| The Fran Wilde Legacy | |||||
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. Fran Wilde was
Mayor of Wellington from 1992 –1995.
Fran Wilde’s
reign as Mayor of Wellington City was notable for these same features. Stewardship The sophisticated grids of poles, conduits wires and transformers that constitute Wellington’s prime utility grid was developed and paid for five consecutive generations of citizens. Each generation scrimped and saved so their children would inherit a freehold grid enabling them access to lighting, heating and modern technology. Fran Wilde’s Administration squandered that immense legacy by gutting its value and selling it at a fraction of its real worth to the city. Carbon She inherited a city with remarkable electrical potential, in the form of both its wiring and its transport structures. An electric trolley bus system served the main arterial routes of the city and the city had great potential to develop smart light rail on scale. Wellington was well placed to thrive in a “carbon constrained” world. Her sale of the city’s wiring grid and the bus system destroyed most of these options. She has also been responsible for destroying much of the city’s potential to exploit the power of shipping in this world, devoting valuable waterfront space to luxury flatting and an oil company. Her work siting the city’s sports stadium at the city rail head was a notable exception to the general insanity of her decisions Civil Defence and Energy Efficiency The city straddles a major seismic fault line and the city was renowned for its “gold-plated” wiring system to reduce risks. The city was also well-placed to enjoy the benefits of the nascent electronic revolution.
See city's electrical potential. The
Administration of Fran Wilde did not understand Civil Defence. It
accepted valuations of Capital Power (the city owned company that
managed the wiring grid) that placed zero or liability value on both its
efficiency and its Civil Defence measures. This is shown directly as employees dedicated to this work in Capital Power in areas of efficiency and safety were the first to be sacked and the measures destroyed. Systems for promoting effective uses of our electrical potential were at first disenabled and then dismantled. See the footnote (1) below which perhaps best illustrates her ignorance of the value of Civil Defence. C Democracy. Even in New
Zealand’s Capital City, home of many of those who promoted and
facilitated the transfer of New Zealand’s assets to overseas
corporations, there was strong opposition to the sale of any or part of
what was the Wellington Municipal Electricity Department. The decision
to corporatise it and replace its service imperatives with profit
imperatives were forced on the city, as it was on all New Zealand
communities, by the fascist Electricity Reform legislation of 1993. CAFCA
records: Though it paid $20 million more than the nearest bidder, at a nominal $120 million, “capital restructuring” paid $32 million back to TransAlta and $33 million to the WCC on the date of settlement History records
most of us experienced that opportunity as a loss of our careers and
incomes, with our skills wasted. I can report that TransAlta used the
powerful rights she bequeathed on them to immediately assume full
effective control of the company. It became very easy to predict which
activities and which staff would thrive and which would be destroyed. In
brief: it became very high risk to be honest and to retain service and
energy efficiency ideals that empower the city’s citizens. Wellington
city’s intelligence now became the property of the TransAlta
corporation. For immediate sale and purchase purposes the intelligence
was given a value a fraction of its real worth while most staff were
designated “liabilities while on the books” (quote Arthur Andersen
and Co, Capital Power managers). This severe
undervaluing of the company can be illustrated: Other city’s
were strongly “advised” to sell their utility grids too about 1995
but resisted pressures and did not accept the advice. Christchurch (from
memory approx 120,000 consumers) had its intelligence division of South
Power valued about the same time as the Wellington valuation (approx
56,000 consumers). It was valued at $NZ13 million. Christchurch City
Council sold its intelligence division sold for over $NZ170 million just
three years later when additional Fascist legislation of 1998
forced it to divest it.
Footnote (1) Fran Wilde’s
ignorance of risk management is perhaps best illustrated by her
destruction of the Wellington community involvement in Civil Defence. When Fran Wilde came to power as Mayor my community’s civil
defence group had 41 active members for 740 households. First Aid,
Reconnaissance, Communication and Social teams were all manned and
trained in the years preceding her reign. A large citywide exercise was
planned and practiced for over the years preceding her election as
Mayor. Two days before
it she and her CEO, Angela Griffin, canned the exercise, stating the
money had not been allocated correctly to pay the wages of the (two?)
city officials involved. She was also reported to have said Civil
Defence from now on was a matter for professionals (i.e. corporations,
not communities). I attended a meeting of over 30 leaders of the city’s Civil Defence groups soon after her decision and all reported the same result: Fran had decimated community involvement in Civil Defence. In my area about ten of us continued despite her abuse of the community involvement and a citywide communications exercise was held to test a new radio system. Just as the exercise was reaching a critical point in the evening Fran Wilde stopped it prematurely. We were later told she and Angela Griffin had decided they wanted to go home to bed and figured they could save 2 hours overtime on the couple of city officials involved. Community based
Civil Defence collapsed across the city. Recently, 15 years on, a
meeting was held to try and resurrect interest in our area. Four people
attended. This is symptomatic of the powerlessness of Wellington
citizens with regards to much of the city’s infrastructure now. With
no control over the city’s intelligence potential they are essentially
dumb players. Footnote (2))
Fran Wilde’s Administration also transferred control of city’s bus
system to the Scotland-based property speculator company Stagecoach
for$NZ5.75 million. Footnote (3) Fran
Wilde was rewarded with a directorship of Brierley Investments (now BIL
International) and Victoria University awarded her an Honorary Doctor of
Law degree in 2004. Footnote (4) It is reputed Fran Wilde strongly endorsed Mark Blumsky as her successor. Foornote (5) This year the Labour-led Government rewarded Fran with a position on the board of Transit, New Zealand's transport authority.
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