Market research firm Versus Research has completed the second community survey for the council after councillors voted to reintroduce annual satisfaction surveys during the last term.
The new council, which will discuss the findings tomorrow, has been advised that the 30% of people who were satisfied with the organisation’s performance had "no issues" with it.
The most common view (43%) was a neutral view of the council, but those who were dissatisfied (19%) viewed the council as a "poor organisation".
Further, there had been an increase in the proportion of respondents who said the council was a poor organisation this year, the Versus report said.
A public perception of infighting, poor decision-making and high staff turnover was compounded by what was seen as a lack of visible improvement on Otago’s environmental issues, particularly water quality, it said.
"Social commentary about wasting time, wasting resources, and infighting needs to be put to bed in the coming three years to restore residents’ confidence in ORC," the report said.
"The internal issues of the past few years has stymied ORC’s ability to showcase the positive work it has undertaken.
"Ultimately the combined noise of the past few years has likely drowned out many of the positive outcomes that ORC has achieved.
"With a new council in place, there is a need to show a united front and to build a future focus for both the organisation and the environment."
The community surveyed felt there was an urgency to the environmental issues the council was facing and the council should involve residents at a local level to raise awareness of its work, the report said.
Awareness of the organisation remained high, it said, and though public transport was the council service most survey respondents had used, the council’s perceived role in the region was tied to water.
Respondents were asked to identify the most important environmental issue facing the Otago region.
Among a range of issues identified, 37% of respondents mentioned water quality, 14% said climate change and 11% mentioned issues related to erosion.
Satisfaction ratings for looking into council rules and the pollution hotline both increased this year, but there was a slight decrease in satisfaction for the service provided for resource consent applications, the report said.
Versus Research surveyed around 1700 people, both online and over the phone.
This year’s overall satisfaction results with the council were around the same as last year’s.
