THE waste management levy overcharge fallout is still haunting Wodonga Council more than a year later with a major correction in the latest community satisfaction survey results.
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But in the most recent survey Wodonga has dropped eight points to 59 with the government department which undertakes the survey declaring the city's overall performance had "declined significantly".
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"The decline reverses the trend of stability and then improvement that occurred in the previous three years," the report said.
"Wodonga's overall performance is now rated similar to the average ratings for councils statewide and in the regional centres group."
Declines took place across all demographics with the largest drops in the 18-34 years and 50-64 years groups - both down 11 points.
The survey results are released mid-year.
But Wodonga performed well above the state average in areas including appearance of public areas and emergency and disaster management.
"We note there have been declines in performance ratings this past year, as well as in perceptions of overall performance, however, the council still performs relatively in line with or higher than the regional centres group averages on all service areas evaluated," Wodonga chief executive Mark Dixon said.
"I am happy with these results when taking them into context.
"We know we have a few areas to improve upon and we will work on them while continuing to take on board our community's feedback.
"What it does show is that people are happy with many of the services we provide in the community including the way our city looks and the many council-run facilities including our library."
City whistleblower Charlie Mitchell said Wodonga's significant drop in performance was directly connected to overcharging ratepayers for waste services.
"The community is paying premium rates for average service," he said.
"Wodonga's four red flags of concern are high rates, waste overcharging, high staff turnover and now average performance.
"The community is not receiving value for money."
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