QLDC: Community satisfaction drops to 5% in wake of CEO pay rise

With a Crux community survey still underway, interim results show overall satisfaction with the performance of the Queenstown Lakes District Council has dropped to 5%.

Crux launched our own survey following a QLDC decision to remove council satisfaction ratings from this years official survey. The council says that the reason for the removal of the questions was to do a more thorough trust and confidence survey next year.

The record low 5% interim rating, down from an official 15% last year (the lowest in NZ) follows a 15.5% pay rise awarded to QLDC CEO Mike Theelen, a large rates rise of up to 24%, debt forecast to hit one billion dollars by 2030 and a raft of budget blowouts.

593 people had responded to the Crux survey by mid Saturday morning (October 12) only four days after being launched. The survey will continue for at least another week. The survey can be completed here.

The questions and survey options are exactly the same as used by the QLDC in their own survey for the past five years. Here's the historic results - followed by the interim results of the current Crux survey.

Historic QLDC results:

The offical QLDC survey results over the past 5 years to 2023.

Here's the current Crux survey results, using the same five questions as the QLDC survey - the survey is still open and can be completed here.

The full 2023 QLDC survey results can be viewed here.

Crux results as at 9.50 am Saturday October 12.