THE City of Greater Bendigo council failed almost 80 per cent of its own performance criteria last financial year.
The council succeeded in only three of the 11 performance criteria it set itself at the start of the year.
The council met targets in the areas of Being a Desirable Visitor Destination by increasing the number of visitors at the Visitor Information Centre, Strengthening a Sense of Belonging by holding a minimum of two meetings with each local small community, and Fostering Public Question Time by having more than 50 questions asked at council meetings during the year.
On the other side of the coin, the council claimed it failed criteria in strategic areas such as leadership, some economic development sectors and on some environmental measures.
Most of the failures surrounded big-ticket projects.
Top of the list was completing the capital works program. Council set itself a target of completing between 95 per cent and 102 per cent of its budgeted capital works.
It claimed it failed to meet that target because of delays in buildings, land purchases and roads.
These things have been included in the current year’s budget.
The council also committed itself to having ten Bendigo +25 action groups set up by the end of last financial year. Instead, only five were engaged and active, with four “in the process of being established”.
The council’s performance statement also set a criteria for gaining an overall rating of greater than 60 in its community satisfaction survey. It achieved its worst result ever of 56.
Delays in the Hargreaves Mall redevelopment, the Epsom Recreation Reserve, the Strathfieldsaye Recreation Reserve, the Huntly tip contract and the collapse of the multi-storey car park plan saw the council fail another three criteria.
The council narrowly failed the criteria relating to achieving the budgeted operating result by only one per cent of operating expenditure. The 2006-07 performance result was the third poor result in as many years.
In the 2005-06 and 2004-05 results, the council was successful in only four of its eight criteria in both years.
Overall, in the past three financial years, the council was successful in only 11 of its 27 targets, a success rate of only 40 per cent.
Council chief executive officer Craig Neimann acknowledged under normal circumstances a 40 per cent mark was a failure. “The challenge is to set reasonable targets in local government,” he said.
“We are trying to set ourselves targets of excellence.
“It doesn’t take many projects, or just one big one, to not be completed and a no is registered in that criteria.
“While it says we don’t always hit the targets we are aiming at, it doesn’t mean we are poorly performing.”
Mr Neimann said the performance statements, which all councils are required to do under the Local Government Act, was not a true indication of overall performance.
“We are probably doing 90 or 95 per cent of what we set out to achieve,” he said.