicitor in 2001 as I recommended, for the solicitor to make recommendations to the committee on what changes were required to the entire Constitution, which was in urgent need of complete review. Hallam and her mates on the Council were only interested in making sure they couldn’t be held accountable for the fraud and gross misfeasance.
Regarding the Chairperson’s Report, by John Crawford, and the extraordinary comments that “the CCC may have to go to a lawyer to finally end this harassment.” The CCC did go to a lawyer. On 8th May 2001 Mark Hinton of Wollerman Cooke and McClure wrote to Ainslie Hewton and the Masterton and Carterton Police. Sergeant Reid of the Masterton Police wrote a letter dated 11 June 2001 rejecting the complaints after I met with him the day before. I took the Minutes Book to the meeting, which was at the police station in Masterton, and showed him the evidence of my election to the positions of Secretary and Finance Officer, and the evidence that members had called for the books to be audited, and some evidence about the fraud and misfeasance.
“There was no Community Centre report because the administrator is new and hasn’t been in his position long enough to write one.” But long enough to be Secretary and Finance Officer as well apparently as can be seen further on in the Minutes.
Then we’ve got Julie Hallam’s sneaky attempt to get away without being held accountable, seconded by Noeline Thomas, the mother of Bev Thoomas and her sister, who Martyn Preece the Acting Chairman of the CCC ran off with. The position of Patron, previously held by Beyer the Liar, was eliminated. The committee was focussed on Jo Roffe’s silly little craft courses and the information centre, whish is just really a glorified art gallery for Roffe and her mates and an excuse to get a paid attendant for the gallery. There was a letter to the Dominion from a Belgian couple which was scathing in it’s condemnation of the Information Centre, and of Stonehenge Aotearoa too.
Sergeant Reid invited Ainslie Hewton to provide further information to the police regarding the matters and I provided the information to Ainslie Hewton, who took $50 from me for the initial contribution for a legal aid application for a personal grievance claim in the employment Tribunal regarding my own dismissal from the Community Centre, where I had been employed as acting Manager of the VOSP program and Administrator of the Centre. Ainslie Hewton promised to follow the matters up with the police and the Empolyment Tribunal, etc, but corrupt lawyer Ainslie Hewton never even forwarded the legal aid application, and refused to refund the $50.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Corruption in Carterton
Regarding continued propaganda circulated by various local journalists, and recent article in the Wairarapa Times-Age promoting local political aspirants, including incumbent members of Carterton and Masterton District Councils, particularly those involved in the illegal takeover, mismanagement and closure of the Carterton Community Centre and Community Gardens: Ruth Carter, Elaine Brazendale, Jill Greathead, Ewen Hyde, Lyn Patterson and others.
Ruth Carter is one of several people associated with the Carterton District Council who are responsible for the closure of the former Carterton Community Centre amid allegations of serious mismanagement, fraud, bullying, etc. The Centre was closed to try and get rid of the evidence, which we are now posting on the internet for all to see.
These are serious allegations. If they weren’t true, action would have been taken long ago to shut these sites down. Posts like “Beyer the Liar” are the reason that Beyer had to resign from Parliament in disgrace, and corrupt and dishonest politicians like Beyer are the cause of the social dysfunction in the Wairarapa.
The so called ‘news’ media has hoodwinked people gullible enough to believe the rubbish they publish and broadcast.
“Exclusive - McPhee: Why I Did What I Did” is a confession of a cowardly violent crime against poor, sick, vulnerable people, for no reason, a drunken home invasion and assault committed by McPhee and his mate. McPhee announced that he was not a violent deranged criminal after all, he was a hero, because the occupants - THE VICTIMS - were “troublemakers”. He boasted that he’d run them out of town as part of his efforts to stamp out crime, and the lying local police backed him up saying that the flat had been “the centre of police enquiries for some time.” What vague and slanderous rubbish is this? It was the centre of inquiries into McPhee and his mate's violent crime.
These people were not troublemakers or criminals, it wasn’t the boogie man as McPhee tried to make out, they had names and faces. The occupants were small, harmless men, and women, all together they wouldn’t have weighed half of what McPhee weighs, or his co-offender. None of the occupants was a danger to the community, unlike McPhee and his mate. The main tenant had only got out of hospital the day before after having a stroke, and weighed no more than seven stone. The were not violent people, unlike McPhee and his mate. McPhee threatened the occupants with further violence if they pursued the complaints to police and bribed the owner of the building. Police told the occupants to piss off and told the owner of the building they couldn’t press charges because the tenants hadn’t made a formal complaint. McPhee didn't run them out of town, they moved into a house over the road from the old folks home and lived there peacefully like they had been before McPhee's mate decided he wanted to fence off the alleyway that was the tenants access, in order to put tables and chairs in the alleyway and sell more alcohol. We’ve had enough of McPhee's lies. Compare this with the number of prosecutions pursued against me which have been based on no evidence whatsoever, for which there weren’t even statements of complaint - a letter from the police dated 30 October 2007 referring to the Bill Sticking complaint states: “the complaint was not put to paper and I am not prepared to say who complained.”
Well I am: It was the manager of the NZ Post shop in Carterton, Paul Fafieta. His wife Colleen works for Wollerman Cooke and McClure, who made the complaint to police that I had stolen property of the CCC - complaints dismissed as being without foundation. The complaint was corrupt. The manager changed the lock on the CCC post box without lawful authority and police continue to refuse to charge him.
“Corrupt Police Cover up for Beyer the Liar and Their Other Mates” shows how Police “Area Commander” Rod Drew fobbed off letters from seven lawyers (at the last count) calling for an inquiry into the affairs of the Carterton Community Centre, the District Council and individuals associated with the Council and with other organisations funded by the Council, and other government agencies, departments, etc.
Drew’s comments in response to our serious complaints, supported by letters from 7 lawyers, are clear evidence of corruption, here they are in black and white: “I am aware that the MP Georgina Beyer has recently discussed issues around the closure of the Centre with the mayor and Council and Police therefore think it most unlikely that any Criminal Law would have been broken.” What blatant codswallop!
There are also two petitions calling for an inquiry, one from the Carterton Residents Association and the FOCCCers (Friends of the Carterton Community Centre and Caring Communities Everywhere). We called for an audit of the Centre’s affairs in 2001 with a mandate from a public meeting held on 18th April 2001, eight days after I was punched in the face in the office of the CCC by the Chairman of the committee, Anthony Rolf Feinson.
Ruth Carter, Elaine Brazendale, Jill Greathead, Julie Hallam, Ewen Hyde, Martyn Preece and others conspired with Georgina Beyer, and local police constable Peter Cunningham, who was having it off with Jo Roffe, who was one of the people using the Carterton Community Centre (CCC) as a slush fund (for her little “art courses” - which were a bit like Georgina Beyer’s little “Life Skills Courses”) Roffe was a signatory of the cheques, but not on the committee, Ruth Carter wasn’t on the committee either, but was signing funding applications and claiming to be the Secretary. These people have conspired to pervert the course of justice by covering up the fraud and gross misfeasance at the Carterton Community Centre, and organisations such as the “Facility Focus Group” and other organisations associated with the Council and the Community Centre, such as the so-called Heart of Carterton “Trust”, also appointed by the Council.
I, Katherine Raue, was elected Secretary and Finance Officer of the Carterton Community Centre at the 2000 AGM. I was asked (in writing) by members to investigate serious allegations, which I attempted to do. I was prevented from accessing information by Carter, Brazendale, other members of the committee including Martyn Preece, who was having an affair with Bev Thomas, the Administrator at the Centre, who was fiddling the books, which can be seen at the post showing the financial records of the CCC, and the large payments to individuals, made against legal advice and listed as Miscellaneous on the financial records.
Our petition called for the affairs of the CCC and the CDC to be audited. They never have been. The letter from Sgt Reid of the Masterton police shows that I offered to hand copies of the material I held to an auditor, and that Elaine Brazendale refused, on behalf of the group who took over the CCC by punching me in the face and changing the locks of the building (because they were also on the committee of the District “Trust” which owned the Health Centre, in which the CCC was housed,) to meet with the police, myself and an auditor. Why do you think that was? If you can’t work it out have another look at the Minutes of the CCC showing how Carter, Brazendale and their mates decided to just give a woman an exorbitant amount of money when there is no evidence that the payment was justified. There is evidence that the payment was made against legal advice, and by a committee which was acting ultra vires, with no lawful authority. There is evidence that this was one of two such payments being made at the time I was elected. It soon became apparent that the CCC was exploiting vulnerable members of the community in order to secure funding that was going straight into the pockets of incompetent bullies.
NOTE: The Carterton Residents Association, which I represent, supports competent, transparent and accountable governance. The CRRA or CDRRA is another ‘group’, formed as a support group for failed politicians Bill Knowles and Georgina Beyer, and is not committed to fair and open democracy or they would support our call for an inquiry into the fraud and misfeasance a the CCC and CDC. These people have no credibility whatsoever, do not waste your time or money supporting them. After listening to them argue for an hour and a half about what the group should be called, I proposed the Motion at the inaugural meeting of that group, a public meeting held in the Bowling Club (of all places), that the group be named the Carterton Residents Association. Frank Riley, the pompous organiser of the annual ‘community’ Christmas dinner usually held at St Mark’s Church, piped up and argued that the group should be called the Carterton and District Ratepayer’s Association, only ratepayers should be allowed to belong to it, and there should be a membership fee. The Constitution of this ‘group’ is designed to exclude people with differing opinions, your membership application has to be approved by the Chairman, etc.
The article in the Times-Age titled “Controversy persists” ignores the fact that the meeting at which Council librarian Ewen Hyde claims he was elected head of the “Facility Focus Group” was not advertised and not open to the public, it was only open to a small group of his friends, including the group associated with the Council.
This is typical of the way the group manipulate the public consultation process regarding the plans concerning community facilities in Carterton.
Taxpayer’s money, and the time of the Court and the police, has been wasted on a campaign of malicious and vexatious litigation which has been almost without exception unsuccessful (and the exceptions certainly do not stand up to scrutiny).
For the ten years I have been in Carterton this has been going on. On 14th August 2009 the Times-Age published a front page feature article titled “Police mum on case backlog ”about how local police Area Controller Inspector John Johnston refused to comment on the recent revelations made by a District Court Judge that there was a huge backlog of child abuse allegations that Wairarapa Police have failed to investigate. That's because the local police have been acting as the private Gestapo of Georgina Beyer and Gary McPhee, and anyone else who can make it worth their while, and pursuing vexatious and malicious, politically motivated litigation for Bill Sticking, and those described in scathing and damning terms by lawyer Michael Appleby and Judge Behrens QC.
Because of repeated assaults by the police I am unable to write for long. Please follow the links to Kate Raue's Blogspot, and explore the links on that site to the Cartoon Town website, and others such as Kiwisfirst. Join the FOCCCers and put and end to corruption and incompetent governance in Carterton, and join Transparency in New Zealand to expose corruption, injustice, incompetent use of public funds, etc, in New Zealand.
Ruth Carter is one of several people associated with the Carterton District Council who are responsible for the closure of the former Carterton Community Centre amid allegations of serious mismanagement, fraud, bullying, etc. The Centre was closed to try and get rid of the evidence, which we are now posting on the internet for all to see.
These are serious allegations. If they weren’t true, action would have been taken long ago to shut these sites down. Posts like “Beyer the Liar” are the reason that Beyer had to resign from Parliament in disgrace, and corrupt and dishonest politicians like Beyer are the cause of the social dysfunction in the Wairarapa.
The so called ‘news’ media has hoodwinked people gullible enough to believe the rubbish they publish and broadcast.
“Exclusive - McPhee: Why I Did What I Did” is a confession of a cowardly violent crime against poor, sick, vulnerable people, for no reason, a drunken home invasion and assault committed by McPhee and his mate. McPhee announced that he was not a violent deranged criminal after all, he was a hero, because the occupants - THE VICTIMS - were “troublemakers”. He boasted that he’d run them out of town as part of his efforts to stamp out crime, and the lying local police backed him up saying that the flat had been “the centre of police enquiries for some time.” What vague and slanderous rubbish is this? It was the centre of inquiries into McPhee and his mate's violent crime.
These people were not troublemakers or criminals, it wasn’t the boogie man as McPhee tried to make out, they had names and faces. The occupants were small, harmless men, and women, all together they wouldn’t have weighed half of what McPhee weighs, or his co-offender. None of the occupants was a danger to the community, unlike McPhee and his mate. The main tenant had only got out of hospital the day before after having a stroke, and weighed no more than seven stone. The were not violent people, unlike McPhee and his mate. McPhee threatened the occupants with further violence if they pursued the complaints to police and bribed the owner of the building. Police told the occupants to piss off and told the owner of the building they couldn’t press charges because the tenants hadn’t made a formal complaint. McPhee didn't run them out of town, they moved into a house over the road from the old folks home and lived there peacefully like they had been before McPhee's mate decided he wanted to fence off the alleyway that was the tenants access, in order to put tables and chairs in the alleyway and sell more alcohol. We’ve had enough of McPhee's lies. Compare this with the number of prosecutions pursued against me which have been based on no evidence whatsoever, for which there weren’t even statements of complaint - a letter from the police dated 30 October 2007 referring to the Bill Sticking complaint states: “the complaint was not put to paper and I am not prepared to say who complained.”
Well I am: It was the manager of the NZ Post shop in Carterton, Paul Fafieta. His wife Colleen works for Wollerman Cooke and McClure, who made the complaint to police that I had stolen property of the CCC - complaints dismissed as being without foundation. The complaint was corrupt. The manager changed the lock on the CCC post box without lawful authority and police continue to refuse to charge him.
“Corrupt Police Cover up for Beyer the Liar and Their Other Mates” shows how Police “Area Commander” Rod Drew fobbed off letters from seven lawyers (at the last count) calling for an inquiry into the affairs of the Carterton Community Centre, the District Council and individuals associated with the Council and with other organisations funded by the Council, and other government agencies, departments, etc.
Drew’s comments in response to our serious complaints, supported by letters from 7 lawyers, are clear evidence of corruption, here they are in black and white: “I am aware that the MP Georgina Beyer has recently discussed issues around the closure of the Centre with the mayor and Council and Police therefore think it most unlikely that any Criminal Law would have been broken.” What blatant codswallop!
There are also two petitions calling for an inquiry, one from the Carterton Residents Association and the FOCCCers (Friends of the Carterton Community Centre and Caring Communities Everywhere). We called for an audit of the Centre’s affairs in 2001 with a mandate from a public meeting held on 18th April 2001, eight days after I was punched in the face in the office of the CCC by the Chairman of the committee, Anthony Rolf Feinson.
Ruth Carter, Elaine Brazendale, Jill Greathead, Julie Hallam, Ewen Hyde, Martyn Preece and others conspired with Georgina Beyer, and local police constable Peter Cunningham, who was having it off with Jo Roffe, who was one of the people using the Carterton Community Centre (CCC) as a slush fund (for her little “art courses” - which were a bit like Georgina Beyer’s little “Life Skills Courses”) Roffe was a signatory of the cheques, but not on the committee, Ruth Carter wasn’t on the committee either, but was signing funding applications and claiming to be the Secretary. These people have conspired to pervert the course of justice by covering up the fraud and gross misfeasance at the Carterton Community Centre, and organisations such as the “Facility Focus Group” and other organisations associated with the Council and the Community Centre, such as the so-called Heart of Carterton “Trust”, also appointed by the Council.
I, Katherine Raue, was elected Secretary and Finance Officer of the Carterton Community Centre at the 2000 AGM. I was asked (in writing) by members to investigate serious allegations, which I attempted to do. I was prevented from accessing information by Carter, Brazendale, other members of the committee including Martyn Preece, who was having an affair with Bev Thomas, the Administrator at the Centre, who was fiddling the books, which can be seen at the post showing the financial records of the CCC, and the large payments to individuals, made against legal advice and listed as Miscellaneous on the financial records.
Our petition called for the affairs of the CCC and the CDC to be audited. They never have been. The letter from Sgt Reid of the Masterton police shows that I offered to hand copies of the material I held to an auditor, and that Elaine Brazendale refused, on behalf of the group who took over the CCC by punching me in the face and changing the locks of the building (because they were also on the committee of the District “Trust” which owned the Health Centre, in which the CCC was housed,) to meet with the police, myself and an auditor. Why do you think that was? If you can’t work it out have another look at the Minutes of the CCC showing how Carter, Brazendale and their mates decided to just give a woman an exorbitant amount of money when there is no evidence that the payment was justified. There is evidence that the payment was made against legal advice, and by a committee which was acting ultra vires, with no lawful authority. There is evidence that this was one of two such payments being made at the time I was elected. It soon became apparent that the CCC was exploiting vulnerable members of the community in order to secure funding that was going straight into the pockets of incompetent bullies.
NOTE: The Carterton Residents Association, which I represent, supports competent, transparent and accountable governance. The CRRA or CDRRA is another ‘group’, formed as a support group for failed politicians Bill Knowles and Georgina Beyer, and is not committed to fair and open democracy or they would support our call for an inquiry into the fraud and misfeasance a the CCC and CDC. These people have no credibility whatsoever, do not waste your time or money supporting them. After listening to them argue for an hour and a half about what the group should be called, I proposed the Motion at the inaugural meeting of that group, a public meeting held in the Bowling Club (of all places), that the group be named the Carterton Residents Association. Frank Riley, the pompous organiser of the annual ‘community’ Christmas dinner usually held at St Mark’s Church, piped up and argued that the group should be called the Carterton and District Ratepayer’s Association, only ratepayers should be allowed to belong to it, and there should be a membership fee. The Constitution of this ‘group’ is designed to exclude people with differing opinions, your membership application has to be approved by the Chairman, etc.
The article in the Times-Age titled “Controversy persists” ignores the fact that the meeting at which Council librarian Ewen Hyde claims he was elected head of the “Facility Focus Group” was not advertised and not open to the public, it was only open to a small group of his friends, including the group associated with the Council.
This is typical of the way the group manipulate the public consultation process regarding the plans concerning community facilities in Carterton.
Taxpayer’s money, and the time of the Court and the police, has been wasted on a campaign of malicious and vexatious litigation which has been almost without exception unsuccessful (and the exceptions certainly do not stand up to scrutiny).
For the ten years I have been in Carterton this has been going on. On 14th August 2009 the Times-Age published a front page feature article titled “Police mum on case backlog ”about how local police Area Controller Inspector John Johnston refused to comment on the recent revelations made by a District Court Judge that there was a huge backlog of child abuse allegations that Wairarapa Police have failed to investigate. That's because the local police have been acting as the private Gestapo of Georgina Beyer and Gary McPhee, and anyone else who can make it worth their while, and pursuing vexatious and malicious, politically motivated litigation for Bill Sticking, and those described in scathing and damning terms by lawyer Michael Appleby and Judge Behrens QC.
Because of repeated assaults by the police I am unable to write for long. Please follow the links to Kate Raue's Blogspot, and explore the links on that site to the Cartoon Town website, and others such as Kiwisfirst. Join the FOCCCers and put and end to corruption and incompetent governance in Carterton, and join Transparency in New Zealand to expose corruption, injustice, incompetent use of public funds, etc, in New Zealand.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Charges thrown out, letter in response:
Incredibly, publicly recognised anti-corruption campaigners Vince Seimer and Penny Bright were arrested at the AGM of Transparency International New Zealand - on International Anti-corruption Day no less! And after the organisation had accepted their membership fees. The link to Vince Seimer's Kiwisfirst website above gives the background to the matter.
The charges of trespass against Vince Seimer and Penny Bright were thrown out in the District Court last week for want of prosecution. They have delivered the following letter to the organisation Transparency International New Zealand, not to be confused with our own organisation, Transparency in New Zealand, created by in January 2010 in response to this obviously bogus chapter of a previously respected international organisation. The letter:
OPEN LETTER / OFFICIAL INFORMATION / PRIVACY ACT REQUEST
Dear Mr Browne,
ON 13 APRIL 2010: THE WELLINGTON DISTRICT COURT DISMISSED TRESPASS CHARGES FOR WANT OF PROSECUTION.
BACKGROUND:
On 9 December 2009, on International ‘Anti-corruption Day’, Vince Siemer and I were arrested for trespass at the AGM of Transparency International New Zealand “TINZ”.
http://www.kiwisfirst.co.nz/index.asp?PageID=2145845357#transparency-international-new-zealand
Although both Vince Siemer, and myself, Penny Bright, have proven track records in the fight against corruption and greater transparency in New Zealand – particularly in the judicial and local government arenas – our TINZ membership applications were denied, and our requests to attend the TINZ AGM were denied (although it was open to ‘non-members’).
(For information outlining our work in the anti-corruption area, please see www.kiwisfirst.co.nz and http://waterpressure.wordpress.com )
No reasons have ever been given by TINZ, explaining why our membership and attendance at the AGM were denied, and where our ‘anti-corruption’ work failed to comply with the stated ‘objectives’ of TINZ, as outlined:
” The Rules of Transparency International (New Zealand) Incorporated - Date 12 March 2001″
4. Objectives
4.1. The general objectives of the Society are:
(4.1.1. to promote transparency, good governance and ethical practices in the private and public sectors in New Zealand;
(4.1.2. to promote ethical business practices by New Zealand business offshore, and transparency and good governance in our region;
(4.1.3. to contribute to the international effort to reduce corruption and promote good governance and ethical business practices; “
_________________________________________
Upon the bidding of TINZ leading office holders (including yourself) - we were arrested by Police, when we refused to leave.
These trespass charges have now been dismissed in their entirety.
JUST HOW ‘TRANSPARENT’ IS TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL NZ?
1) Under the provisions of the NZ Privacy Act 1993, please provide copies of ALL TINZ correspondence/information; including, but not limited to: emails, reports, meeting minutes, diary notes, pertaining to the above-mentioned trespass charges, and their ‘dismissal’.
2) Under the provisions of the NZ Privacy Act, please provide ALL correspondence/information; including, but not limited to: emails, reports, meeting minutes, diary notes, concerning the reasons why Vince Siemer and Penny Bright were declined membership of TINZ, and attendance at the 2009 TINZ AGM.
3) Please provide a copy of the ‘Register of Interests’ for Directors of the Board of TINZ.
4) Please provide the following details of all ‘contracts issued’ by TINZ for ‘goods, services and people’, on an annual basis since 2001, including:
a) Name of the contractor / contracting company.
b) Scope of the contract.
c) Value of the contract.
d) Term of the contract.
5) Please provide the information which confirms (or not)- on an annual basis – -whether any contractors employed directly or indirectly by TINZ are current or former members or directors of TINZ.
Yours faithfully,
Penny Bright
The charges of trespass against Vince Seimer and Penny Bright were thrown out in the District Court last week for want of prosecution. They have delivered the following letter to the organisation Transparency International New Zealand, not to be confused with our own organisation, Transparency in New Zealand, created by in January 2010 in response to this obviously bogus chapter of a previously respected international organisation. The letter:
OPEN LETTER / OFFICIAL INFORMATION / PRIVACY ACT REQUEST
Dear Mr Browne,
ON 13 APRIL 2010: THE WELLINGTON DISTRICT COURT DISMISSED TRESPASS CHARGES FOR WANT OF PROSECUTION.
BACKGROUND:
On 9 December 2009, on International ‘Anti-corruption Day’, Vince Siemer and I were arrested for trespass at the AGM of Transparency International New Zealand “TINZ”.
http://www.kiwisfirst.co.nz/index.asp?PageID=2145845357#transparency-international-new-zealand
Although both Vince Siemer, and myself, Penny Bright, have proven track records in the fight against corruption and greater transparency in New Zealand – particularly in the judicial and local government arenas – our TINZ membership applications were denied, and our requests to attend the TINZ AGM were denied (although it was open to ‘non-members’).
(For information outlining our work in the anti-corruption area, please see www.kiwisfirst.co.nz and http://waterpressure.wordpress.com )
No reasons have ever been given by TINZ, explaining why our membership and attendance at the AGM were denied, and where our ‘anti-corruption’ work failed to comply with the stated ‘objectives’ of TINZ, as outlined:
” The Rules of Transparency International (New Zealand) Incorporated - Date 12 March 2001″
4. Objectives
4.1. The general objectives of the Society are:
(4.1.1. to promote transparency, good governance and ethical practices in the private and public sectors in New Zealand;
(4.1.2. to promote ethical business practices by New Zealand business offshore, and transparency and good governance in our region;
(4.1.3. to contribute to the international effort to reduce corruption and promote good governance and ethical business practices; “
_________________________________________
Upon the bidding of TINZ leading office holders (including yourself) - we were arrested by Police, when we refused to leave.
These trespass charges have now been dismissed in their entirety.
JUST HOW ‘TRANSPARENT’ IS TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL NZ?
1) Under the provisions of the NZ Privacy Act 1993, please provide copies of ALL TINZ correspondence/information; including, but not limited to: emails, reports, meeting minutes, diary notes, pertaining to the above-mentioned trespass charges, and their ‘dismissal’.
2) Under the provisions of the NZ Privacy Act, please provide ALL correspondence/information; including, but not limited to: emails, reports, meeting minutes, diary notes, concerning the reasons why Vince Siemer and Penny Bright were declined membership of TINZ, and attendance at the 2009 TINZ AGM.
3) Please provide a copy of the ‘Register of Interests’ for Directors of the Board of TINZ.
4) Please provide the following details of all ‘contracts issued’ by TINZ for ‘goods, services and people’, on an annual basis since 2001, including:
a) Name of the contractor / contracting company.
b) Scope of the contract.
c) Value of the contract.
d) Term of the contract.
5) Please provide the information which confirms (or not)- on an annual basis – -whether any contractors employed directly or indirectly by TINZ are current or former members or directors of TINZ.
Yours faithfully,
Penny Bright
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
For Sacha Macfarlane
Sacha Catherina Macfarlane died on the 29th November 1984, exactly one month before her twenty first birthday, when the car driven by Chilean diplomat Luis Felipe Lopez crossed the centre line and collided head on with the car in which Sacha was a passenger. Her sister Nina was in the car behind Sacha, and witnessed the crash (all three cars were BMWs), which some reports referred to as "an accident", which is an insult to Sacha and her family.
Luis Felipe Lopez was the driver of the car which collided with the one Sacha was in. Luis Felipe Lopez, official representative of the brutal and corrupt Pinochet regime in Chile was drunk, he stank of alcohol. He made a deliberate decision to drink and drive, and he killed a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her, in front of her sister.
Lopez then claimed diplomatic immunity and fled the country. Prime Minister David Lange postulated, like he did about Alain Marfart and Dominique Prieur after the murder of the Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira on the Rainbow Warrior, but nothing ever happened, and everyone else just forgot about it.
Sacha was 20 years old, and died a horrible and unnecessary death, Nina carries the memories of it forever. Day after day, year after year, all this time, I've been listening for the sound of someone saying "Sorry about Sacha. It was wrong what happened." But all there ever was was silence. Yesterday, something special happened, because a woman called Carol Cromie spoke up. Carol is the partner of Sacha and Nina's Dad, Kester Macfarlane. She wrote a poem, about Sacha, and it managed to encompass everything from the minute Sacha was conceived until this minute - the minute you're reading this. Everything her life meant, everything her death means. It's a sad, beautiful and very special poem. A fitting tribute to a special young woman whose life ended because of a drunk driver who got off scot free.
Mr Macfarlane, 67, said yesterday that the apology meant a lot to him and his family. “The circumstances and the ensuing publicity surrounding her death caused us unbearable and unnecessary grief” he said. It caused a lot of grief for everyone who knew Sacha, she was special. She was no ordinary young woman, she was like a shining light, like a beautiful tree about to burst into blossom. She was full of fun, full of promise, full of life.
Carol sent her poem to Chile’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, and to its embassy in Wellington, which responded by offering to hold a memorial service.
The apology was officially conveyed at the service at Old St Paul’s yesterday. It took twenty five years.
Mr Macfarlane said “The letter of apology is beautiful. It is a genuine apology, which lays the whole thing to rest as far as I am concerned. It was a little thing I needed to happen after all these years.” Mr Macfarlane also took the opportunity to point out that Luis Felipe Lopez was in New Zealand at the time as a representative of the corrupt Pinochet regime, and as such, shouldn't have even been in the country.
Never underestimate the power of words, the power of a simple, honest poem. This one healed a lot of pain, it made a lot of people think, and I hope it continues to make them think for a long time. It's a beautiful, beautiful poem, thanks Carol.
When it seemed like the whole world had forgotten the gross and outrageous injustice, after all these years have gone by, this poem is what changed everything, and healed the pain of injustice. Let it inspire us to write our own poems. Naming and shaming people works, things change, people acknowledge the truth, there is redemption, everyone can move on a bit. This is the poem that changed things:
A message for Mr Lopez.
I was in Santiago the other day,
and I was intending to look you up.
I’m not sure what I would have said
if I’d knocked on your door and found
you home. If a woman, your wife or
even a daughter, had called over
the balcony or the intercom ¿hola?
You see, Mr Lopez, I’m not sure
what I want from you any more.
The phone directory has many Lopez
as you of course would know -
they’re rare where I come from – but just three listed as Luis Felipe.
Perhaps you’re all related: elderly father,
your eldest son and you, Mr Lopez,
the diplomat. Are you still an embassy
man or did you switch your line
of work after the immunity wore off?
I’d been rehearsing our meeting
all these years but, somehow I got
to Chile and my heart wasn’t in it.
What was I going to say to you:
Hi, Mr Lopez, I’d like a word
about my daughter?
Would it hurt if I told you she was
twenty, tall and beautiful, unsure
as some striking people are,
and gifted, an artist with a promising
future. Paintings are all I have.
Hi, Mr Lopez, I could have said,
I’m the father of the girl you killed
when you drove dead-drunk
in a new car in a new country
on the wrong side of a road.
Would it hurt if I told you, last time
I saw her, I promised her oil paints
for Christmas and watched her small plane
until it was just a speck in a summer sky.
You! You crossed the centre line
a third time, saw the headlights and
swerved – not to the left, your side
of the road, which might have
saved her – but to the right,
Luis Felipe Lopez, to the right.
Hi, Mr Lopez, I could have said
in Santiago, please step outside,
They missed you at the inquest.
The coroner’s man couldn’t get
Sacha’s name right – he called her
‘Sacka’, as if she were a sack of nothing -
but he had yours down pat.
I have one daughter left alive.
On birthdays and death days
and in the early mornings, you are
not far from our thoughts, Luis -
can I call you that? I wonder if
the ‘car accident’, fool phrase,
wrecked your life as it did ours.
What price did you have to pay,
loyal servant of General Pinochet,
for slaughter in a foreign city?
When you hug your own daughter,
do you sometimes think of Sacha.
I sat on the bed in my hotel room
in your city ringed with mountains,
three likely numbers in my hand, and
I knew it was over. To tamp down
my bitterness, concentrate my sadness,
I tried to put myself in your shoes,
to imagine what it must be like
to be a killer. I tried but I cannot.
No, Luis Felipe Lopez,
I do not want to see your face.
Sleep softly now Sacha, and you others, who did what you could, what you should, and finally people listened, all because you did.
The power of words can conquer anything, release and unlock things, heal pain, sadness and bitterness.
It's easy, just say how you really feel, tell the truth. Thanks to Sacha's family for the poetry lesson.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)