Report was kept from councillors for 84 days

Received on 6 June, the community satisfaction report was not shared with councillors until 29 August and not made public until 26 November.

Council CEO Chris Carroll has responded to our questions about the delayed public release of the 2024 JWS Community Satisfaction Survey.

Last week, we reported that the results of the 2024 Community Satisfaction Survey were not made public until after you voted in the council elections, despite being received in June.

We felt this was important because you were voting on a new council while the results were being withheld.

We asked if this was a grievous breach of trust. Now you can read Mr. Carroll’s response and make up your own mind.

All Mr. Carroll’s responses are printed in full.

Q: When was the report received by officers? When were councillors informed of the report? When were councillors briefed on the findings?
A: Port Phillip Council Officers received the 2024 CSS results report on 6 June 2024. Councillors received a copy of the report on 29 August 2024, and it was presented at a 4 September councillor briefing, along with some analysis and an action plan from each Department regarding the results.
TWiSK observation: 6 June to 29 August is 84 days. The councillors were briefed on 4 September and the official record of the briefing to councillors indicates that Mr Carroll did not attend. Council went into pre-election caretaker mode on 17 September. The crucial question here is, who made the decision to withhold the report? And why didn’t other officers in the senior leadership speak up?

Q: When was it made available to the public?
A: 1. an extract of the results was included in the annual Performance Statement, presented at a public meeting of Council on 18September 2024
2. an extract of the results was published by the Victorian Government on the Know Your Council website, on a timeline that is set by Local Government Victoria
3. the full results (but not the commentary from the survey provider JWS) is included in the Annual Report, which was presented at a public meeting of Council on 16 October 2024
4. the full report from JWS was published on our website on 26 November 2024. The delay was due to an operational oversight. After being alerted by a resident, we published the results on our website the same day.

TWiSK observation:
Item 1: The Annual Performance statement presented on 16 September has no direct reference the JWS CSS survey and only section 4.2.5 contains an oblique reference to failing to meet some satisfaction benchmarks.
Item 3: The Annual Report does include selected data from the JWS CSS but never references it as the source.

Q: When was it included in the CEO reports tabled at council meetings?
A: As these are annual results incorporated in the Annual Report, they hadn’t been included in the CEO Reports as they are based on monthly/quarterly data.
However, we will include a summary of the CSS results in the most relevant CEO Report and publish the full independent report to our website within a month of receiving it this year.
TWiSK observation: The promise to publish results in a timely manner is welcome.

Q: For context, please also provide the approximate publication date of previous similar annual reports for the past decade.
A: The 2023 report was published on Council’s website in January 2024. We do not have the other dates readily at hand.
TWiSK observation: Happy to wait for this info as it goes to establishing the usual timing of making results public.

But wait, there’s a sting in the tail

Council announced on 25 February that a new research company would be providing the 2025 community satisfaction survey.

In a website statement, the council said “In the past, the survey was conducted by computer assisted telephone interview. This year, Metropolis Research will conduct the survey face-to-face.”

The previous researcher JWS had been providing the research for Port Phillip and many other councils for many years. In an arrangement with Local Government Victoria, they will continue to provide research more than fifty councils in 2025.

An informed market research industry source told TWiSK that the new supplier was likely to employ a mix of telephone and face-to-face interviews. The source said this methodology was probably being marketed to councils as a way to get more positive results.

But wait, there’s even more …

In the Performance Review and the Annual Report, an explanation is given for lower community satisfaction.

“We attribute the decline [in community engagement satisfaction] in this result to the number of high-profile, polarising topics that Council consulted on this year, including Inkerman Street, St Kilda Triangle, Dog Off-Leash Guidelines, and the Public Toilet Plan.”
Source: Annual Performance Review 2024 p 100.