The council yesterday unveiled the results of the 2012 residents' opinion survey, which asked 4500 residents for their views on the council and the city and attracted 780 responses.
The results showed overall public satisfaction with the council was down 7 percentage points from last year, to 39%, while overall dissatisfaction was up 9 percentage points, to 26%.
The longer-term trend - stretching back to 2006 - remained flat, and this year's results still represented an improvement on two years ago, when the percentage of dissatisfied people (38%) outweighed those who were satisfied (35%).
However, some of this year's biggest individual drops in satisfaction levels were found in economic areas, the results showed.
That included satisfaction with the council's efforts to attract new businesses and jobs (20%, down 6 percentage points), support for the development of businesses and jobs (26%, down 6 percentage points), and perceptions of Dunedin as a thriving city (24%, down 5 percentage points).
The need to attract more businesses also topped a list of items respondents wanted to change in Dunedin, while encouraging business and economic development came third in a top-five list of priorities for the coming year.
The council last year released figures showing 186 companies had received council grants worth more than $2.36 million since 2005, resulting in 416 new jobs and $44 million in sales.
Mr Cull yesterday told media the latest survey results reflected the state of the economy nationwide as much as the council's efforts, and the results would be mirrored in other council surveys across New Zealand.
He also believed the results underscored the need to work harder to communicate with the community the council's "value proposition" - what residents got for their rates.
"The value proposition from councils, in terms of what they provide the community and at what cost, I believe is not appreciated."
Council chief executive Paul Orders said the results also underscored the motives behind the new economic development strategy adopted by the council - and its partners - last month.
A "key rationale" for the strategy was an acknowledgement there was room for improvement, and it was now just starting to be rolled out, he said.
The survey, run annually since 1994, was conducted again this year by Christchurch company Research First, and also included a separate online survey - for comparison - which attracted 119 responses.
Results of the postal survey showed the city's facilities continued to score well. Dunedin Botanic Garden, city libraries and Otago Museum all scored more than 90% satisfaction, and the Edgar Centre - in 15th place - scored 80%.
The Forsyth Barr Stadium, featuring for the first time, scored 69% - 4% higher than the last mark for Carisbrook.
Contact with community board members (47%, up 12%), perceptions of Dunedin as a safe city (49%, up 8%) and kerbside recycling (88%, up 7%) were all big improvers, followed by contact with councillors and Mr Cull (45%, up 5%) in seventh place.
The look and feel of the South Dunedin retail area (16%, up 2%) again attracted the lowest satisfaction score. Processing building consent applications (24%, down 1%) and the suitability of roads for cyclists (25%, down 1%) also recorded low scores.
The biggest declines were recorded in the look and feel of the most convenient retail centre (62%, down 7%), followed by the overall quality of information held by the council (49%, down 7%) and the condition of footpaths (50%, down 7%).
Mr Cull believed the overall results were "pretty steady", and he was pleased the numbers reflected work in key areas, including efforts to improve contact between ratepayers and elected representatives.
Carl Davidson, of Research First, said the economic context for this year's survey was clear in the results, but residents still seemed generally satisfied.
"These aren't rock-star results, but these are definitely rock-solid results."
