Old guard not wanted, leader says

The ghosts of the recent past will hang over a critical election at the annual meeting of the Christchurch Memorial Returned and Services Association (Christchurch RSA) this weekend.

Current president Dennis Mardle, who is also the association’s treasurer, is standing again and is being challenged by current executive member and former president Jim Lilley. Former executive member Craig Cormack is standing for vice-president.

Lilley and Cormack were on the RSA executive when it got into trouble in about 2018/19 after its Trenches bar and restaurant in Armagh St got into strife.

Christchurch RSA Holdings, which ran the hospitality wing of the RSA, went into liquidation in January 2020 owing about $2 million.

A financial report prepared by Mardle for the meeting suggests Lilley and Cormack, who were directors of Christchurch RSA Holdings when it was liquidated, should not be elected to influential positions due to their financial inexperience.

The $5.8m Trenches bar, restaurant and function centre opened in 2015 and closed four years later.

Lilley said he had nothing to be ashamed of and was the first executive member who started asking questions about the failing business.

‘‘I can hold my head up high. I worked my arse off and stayed on to clean up the mess.’’

The report by Mardle, who became president in 2020, says the accounts were in a ‘‘mess’’ before the 2019/20 year and ‘‘staff were having nightmares’’ about them.

The association was now in a much better position, with about $720,000 in term deposit and $57,000 in the bank.

The RSA’s Museum and Support Trust had $1.2m on term deposit and the trust board had $100,000 in the bank.

‘‘It is my greatest regret that in my time as treasurer I was unable to keep the building in the hands of the association,’’ he said in the report.

‘‘However, when we look back at the pandemic and the consequences that has had for hospitality businesses in Christchurch, we can be thankful we dodged what could have been an even worse situation.’’

Mardle recommended appointing ‘‘external people’’ to bring necessary skills to the association.

‘‘Younger, business savvy former service men and women’’ should be brought in to help construct an association for the future, he said in the report.

‘‘It would be foolhardy in the extreme to rely on an executive committee made up of those who had lacked the necessary skills to turn the association around from the position it was in when I came on board in 2019, to try and take this association into the future.

‘‘It was Einstein who said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’’

‘‘It is my greatest regret that in my time as treasurer I was unable to keep the building in the hands of the association.’’ Dennis Mardle Christchurch RSA president