People are happier with Tauranga’s new council than they were with the commission, a survey shows — but Mayor Mahé Drysdale is not happy with the results.

Tauranga City Council runs an annual residents survey. The latest results show 46% of respondents were satisfied with the council’s overall performance so far, up from 34% from the 2023/24 year results.

It’s the first survey since July’s election ended nearly four years of a Government-appointed commission leading the council.

Asked if he was happy with the result, Drysdale said “not really”.

“We can always be better and [there are] a number of areas we can significantly improve on.”

Each year the survey asks around 600 residents their thoughts on council services and initiatives.

Key Research conducts the surveys and questions about 150 people four times a year. Each survey is called a wave.

The latest results are based on wave one for the 2024/25 year, with 159 surveys completed between August 26 and September 27.

He said it was disappointing satisfaction with the council’s overall reputation dropped from 26% last year to 24%.

“This is a huge opportunity for improvement and I would like to see us heading back in line with averages from other councils as a start.”

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said there were areas where the council could improve. Photo / Alex Cairns

The average, based on 18 councils, was 44% satisfaction for reputation. A score of 7-10 is satisfied, 5-6 neutral, 1-4 is dissatisfied.

It was a small sample and the council would get higher-quality results as the trends developed over the year, he said.

Drysdale said he would be concerned if there was not improvement. Reputation and value for money were areas he wanted to improve on.

The survey showed 33% of respondents were satisfied with value for money in wave one, down from 34% the prior year.

The council’s services and facilities were areas the council stacked up fairly well, Drysdale said.

Satisfaction was at 63% for water management, up from 56% for the previous year.

Waste management was at 80% satisfaction up from 68%. Satisfaction with public facilities was 74%, up from 70%.

The council needed to strive to keep improving all metrics if they wanted Tauranga to be the best city in New Zealand, he said.

Pāpāmoa councillor Steve Morris said the council should be comparing its results to previously elected councils. Photo / David Hall

Fourth-term Pāpāmoa councillor Steve Morris said the surveys were a good pulse on what the community was thinking.

First elected in 2013, he had monitored the survey results as a councillor and when he was not on the council.

He was part of the 2019-elected council the Government replaced with a four-person commission from 2021 until the election in July this year.

He said the council should be comparing its results to previous elected councils and not the commission’s.

“I don’t think we can compare it to that because the commission were always going to be less popular than people elected by a popular vote.

“We should be comparing ourselves to the democratically elected councils because the baseline is the same.”

Satisfaction with overall performance was 73% in the 2018 annual residents’ survey, 75% in 2016 and 67% in 2015.

A flag for Morris was satisfaction with the council’s reputation – this and overall performance needed to be more than 50%, he said.

“We need to work hard on the council’s reputation and trust.

”That trust comes from being transparent, it comes from explaining decisions, it comes from conducting ourselves well in public.”

The commission of Bill Wasley (left), Stephen Selwood, Anne Tolley and Shadrach Rolleston ran Tauranga from February 2021 to July 2024. Photo / Alisha Evans

The new councillors were respectful of each other and the contribution they brought to the city, he said.

He was confident reputation and trust scores would improve as the community continued to see their work.

Morris wanted a distinction between decisions made by the commission and the current council when communicating with the public.

“In terms of maintaining the trust and the confidence in Tauranga City Council, we need to reflect and as transparency comes in, I think there is an acknowledgement that the commission wasn’t perfect.”

There were concerns from some people in the community about the recently halted sale of the marine precinct.

Also, the amount of money being spent on the $306m civic precinct Te Manawataki o Te Papa and this year’s increase in industrial rates, said Morris.

All these decisions were made by the commission and people needed to understand that when seeing the impact on their recent rate bill, he said.

“We are responsible now, but we do need to differentiate between the things that we can’t control.”

The next wave of the residents survey will be collected in November and December with the results reported to the council in February 2025.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.