Annual Report 2010 - Christchurch City Council

Community Outcomes
(continued)
Your Council
Annual Report
Christchurch Otautahi
2010
p21.
Community Outcomes (continued)
4. Governance
A well-governed city
Community Outcome
Our values and ideas are reflected in the actions of our decision
makers.
Our decision-makers manage public funds responsibly, respond to
current needs and plan for the future.
We will know we are succeeding when:
• everybody actively participates in public decision-making
• everybody feels represented by their decision-makers
• our decision-makers plan for a sustainable Christchurch
Progress is measured using these headline indicators:
• confidence in council decision making
• representation on school boards of trustees
• census response rates
• voter turnout at council elections
• voter turnout at general elections
How are we doing as a community?
Voter turnout at Council elections has declined this decade
compared with the 1990s, but increased slightly in 2007 to 42 per
cent over the 39 per cent measured in 2004.
Christchurch resident voter turnout at the 2008 General Election
was 82 per cent, a decrease of 4 per cent from the 1996 General
Election.
In 2006, 46 per cent of people agreed that the Council makes
decisions in the best interests of the city and 36% per cent of people
agreed they understand how the Council makes decisions.
Nearly 90 per cent of people on school boards identify with
European ethnicity; Māori, Pacific Island and Asian ethnic groups
are under-represented relative to their proportion of the total
population.
Based on community feedback, democratic processes that are
based at the community level and include the community are
considered the most effective.
However, many people find the democratic and decision making
processes too confusing.