Dear Queenstown-Lakes District Council,

This is a request under section 10 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

Please provide the names of the law firms (or sole practitioners) and the total amount of money the Council has spent with each law firm (or sole practitioner) it has procured services or advice from, and the town or city where that firm (or practitioner) is located:

(a) for the most recent financial year of the Council, and
(b) for the 2011-2012 financial year.

If you consider that one of the reasons in section 7(2) of the Act may provide a reason for refusing this request, I urge you consider the strong public interest in the Council being accountable for the spending of public money, and the accountability purpose of the Act, as described in section 4(a)(ii).

If anything about this request is unclear, or you consider the request may be refused under section 17(f) of the Act, please contact me via the address from which this request was sent.

Yours faithfully,

John Jacobson

Dear Barbara,

Thank you for your response to my request - especially for getting it to me sooner than the maximum permitted time.

I am also grateful for the Council providing its response in the text of the email, rather than by attached PDF document. Unfortunately, the formatting has got slightly mixed up, and so I am not clear whether the spending indicated for Meredith Connell and Quigg Partners refers to the 2011/12 year or the 2013/14 year. If you could clarify this for me I would be grateful.

Finally, if it is possible to easily provide me with the figures for legal spending by the two Council Controlled Organisations for 2011/12 (broken down in the same manner as the information already provided), please could you do so. Alternatively, I will make a separate request for that information.

Yours sincerely,

John Jacobson

Hi Barbara,

I'm afraid I could not. If you visit the web page where I'm reading the Council's response, you'll be able to see the problems with the formatting that mean I'm unable to work out when the Meredith Connell and Quigg Partners spending occurred:

https://fyi.org.nz/request/1916-spending...

Maybe in this instance it would be easier if you included all the information sought about the spending in the two (financial) years in a Word or Excel document attached to your email reply?

Many thanks for your help with this,

John Jacobson

Hi Barbara,

Thank you for your additional assistance - I can access the document, and it provides the information I was seeking. I will make a separate request for the information about the spending of the two CCOs.

Yours sincerely,

John Jacobson