Glen Eira - some ‘real facts’
Published 1 year ago in Where I Live.Glen Eira always likes to compare itself to other councils in its group for ‘benchmarking’ purposes – but only when its suits them! Time and time again, the public is presented with what can only be called a ‘distortion of the facts’ as to Glen Eira’s perceived performance. Take for example this year’s ‘community satisfaction survey’ conducted by an outside, independent govt funded organisation. Glen eira proudly states in its Annual Report that there has been a marked improvement in the community’s perception – “In the annual independent community satisfaction survey, community satisfaction with overall performance was 87 per cent, up from 77 per cent last year.” What this doesn’t reveal is that the ‘indexed mean’ for overall performance was only 68. “The “Indexed Mean” is calculated by taking the mean value for all respondents on the five point scale (ie 5 = excellent and 1 = needs a lot of improvement) and multiplying by twenty to convert this mean to an index of up to 100. In 2006, the score was 62 - hence a paltry increase in ‘overall satisfaction’.
Okay, now let’s look at some other facts from this survey. In terms of the following categories Glen Eira performed BELOW THE MEAN against the other councils in its group. In other words, it was bottom or near the bottom ranking when compared to other councils. This occurred in the following:
Overall performance
Advocacy
Community engagement
Customer contact was equal to other councils
Local roads and footpaths
Health and human services
Economic development
Town planning policy and approvals
The Survey went on to conclude that “Glen Eira’s areas of greatest strengths in the eyes of its residents are Waste Management and Health and Human Services, although its performance is similar to others in its comparable group on these.” So the bottom line is that Glen Eira may pride itself on good rubbish collectors!! But as far as the things which are important to the community - such as consultation/engagement - it remains at the bottom of the pile.
1 Response to “Glen Eira - some 'real facts'”
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Canineclub, Glen Eira Council has always prided itself on its regimental bureaucracy which they wear as a badge of honor. Their Glen Eira News is so full of self promotion, as is the Glen Eira Annual Report, I believe they genuinely see themselves as doing a fantastic job. I’ve never actually read any deep and meaningful reflective comments about where they perceive any short falls that need attention.
I was always fascinated that the Mayor thinks Community Groups should praise Council for all the good things they do instead of belittling their shortcomings, as if she thinks that respect for Council should be taken as read.
As some other Nookster made the point recently….if they were doing such a fantastic job why are there so many community groups set up throughout the Glen Eira Council lobbying Council to be heard?…If Council actually listened to the residents as a matter of course, we wouldn’t need to join groups to have a louder voice.
I believe “real facts” is more realistic to residents needs than a reliable rubber bin collection which we’ve never faulted. Council get that particular issue correct, now for the rest of the issues which are of equal importance to many residents - some may say, even more important…..Being listened to!