Police, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, a city licensing inspector and Students for Sensible Drug Policy have all objected to the renewal of the licence for Eleven Bar & Club in the Octagon.
The company is owned and directed by Dunedin residents Prakash Khattri, Naveen Malhotra and Nikesh Singh.
At the Dunedin District Licensing Committee yesterday, former duty manager Jason Marshall said he left the company as he was concerned about the financial stability and direction of the venue.
When he was recruited, he understood it would be oriented towards food and sport and cater to a demographic of those 25 years old and over.
There appeared to be cashflow issues and on at least one occasion he had given unpaid staff money out of his own pocket after he had received his own wages.
"They needed to put food on the table," Mr Marshall said.
While he had raised it with Mr Malhotra, he had not done so formally.
He never sought recompense from the company, as he was in a working relationship with the directors.
"My job was to keep the venue going," Mr Marshall said.
The money had been paid back by staff, albeit 18 months later, and in that sense had been a very-long-term loan, he said.
"I obviously didn’t do my due diligence properly when I started working for them," Mr Marshall said.
Police provided videos as evidence, which they argued showed people dancing and failing to socially distance in violation of Covid-19 rules, and in another instance showed a sleeping intoxicated man leaning against a window.
Senior Constable Steve Griffiths said during a compliance check in July last year menus had been locked away downstairs.
While he conceded under cross examination from the applicant’s lawyer, Kate Logan, that a sign saying "snacks available" might well have been behind the bar, it was not pointed out to him by duty manager Steven Dewe at the time.
Sergeant Steve Jones said he believed Mr Dewe was out of his depth given his limited experience.
Licensing inspector Tanya Morrison said that if an application was to be granted, it should be restricted to less than the usual three-year basis.
Staff would need to maintain thorough up-to-date records and training schedules as a bare minimum.
The nature of the layout would need to be considered, as it was unlikely both floors could be adequately supervised by a single duty manager.
A restricted licence might be more appropriate for the upstairs section as it tended to open later and function as a nightclub, Ms Morrison said.
