A $50,000 random ratepayer survey should help the Otago Regional Council focus on the public’s priorities, the chairwoman says.
ORC chairwoman Hilary Calvert said the survey would start appearing in the mailboxes of more than 14,000 randomly selected ratepayers from this week.
"In these uncertain times, it is even more important to know as much as we can about what people in Otago feel about what the Otago Regional Council is doing well and what we can do better.
"This will help us be the very best council we can be in the time we have left."
By switching from cold calling phone numbers to the hard-copy mailout format the council hoped to prompt an increase in overall responses.
The survey would also be available via a Facebook link, as a cost-effective alternative.
Chief executive Richard Saunders said the survey would cost about $50,000, compared with the originally proposed telephone/online survey, which was estimated at almost $75,000.
ORC general manager strategy and customer Amanda Vercoe said the surveys helped track changes over time, highlighting what mattered most to communities and "shows us where projects, programmes or monitoring are working well or need improvement".
Those receiving the survey have until February 22 to respond.
Mrs Vercoe said while central government was proposing a wide range of reforms affecting many aspects of regional council governance and work, those reforms would take time to legislate and implement.
"In the meantime, ORC still has job to do on behalf of the public and environment with services to deliver.
"This includes existing protections around water, air and land monitoring, ongoing consenting responsibilities, engineering work over multiple flood schemes through to preparing for emergency management situations."
— Allied Media
