QLDC's trust solution: bring in the consultants

Analysis.

It was meant to be a workshop where QLDC managers and councillors faced the very uncomfortable truth that emerged from their recent trust and confidence survey. The “official” rating was only 17% trust - but another 50% of the community respondents were excluded as being “uninvited” and their vote was down around the 4% mark.

Regardless of which number you want to pay attention to - both are very bad.

A sign of how bad the numbers were was an email sent by QLDC’s “Queen of Spin” Meaghan Miller last night. Ms Miller wanted councillors to concentrate on the positive (some Facebook/council feedback engagement numbers, people who were happy with the council’s parks and swimming pools and the need to ignore local media commentary) and she followed up just before the meeting with selected direct conversations, such as with Lisa Guy and Cody Tucker (main image above).

However, once the ball got rolling in the 60 minute workshop nobody was sticking to that script. Nor did they seem to understand why the community had rated them so badly.

A lot of the staff and councillors agreed on getting consultants in to “improve the customer experience” apparently thinking the problem was something to do with getting potholes fixed fast enough or council staff not being allowed to make jokes or show a bit of fun and personality.

Meaghan Miller, who has the official title of GM Corporate Services, was the main ringmaster telling the workshop that “we are looking for constant improvement and we are not going to rest on our laurels.”

The people who responded to trust survey, invited or not, clearly did not think there were any council laurels to be rested on.