Cr’s claim CCTV clip had audio rejected

CLAIMS by Cr Lee Vandervis that he has been vindicated, after posting footage of his exchange with a staff member online, have been rejected by the Dunedin City Council.

It emerged this week Cr Vandervis was the subject of another complaint of abusive behaviour, having shouted at a council staff member inside the council’s customer services reception area.

The council initially declined to release CCTV footage of the encounter, saying it did not want to prejudice an independent investigation of the incident, but insisted the footage did not contain audio.

Yesterday, Cr Vandervis obtained a copy of the CCTV footage and posted it on social media himself, claiming it did contain audio and had been ‘‘misrepresented’’ by council staff.

His words could not be heard in the footage, but he could be seen waggling his finger and pointing at the staff member, while a passing person stopped to watch the interaction for several moments before continuing on their way.

Cr Vandervis, posting online, claimed there was ‘‘plainly’’ audio with the CCTV footage, and that staff at the reception desk could be heard talking, while he could not.

‘‘The audio track of the video is enough to confirm that I did not raise my voice excessively or shout as alleged,’’ he said.

However, the DCC responded with a statement yesterday afternoon, insisting the CCTV footage contained no audio at all.

Due to technical difficulties, Cr Vandervis and the council’s independent investigator had been unable to play the CCTV video on their devices, a DCC spokeswoman said.

To provide Cr Vandervis with a copy, a council staff member had played the CCTV footage on her computer and filmed the screen on her iPhone.

A copy of the iPhone video was then provided to Cr Vandervis.

The audio that could be heard was background noise captured by the staff member’s iPhone as she filmed her screen, not from CCTV footage, the council spokeswoman said.

‘‘The CCTV system does not capture sound,’’ she said.

The iPhone video had also been provided to Cr Vandervis in confidence, she added.

The councillor — who has been the subject of 11 previous complaints this term alleging verbally abusive behaviour — continued to insist yesterday he was the victim of ‘‘a political smear of the worst kind’’.

Independent investigator David Benham, of Wellington, has been called in to investigate the code of conduct complaint filed against Cr Vandervis over the latest incident.

Mr Benham is the former chief executive of the Greater Wellington Regional Council and now the chairman of the Otago Regional Council’s audit and risk subcommittee.

He was expected to report back to council chief executive Sue Bidrose, who would then report to either a full council meeting — excluding Cr Vandervis — or a code of conduct committee meeting.