Never Negotiate

By David

And so Swimming New Zealand has a new laird of the manor. Ross Butler has inherited the title of Acting President. I suspect he couldn’t wait to jump into the empty seat at the top of the Board Room table or have his new title printed on carefully crafted business cards. I met him in an Auckland pub not so long ago. He gave me the impression of being a rural artisan trying to make it in the big city; very concerned with appearances, maybe even a touch pretentious. Certainly full of small talk and hearty bon ami but without much substance, I thought.

There is no way Ross Butler is a long term solution to the top job in Swimming New Zealand. He has been there long enough to own his share of the Ineson litany of mistakes. The failings of the previous regime were the product of poor selection compounded by poor supervision and poor management. Butler was part of that problem. When you look closely at the current Board, who is there that understands the product – no one, certainly not Ross Butler. And the Chief Executive can’t provide the Board with any product knowledge. He knows as much about elite swimming as Ross Butler – that’s the blind leading the blind. No wonder the current Board couldn’t control the elite sport’s program. No one on that Board has a blind clue what the three words mean.

My concern just now is that the Coalition of Regions and others may be discussing Swimming New Zealand’s future with Butler as though he was there to stay. That would be a serious error. Never negotiate with terrorists. Of course I don’t mean that Butler is in any way similar to Mohammed Atta – he can’t fly an airplane for a start. But many of the principles are the same. Negotiating with Butler gives him legitimacy. “The Coalition of Regions is discussing the future with me,” he will say. “The Athlete’s Federation are talking to me about their member’s welfare,” he will add. And he will positively tingle describing the cosy relationship and “working understanding” he has with Bronwen Radford. You can bet your socks every last drop of PR spin will be extracted by Ross Butler in an effort to stay in the Chairman’s chair.

And the temptation to deal with him could be too high to resist just now. There has probably never been a better time to obtain a raft of generous concessions. Right now, I doubt there is much Butler would not agree to. American politicians are doing it all the time; buying favours. And for every favour the unspoken contract is – if I do this for you, I expect you to support my bid to stay in the President’s chair in two weeks time. That’s the deal. And for ten years we have all had far too much of that sort of dealing.

In this context, never negotiate with terrorists, is vitally important. Bronwen Radford and the Coalition of Regions won our support by taking on those who led swimming into a dark place. But, not only that. They won our support by offering a better way; by offering a more open form of government that kept its constituents informed. It would be distressing indeed if those responsible for the Coalition of Regions were now involved in secret negotiations that we knew nothing about. Distressing because it gives legitimacy to people who have failed this sport. Distressing because we thought the Coalition of Regions would not take part in Wellington, behind closed doors, deals. Distressing because we thought we would be told what the Coalition of Regions was doing. Distressing because of the thought that perhaps the previous Bay of Plenty newsletters were simply aimed at gaining our favour. Distressing because, pray God, the North Shore letter isn’t right after all. Never negotiate with terrorists; but if you are, come clean about it quickly and tell us.

Ah but, I hear some Swimwatch readers say, wasn’t it you that argued that the Coalition of Regions has the right to govern without referring every decision back to the membership? Now you are demanding to be consulted about every decision; every negotiation. That is not consistent. You are as bad as the North Shore Club’s Dr. Phil. He had a shot at running Auckland from a club office. So are you. Such an argument has validity. However in this case there is a difference.

If the Coalition of Regions is negotiating with the very people it asked for our support to remove and if those negotiations include Ross Butler remaining in a position of power on the Board of Swimming New Zealand then we are concerned. We are concerned because the Coalition may be riding rough shod through the principle of negotiating with terrorists and may be agreeing to a course of action 100% contrary to the one many New Zealanders supported. I support your negotiations – you do have the right to govern. But striking deals with Ross Butler shows all the integrity of a hungry rattle snake. We are sick of that sort of management. We have endured it for the past decade. It is the reason a letter from the North Shore Club has been included in the 2011 AGM general business The North Shore Club has no standing at the meeting and their letter arrived way passed the cut off date for including in the Agenda. But, to score political points, Butler ignored the rules, dismissed the Constitution and agreed to include it on the Agenda. It tells us all we need to know about the man from Nelson. He needs to be replaced – not empowered.

So, while it is fine to have negotiations, if those negotiations include striking deals with Ross Butler, then the New Zealand swimming community had better be publically informed very quickly and the explanation had better be very good, very open and very honest. The recent call for change in Swimming New Zealand was all about the integrity of the sport’s management. Swimwatch fought for a long time to see that change. Those who now assume positions of power will be held to the same standard. And back room deals done over a glass of Chardonnay in Wellington, if that is what we are about, are unlikely to meet that test.

  • Stevie

    David, I think your commentary in this Acting President critique and the message for the Regions is valuable . I only hope all those regional people (and the coaches assn.) have done their homework – Preparation and homework before the negotiations!! – I hope they have read the material in June / July / August / Sept. on Swimwatch, about Ross Butler.

    Chaired the governance committee of the SNZ board for a long time. In that influential position he totally failed to guage the corrosive impact of the leadership in the HPC. Totally failed to see that the SNZ CEO was, at all times, driving under the influence of JC.

    Ross Butler unwisely put himself on the SPARC-excuse-for-an-outcome “hp governance committee”, which was intended by those holding power on the SNZ board as a sop to the Ineson Review. Didn’t work, naturally. Poor judgement.

    I heard someone describe the Acting President the other day as more “about the deck chairs around the pool than those actually in the pool.” Enough said.

  • Chris

    Bahahaha

    … about the deck chairs around the pool than those actually in the pool …

    CLASSIC!

  • Sensible Swimming

    I think comparing Ross Butler to Mohammed Atta on the anniversary of September 11th lacks a little taste but I do not entirely disagree with the sentiment. Lets not forget that almost 3,000 people died on September 11th and so far nobody has died in Swimming New Zealand. Let us hope that remains that way.

    I do agree with the principle – do not negotiate with terrorists!

    I have re-read a lot of the material published on the Swimming New Zealand web-site over this whole affair tonight (sad I know) and it just seems to me as though SNZ is quite happy to be picking a fight. On the other hand I sense that the regional coalition has tried to deal in a measured and reasonable manner to create good solutions. As much as SNZ is trying to portray them as being unreasonable, I simply do not think that is working.

    I went onto the Auckland website after you directed us there in your previous post, and read about their proposed remits. After the rubbish that Mike Byrne had published for SNZ in his ‘Summary of Remits’, the Auckland response and explanation of their remits was mature and well reasoned and shows Byrne up as being a fool and a dishonest liar. These are not remits to “set the sport back 20 years” at all. There is a balance to what is being done here which is simply lacking in SNZ’s behaviour over the past however many years. There is real venom and hostility in everything that emerges out of SNZ these days, it is really unpleasant stuff.

    I read another letter on the same website being their response to the North Shore Club who seems to be running rogue at the moment. What is Swimming New Zealand doing getting involved in an obvious difference between a club and a region? You are right David – what are they doing allowing a club to introduce business into a national AGM, let alone when it is introduced long after the final date for business to be accepted? They are so out of order on that one.

    Ross Butler is pretty slimy. He has been around for all of the last six years and these have been very divisive and bad years for the sport. He was on the governance committee and his fingerprints are all over this shambles.

    There was another thing you said a few weeks ago that really bothered me. I have not gone back to re-read it because you have been so prolific lately but as I recall it was something about Ross Butler making very corrosive threats about how he would somehow use his dealings with the Securities Commission to expose people who opposed SNZ? Those are the tactics of an unscrupulous bully and nobody should be taken in by him.

    He promised to be ‘One Team’, but he plagiarised that theme from one of the gentlemen of the sport who was good enough to share his thoughts with him – what does Butler do – steals a good idea and claims it as his own, and then to add insult to it all, they then rename the hated and reviled Project Vanguard under the same name. Worse than that, while he goes off and uses the term ‘One Team’ meanwhile back here it is the same old business as usual – athletes treated badly, coaches and employees badly treated and regional colleagues bullied and threatened. Anything but ‘One Team’.

    David, Butler is bad and his world is bad, of that you are right. It would seem that if Auckland gets its remits passed then he will not be eligible for reappointment and on October 10th we will have seen the last of him. If Waikato get their remit passed we will no longer have him as Chairman (albeit acting) and Kerry MacDonald will not be able to succeed him either. If Bay of Plenty get their way then in October we will finally be able to appoint new leaders who have some vision and integrity. There is precious little of either on show from the Butler Boys.

    I hope for the sake of us all that the regions hold firm and see this through to the end. I can see pretty clearly who the ‘bad guys’ are in all of this. Lets get rid of them once and for all. Two down, a few more to go.

  • David

    I realize the mention of terrorist carries all sorts of risks. I do want to stress that it was the “not negotiate” portion I wanted to emphasise. That’s why I did clearly say, “Of course I don’t mean that Butler is in any way similar to Mohammed Atta”. But you are right – avoiding the term may have been best.

    In Delray Beach, Florida Alison and I lived in the same apartment block as Mohammed Atta lived in when he was learning to fly.