Reputation is also affected by who you hang out with, what your company has done for the community lately, and how you treat your workers. Lower worker morale usually leads to lower reputation. Makes sense, since lower worker morale means you get sued by your employees on a regular basis. Fighting it in court may not be the best idea, since more damage can be done to your reputation in public hearings. Sometimes it may be wiser to settle out of court, and keep the matter hushed, even if you are in the right.
Public opinion is a powerful thing.
Hold your horses, I'm not finished yet. One of my biggest gripes about the game is what it uses as a so-called interface. You can click anywhere on the map, to bring up buildings, etc. I could not even tell you what each building did what for the first few hours of the game, and with no pop-up menu to help during screen navigation, it was an almost impossible task. Anyway, the interface is pretty poor overall, as even the menu bar will not usually lead you directly to where you want to go.