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.
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.
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.
Default metrics favor per-resident or share-of-budget framing over raw dollars.
| Metric | Santa Ana | Irvine |
|---|---|---|
| GovMatrix score | 70/100 | 73/100 |
| Administrative overhead | 21.0% | 0.0% |
| Top vendor share | 22.4% | 15.1% |
| Budget growth YoY | -0.7% | 40.4% |
| Budget per resident | $2,752 | $5,805 |
| Confidence | High | High |
These six pillars make the overall score explainable instead of mystical.
Financial Stability
Santa Ana 68 • Irvine 53
Santa Ana: Improving reserves and -0.7% budget growth shape this pillar.
Irvine: Declining reserves and 40.4% budget growth shape this pillar.
Spending Efficiency
Santa Ana 77 • Irvine 80
Santa Ana: 21.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.
Irvine: 0.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.
Transparency
Santa Ana 87 • Irvine 82
Santa Ana: 3/4 documents are parsed into the current dataset.
Irvine: 2/2 documents are parsed into the current dataset.
Vendor Risk
Santa Ana 61 • Irvine 91
Santa Ana: 22.4% top-vendor share and 1 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.
Irvine: 15.1% top-vendor share and 0 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.
Trend / Anomaly
Santa Ana 54 • Irvine 75
Santa Ana: Professional Services is the biggest growth area at 18.4%.
Irvine: Public Safety Operations is the biggest growth area at 9.6%.
Public Burden
Santa Ana 82 • Irvine 46
Santa Ana: $2,751 per resident frames the current adopted budget.
Irvine: $5,804 per resident frames the current adopted budget.
This chart highlights whether the overall budget trend and outside-services growth are moving together.
Santa Ana
3 machine-readable documents and 2 evidence-linked findings back this score.
Irvine
2 machine-readable documents and 1 evidence-linked findings back this score.