Public Relations
Service profile:
Public Relations provide a consistent, cohesive, positive and professional image of the Council to the community. It also imparts key messages about Council services and activities to the community.
Review outcomes:
Quality and cost standards
The quality and cost standards identified for Public Relations relate to customer satisfaction, communication effectiveness and responsiveness.
• Internal communications survey revealed that most clients felt the service had improved vastly in the past 12 months in terms of accessibility, approachability and responsiveness.
• Annual customer satisfaction survey indicated a high level of satisfaction.
Other standards met during 20010–11 include:
• Providing an annual report to the Minister for Local Government by 30 September.
• Issuing a minimum of one press release per week.
• Publishing 11 issues of Glen Eira News annually.
• Per hour service provision lower than external suppliers.
• Applying three quote processes to external project work valued at more than $3,000 to ensure best value service.
• Increasing printing on recycled and FSC approved paper stock, which is cost-comparable to non-recycled paper stocks.
Responsive:
Through consultation, the current needs of the community and service users are identified and, where appropriate, we make suggested changes to the service to ensure best ongoing use.
Accessible
The service is accessible to the community by:
• Regular communication including Glen Eira News, website updates, community resource guide and a fortnightly information column in local newspapers.
• Publishing materials in printed format and alternate formats where appropriate and promoting the availability of alternate formats in languages other than English.
• Providing appropriate distribution of communication materials.
• Promoting contact details in Glen Eira News, on the website and on all media releases.
Continuous improvement
Public Relations ensure continuous improvement of its services by:
• Testing the website for accessibility and useability, to ensure it meets community needs.
• Regularly reviewing Glen Eira News and other Council publications to ensure they deliver key messages to the community correctly and on time.
• Increasing the number of publications printed on recycled or FSC approved stock to make Council publications more environmentally friendly.
Regular consultation
Regular consultation includes periodic external stakeholder satisfaction surveys on key communication tools; ongoing internal consultation and formal feedback processes after major projects are completed; regular feedback from the senior management group and through PR staff appraisals; strategy meetings, weekly team meetings and service reviews.
| Quality and Cost Standards | Target | Performance |
| High quality Annual Report. | An award | Gold Australasian Reporting Award. |
| Publications delivered to budget. | 100% | 100% |
| Glen Eira News produced on time and to budget, 11 editions per year. | 100% | 100% |
Glen Eira Debates 
December 1, 2011 at 10:14 PM
This has just gotta win the prize that someone was talking about for the biggest load of crap ever produced by any council anywhere. No wonder they hide these reports so no one can find them. Aw shucks, I forgot, the website is the latest state of the art, and is continually updated. That’s why stuff is up there from 3 years ago without being changed or removed and ads appear in the age and not the leader so they can again better hide stuff. What worries me is that they’re starting to actually believe their own bullshit and so are the gang.
December 1, 2011 at 10:27 PM
OMG!!!!! This is just as big a pile of cr*ap as the Traffic Management results. Honestly one has to ask what this Council is thinking and just what it uses to justify their continued actions. I don’t know what they are using but it certainly aint residents opinions – regular consultation indeed!!
If results like these qualify as value reporting then its time the whole process was reviewed. Time and resources (therefore ratepayers dollars) were spent on producing this meaningless cr*p.
Could somebody please explain to me how the unquestioning, mindless regurgitation of previous years adds anything to the concept of value (be it best value or value added)?
December 1, 2011 at 10:48 PM
The thinking behind the legislation would be to ensure that council’s services are as cost effective and efficient as possible and that the public has some means of judging whether these objectives have been fulfilled. Reading the ‘Best Value’ report I doubt very much whether any of the goals have been reached – or at least adequately accounted for. With no information provided (such as how much the production of the annual report costs as opposed to how many are printed, distributed and what the actual community feedback is) then we have very little to go on. I also find it deceptive to claim that the mere publication of te annual report can in any shape or form be part of any cost effectiveness assessment. The submission to the Minister is not optional – it is a requirement! To list this under ‘standards’ is quite laughable. The same could be said for the weekly media release. The mere publication of something does not guarantee its quality and in the case of Glen Eira’s masters of spin, definitely not its accuracy and value to the community. All in all, this set of ‘Best Value’ reports are a shameful example of how little this council cares about real accountability to its residents and how determined it is not to release information which will enable proper evaluation by residents who pay for these services. The Minister for Local Government needs to address such abuses via a far more prescriptive amendment to the legislation.
December 2, 2011 at 12:12 AM
Here we go again. Lots of gloss and spin. Now we are to believe the Council Propaganda Department (aka Public Relations) provides a “consistent, cohesive, positive and professional image of the Council” to the community
Shouldn’t reporting council affairs to the community also be done in a way which is: 1 Honest 2 Truthful 3 Accurate 4 Transparent ?.
Just a thought for the day..