Otago regional councillors could change the scorecard for this year’s community satisfaction survey to get a better result for the council.
Councillors will consider tomorrow lowering the bar for what counts as a "positive" response.
After an absence of several years, the council’s community satisfaction survey returned last year to find overall satisfaction with the council was relatively low.
Only 16% of 1700 respondents gave the council a positive rating, scoring the council an 8 out 10, or higher, in 2021.
With this year’s survey presently under way, councillors will consider lowering the bar so that a 7 out of 10 would count as positive.
In his report to the council, regulatory and communications general manager Richard Saunders said there was "some discussion" about the suitability of the way the results were assessed when they were received last year.
No decision was made at the meeting, but it was agreed to revisit the issue before assessing the results of this year’s survey, Mr Saunders said.
He said the company conducting the survey, Versus Research, said it had no issue with changing the methodology for assessing the results so long as last year’s results were updated as well.
If the positive category changed there would be commensurate changes to the neutral and negative categories as well.
During the 2020-21 annual plan, councillors asked to re-institute a community survey for the council.
Versus Research were contracted to conduct an annual community survey for three years, starting last year.
In addition to the possible change in how the results were scored, Versus Research had instituted several minor changes to last year’s survey.
This year survey respondents who used specific council services are being asked to rate their satisfaction but also to give reasons for their rating, Mr Saunders said.
Further, in the "expectations" section of the survey, the company is asking Otago residents about the most important issue presently facing the region and how the council was managing it.
Based on similar surveys completed with another regional council, an additional question was added asking, "Why do you think this is the most important issue?"
This year’s survey results were expected to be presented before Christmas, Mr Saunders said.
Last year’s survey highlighted the perception there was infighting among councillors and some lack of understanding about the council’s role.
Public transport was a bright spot and many people identified water-related issues as a key area of debate.
