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Forty-five out of 100 is a fail in anyone’s language: that’s the score that more than 3000 ratepayers have given Auckland Council’s reputation in areas that include fairness and ethics, leadership and growth and accountability and effectiveness.
Possibly around here, few are surprised at this – the Hibiscus Coast and Rodney areas had the highest rates of dissatisfaction with Council’s performance. And while the recently released Citizen Insights Monitor report suggests that “a lower level of engagement” is one reason for the dissatisfaction in the north, it also demonstrates the opposite – stating that those who have a low opinion of Council are more likely to vote in elections, pay rates and share their opinions with Council.
Interestingly (for us anyway!) local newspapers were the second highest source of news about Council, accounting for 43 percent of the Council-related news that people were aware of (just a tad shy of the 45 percent of national newspapers and Our Auckland).
Council has accepted this “must try harder” feedback from the public and acknowledges that it must lift its game to increase the community’s trust and confidence.
However, for the sake of balance it is worth remembering that this area, at least, went from the frying pan into the fire when the councils amalgamated in 2010.
During the era of Rodney District Council the annual Quality of Life Survey (which surveyed councils throughout NZ) repeatedly showed that Rodney was viewed as the worst. In 2006 only 24 percent of the Rodney residents surveyed said they “had confidence that the council made decisions in the best interests of the area”. At the time this was the worst result of any council in NZ.
With the upcoming elections in mind, one way for Auckland Council to potentially turn around its poor reputation is to devolve more power, responsibilities and funding/resources to local boards. Our local board has been a strong advocate for this community, and could do a lot more if it were given the chance. If there’s one thing that Council amalgamation has made clear, it is that the ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work in many situations – that’s why it would be wise to vest more power in the hands of locals who know their patch best.
