City Comparison
This view is for fair benchmarking, not leaderboard theater. The comparison badge reflects whether the cities are actually similar enough for a strong side-by-side read.
Strong comparison
Population size, geography, and source coverage make this a strong like-for-like comparison.
Irvine scores 3 points higher than Santa Ana primarily because it shows lighter public burden, lower vendor concentration risk, fewer anomaly signals.
Santa Ana leads by 36 points on public burden.
Irvine leads by 30 points on vendor risk.
Irvine leads by 21 points on trend / anomaly.
Irvine
73
/100
Stable
Confidence: High
Reserve trend is moving the wrong way
Reserve direction is declining, which reduces buffer room if revenue slows.
Source coverage is strong
2 documents are parsed and linked into the score context.
Per-resident burden sits above peers
$5,804 per resident is above the peer midpoint.
Santa Ana
70
/100
Stable
Confidence: High
Reserves are trending upward
Santa Ana shows an improving reserve direction versus recent years.
Vendor concentration is elevated
22.4% of tracked payments flow to the top vendor, which is above the peer median.
Consulting spend is rising faster than staffing
Outside services growth leads staffing by 12.4 points.
Default metrics favor per-resident or share-of-budget framing over raw dollars.
| Metric | Irvine | Santa Ana |
|---|---|---|
| GovMatrix score | 73/100 | 70/100 |
| Administrative overhead | 0.0% | 21.0% |
| Top vendor share | 15.1% | 22.4% |
| Budget growth YoY | 40.4% | -0.7% |
| Budget per resident | $5,805 | $2,752 |
| Confidence | High | High |
These six pillars make the overall score explainable instead of mystical.
Financial Stability
Irvine 53 • Santa Ana 68
Irvine: Declining reserves and 40.4% budget growth shape this pillar.
Santa Ana: Improving reserves and -0.7% budget growth shape this pillar.
Spending Efficiency
Irvine 80 • Santa Ana 77
Irvine: 0.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.
Santa Ana: 21.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.
Transparency
Irvine 82 • Santa Ana 87
Irvine: 2/2 documents are parsed into the current dataset.
Santa Ana: 3/4 documents are parsed into the current dataset.
Vendor Risk
Irvine 91 • Santa Ana 61
Irvine: 15.1% top-vendor share and 0 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.
Santa Ana: 22.4% top-vendor share and 1 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.
Trend / Anomaly
Irvine 75 • Santa Ana 54
Irvine: Public Safety Operations is the biggest growth area at 9.6%.
Santa Ana: Professional Services is the biggest growth area at 18.4%.
Public Burden
Irvine 46 • Santa Ana 82
Irvine: $5,804 per resident frames the current adopted budget.
Santa Ana: $2,751 per resident frames the current adopted budget.
This chart highlights whether the overall budget trend and outside-services growth are moving together.
Irvine
2 machine-readable documents and 1 evidence-linked findings back this score.
Santa Ana
3 machine-readable documents and 2 evidence-linked findings back this score.