Councillors have voted to allow the uploading of the audio recording of its monthly meeting to the Moyne Shire Council website.

Council has been recording its meetings since 2011. This audio recording has been available to ratepayers by written request.

At the June meeting in Port Fairy on Tuesday, Cr Colin Ryan spoke in favour of putting the recordings online.

“Moyne Shire Council has shown the way in recent years,” Cr Ryan said.

“We were one of the first councils to have our meetings recorded. I think to take it a step further and put them on our website is a good move.”  

Putting the audio recordings online was one of three actions taken by Moyne as a result of the Victorian Ombudsman’s investigation into transparency of local government decision making.

The other two actions were to place the minutes of all council committee meetings and the register of delegations on the website. 

Council’s engagement with ratepayers was in the spotlight at Tuesday’s meeting with the release of the 2017 community satisfaction survey. 

The report showed the overall performance rating of council has risen from 57 in 2016 to 61 for this year. The large rural shire average is 54. 

Cr Jordan Lockett said the council still has work to do.

“I would like to see improvement, 61 is not a great number” Cr Lockett said.

“I would like to see us become the best shire in the state and I think we should thrive to get there.”

On the question of the conditions of sealed roads in the shire, the Moyne rating has risen from 33 to 36.

But that still lags behind the state average satisfaction level of 43. Other results include elderly support services (72), community and cultural (71), recreational facilities (70), local streets and footpaths (58), enforcement of local laws (64) and environmental sustainability.