Lee Vandervis
Lee Vandervis (born 1955) 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 2007. He is currently an elected councillor. Personal life. Lee Vandervis was born in 1955 in Balclutha. He is the second son of Dutch immigrant parents, who settled in New Zealand after the Second World War. He attended Rosebank School, South Otago High School, and Kaikorai Valley High School. Vandervis later acquired a BA in Philosophy from the University  of Otago, and has worked as a music technician for many years. In the mid 1970s he went to the United Kingdom and worked as an acoustic engineer for Midas Audio. In 1981, Vandervis returned to Dunedin and set up Vandervision Lighting Audio and Video in the early 1980s. Vandervis is married to Antonie Vandervis. He has eight children with the youngest being severely autistic. Vandervis also plays the piano, violin, and cello, and was a member of the Dunedin band Prometheus. Politics. At the 1984 New Zealand general election Vandervis stood 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 then 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. He came second after the incumbent, Peter Chin, but only gained 17% of the votes. During the 2010 election campaign one of his  volunteers installing an election hoarding pierced an 11 kV cable near Mosgiel causing a power outage to 747 consumers. The site had been designated for hoarding by the Council, but no mention of the presence of the cable had been made; the volunteer was unharmed. Vandervis was again third in the Mayoral race with 15.2% of the vote. He was re-elected as a Councillor. Vandervis served as the Chair of the Dunedin City Council Heritage Fund and the Heritage Buildings Re-use Committee.He resigned from that role on 22 September 2020. 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 Board's being a waste of time raised their ire. He has also had clashes over bus shelters, criticised Council's financial management – especially the $480,000 bailout of the Otago Rugby Union, and faced criticism over his suggestion that Christchurch's earthquake rebuild could be shifted to Dunedin. Vandervis has suggested that Christchurch's proposed stadium would be a waste of money. His comments were based on his experience with 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 July 2017, Vandervis settled a defamation lawsuit against Mayor Cull for NZ$50,000 due to legal delays and spiralling costs. Vandervis had sued Cull following an exchange in December 2015  in which Vandervis alleged that he, himself, paid a bribe to secure a council contract in the 1980s. Vandervis claimed that Cull, in his response to the allegations, had defamed him. Vandervis originally sought NZ$250,000 in general damages and NZ$250,000 in exemplary damages along with legal costs. The lawsuit was settled without an apology. 2019 local body election. In late August 2019, the "Otago Daily Times" reported that Vandervis was the subject of 11 complaints of inappropriate behaviour, angry and shouting, insulting, threatening, unsubstantiated allegations of corruption, and intimidating behaviour against several Dunedin City Council staff members and members of  the public. 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. In early September 2019, Vandervis drew criticism when he made remarks that young voters were ignorant or did not care about candidates during a mayoral debate organised by the Otago University Students' Association. Vandervis subsequently apologised for his remarks. In mid-September 2019, a twelfth complaint was  lodged against Vandervis after he allegedly verbally abused some DCC staff members over a parking ticket. Vandervis contested the complaint and uploaded a CCTV video on social media to support his claim that he did not verbally abuse. David Benham, chairman of the Otago Regional Council's audit and risk subcommittee, was tasked with conducting an independent investigation into the matter. On 10 December, Vandervis was censured by his fellow councillors for the parking ticket incident. In response, he alleged that his privacy was breached at a critical time of the election campaign. On 12 October 2019, Vandervis was re -elected to the Dunedin City Council as a councillor but 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. In August 2021, Vandervis disagreed with the Dunedin City Council's proposal for a destination playground, instead advocating 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 and advocating the use of the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin for treating COVID-19. In early October 2021, Vandervis led 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 local businesses, freedom of speech, and the pressure 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 only allowed to attend virtual council 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 attempting to attend  meeting without a COVID-19 vaccine pass. Vandervis objected to the trespass notice, claiming that access to essential services could not be restricted based on vaccine status. In late April 2022, Vandervis was identified as having personally edited his own Wikipedia page, in breach of Wikipedia's . His edits removed several relevant passages in the article, including references to various incidents that cast Vandervis in a negative light. These edits were subsequently reversed.