Below average results
Annual survey results have revealed community satisfaction with the overall performance of Baw Baw Shire has remained consistent this year, but continues to be “significantly lower” than the state and large rural shires’ average results.
Community members continued to send a strong message about the condition of sealed local roads. While council maintained its score from last year’s survey results, the condition of roads was council’s lowest scoring category; and, is significantly lower than the state average.
Council’s individual results across all surveyed areas were either consistent with last year’s results or slightly improved.
But, compared to average state results and figures for similar large rural shires, Baw Baw is lower in all seven core areas.
One in 10 residents rated the shire’s overall performance as “very poor,” while only four per cent of residents rated council’s overall performance as “very good.”
The annual survey of local government performance was undertaken by JWS Research. The random telephone survey of 400 residents was conducted in February and March this year.
Results are scored on a scale from zero to 100 across seven performance measures including overall performance, community consultation, advocacy, making community decisions, sealed local roads, customer service and overall council direction. Key findings: Council’s overall performance was scored at 50, compared to 59 statewide.
Community consultation and engagement; making community decisions; advocacy and condition of local roads all rated significantly lower than the average scores for large rural shires and state figure.
Council’s most improved area was overall council direction with an index score of 51 – up three points on last year’s result.
Council’s best performing area was customer service with an index score of 61, which was consistent with last year’s result.
East ward residents rated council significantly for its community consultation and engagement.
Central ward residents rated council the highest for the condition of local residents while east ward residents rated council the lowest for the same performance area.
Community consultation and engagement and making community decisions both increased two points on last year’s results.
The survey report said while council’s score of 61 for customer service was its strongest area, it was the lowest customer service rating received by council in recent years – equalling last year’s result and results in 2012.
“While it remains council’s highest performing measure, the area that stands out as being most in need of attention is customer service, which is underperforming the most comparatively with the state-wide and large rural group of councils; and has not bounced back after its decline in 2017.
“This core measure is now six points down on its peak result of 67 in 2014,” the report said.
One in five residents rated council’s customer services as very good, with another 35 per cent rating it as good.
The most improved area in this year’s results was “overall council direction.”
“While not a statistically significant increase with an index score of 51, performance in this area is three points higher than last year,” the report said.
This year’s result for overall council direction also is more closely aligned with state and large rural shire figures at 52.
Survey results acknowledged it was a positive that council had recorded no declines in performances but suggested it focus on all areas that were significantly lower than the state figures.
The report said council should aim to build on its improved performance in a number of measures, as well as aim to improve its rating on sealed local roads, which at 42 was not significantly different to the large rural shires score of 45.
Cr Darren Wallace said council’s overall performance was consistent with 2017 results so council needed to “keep up the good work.”
“We are making the right decisions and that started with the appointment of the ceo and respectful debate in the chamber.
Cr Wallace said customer service staff were council’s frontline. “They can truly make or break the reputation of an organisation.”
Cr Mikaela Power said the performance of council as surveyed by central ward residents was a “bit variable.”
“Reviewing these surveys is like reviewing your school report. We are steadily improving…these things take time. I heard it in a former work place that it takes 20 good experiences to make up for one bad one. It’s about putting ourselves into the customer’s shoes,” she said.
Mayor Joe Gauci said it was great to see satisfaction points on the rise for community consultation, advocacy, making community decisions and overall council direction.
“It’s encouraging to see we’re making progress in key areas, but there is still room for improvement across the board. Over the last year, councillors and the new executive team have been working hard to identify priority areas for improvement and develop strategies to streamline processes and increase performance.
“As an organisation we’re focused on continual improvement, especially through implementation of new digital systems and tools. There’s a clear appetite in our community for more digital channels to interact with council, this is evident in the success of “Live Chat” and the “Snap, Send, Solve” app.
“These tools offer our community more options to interact with us in efficient, timely and meaningful ways, rather than relying purely on face-to-face contact and phone calls.
“These systems also help us better manage and track incoming enquiries resulting in increased satisfaction with service areas such as customer service, planning and roads,” Cr Gauci said.