A score of seven out of 10 will count as a positive result for the Otago Regional Council now the council has adopted a more forgiving scorecard for its community satisfaction survey.
The council made the change after only 16% of 1700 respondents rated the council positively in its first community survey since 2016.
That rating last year though came with only scores of eight out of 10 or better being recorded as "positive".
A full 45% of respondents put the council in the "neutral" category last year, scoring the council between five and seven out of 10 in the first of the new community surveys.
Regulatory and communications general manager Richard Saunders said yesterday the company contracted to do the community surveys would be able to adjust the ratings from last year’s survey to reflect the new scorecard so that year-to-year comparisons could be made.
The discussion at the council table during yesterday’s governance, communications and engagement committee meeting focused on the weighting of the results.
Cr Bryan Scott and Michael Laws argued for a system in which scores of one, two, three, and four resulted in negative scores and seven, eight, nine, and 10 resulted in a positive score, with only a five or a six counted as neutral.
That way the negative and positive categories were of equal size, the argument went. They received no further support in the debate.
Cr Gary Kelliher voted for the status quo. The remainder voted for the change.
Crs Michael Deaker and Alexa Forbes sent apologies.
The community survey is under way. Results are expected in December.
