Waipā councillors say they are part of the solution to the district’s worst-ever residents’ survey.
Mike Montgomerie
At an open council workshop last week, acting Strategic Planning and Policy committee chair Mike Montgomerie said it was important to look at the results – now benchmarked against 16 other councils – on a ‘no blame’ basis.
“We are a council wanting to be part of the solution rather than beating you with a stick to get better.”
Waipā was below average on all six overall measures and was last for communication, engagement and consultation.
Its next worst effort was in services and facilities where its performance in libraries, sports fields and cemeteries were among the worst.
Georgina Knapp
As The News previously reported, the council took a huge hit to its reputation – 54 per cent describing themselves as sceptics – but it was not the country’s worst.
An area where the council was better than the average was in quality of life with two thirds of respondents marking it favourably but on the flip side only 24 per cent – below the 31 per cent average and 19 percentage points behind the top performance – thought the district was going in the right direction.
Organisational Excellence manager Georgina Knapp told the workshop while the results were presented to the council in August, staff were waiting on the benchmark results to get a clearer picture.
They now had that report and it showed decline across several metrics.
“Our survey is one method around the way we receive feedback. We need to take these results in context,” she said.
Clare St Pierre
Waipā was sitting middle of the pack last year but had now dropped further in comparison to other councils.
Waste management concerns fell significantly – kerbside recycling and loose litter management specifically – caused driver shortages and lack of service.
“That quality of life is something we can all be really proud of,” she said.
Cr Clare St Pierre said it was now important the council and councillors had a critical look at the results and feel like “we’re actually addressing this in some formalised way.”
Andrew Brown
She called for staff to provide the quarterly results to councillors so they could see how things were tracking and have discussions about how to lift performance.
Montgomerie said everyone was working hard and it was easy to get defensive.
“We want organisational excellence,” he said while being open about what the data was telling them.
Perception was sometimes the reality.
Cr Andrew Brown said while it had been a tough year with a shortage of truck drivers and a wet year, “the benchmarking definitely shows against other councils, our residents’ perception is worse. We have to address that.”
Mike Pettit
Cr Mike Pettit said the measures were council’s core business and what a council had to fundamentally deliver.
“We are here to help.”
Cr Lou Brown said the stand out result for him was the first contact with council which was “the one that dropped the most.”
“We are dealing with a situation when there is a lot of angst out there. People judge us on what they see.”
Mayor Susan O’Regan did not comment at the workshop but in an earlier interview with The News said she was frustrated by the survey.
Susan O’Regan
“I would be lying to say I didn’t smart a little bit about the residents’ survey,” she said.
The survey was completed by Tauranga-based Key Research and cost $30,220. It is mandatory for the council to report qualitive data and it has done so since 2016. But the results have worsened year by year.
The survey polled 422 people in four quarters starting July 1 last year and ending June 30. The margin of error is +/- 4.2 per cent.
Key Research Benchmarking Report 2022-23 Waipa DC
