About 10 complaints a month are made to the Victorian Ombudsman about Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay councils.
The Ombudsman received 78 complaints about Maribyrnong council and 48 about Hobsons Bay council last financial year, according to the Ombudsman’s annual report.
Maribyrnong was the 13th-most- complained-about council in the state, although the 12 with more complaints all have bigger populations.
Maribyrnong acting chief executive Celia Haddock said the number of complaints against it was in line with the average for other inner city councils.
Ms Haddock said the council had implemented a new IT system to efficiently manage customer requests.
Hobsons Bay chief executive Chris Eddy said while there were 48 “approaches” to the Ombudsman, this led to only seven formally investigated complaints. “In the past year we’ve not had any faults found against us by the Ombudsman,” he said.
“While we take every complaint seriously, we believe the number of complaints is relatively small for an organisation of our size. We provide more than 100 services to our community and employ more than 700 staff.”
Mr Eddy saw opportunity to improve.
“Most complaints come from a breakdown in communication or a lack of understanding of local laws, procedures and regulations,” he said.
with Goya Dmytryshchak
