More Auckland Council spending waste
The council has failed ratepayers, ratepayers' alliance says
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Hawke’s Bay
Auckland Council spent $90,000 on a poll to reveal its citizens do not trust it to make the right decisions.
Of 3000 people questioned in the Citizens Insights Monitor, only a tiny 15% indicated they were happy with the council’s performance.
Figures obtained by the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance shows $90,000 was broken down into $45,000 for project design, management, reporting analysis and dashboards and $45,000 for fieldwork, processing and marketing science analytics.
The 16,000-member ratepayers’ alliance says if the council wanted to know how unpopular it is, it could have picked up newspapers and looked at online news sites, not paid tens of thousands of dollars for another report.
The insights monitor figures dropped dramatically from two previous surveys in 2012 and 2013. The 2013 survey showed satisfaction with the council at 32%, trust at 28% and confidence at 30%, the last of which has now dropped to 20%.
Alliance spokeswoman Jo Holmes says it is no coincidence the demographic who rated the council’s reputation poorly were those who voted in elections and who paid rates. “Among the 15% who rated the council highly were those who did not pay rates.
“The council has failed ratepayers,” Ms Holmes says. “This is why the alliance is asking council candidates to sign the Ratepayer Protection Pledge to ensure rates and any tax do not rise more than 2% in the next council term and ensure sensible spending that provides good services.” Eleven candidates have so far signed the pledge.
The council says the insight monitor “is to inform strategies to grow trust and confidence in Auckland Council and its council-controlled organisations, to ensure the organisation can effectively deliver the vision to become the world’s most liveable city, and meet the needs of all Auckland residents.
Sally Lindsay
Tue, 16 Aug 2016
Tue, 16 Aug 2016
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