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.
Reasonable comparison
This is directionally useful, but structural and data-coverage differences still matter.
Santa Ana scores 4 points higher than Newport Beach primarily because it shows lighter public burden, leaner spending allocation, lower vendor concentration risk.
Santa Ana leads by 25 points on public burden.
Santa Ana leads by 11 points on spending efficiency.
Santa Ana leads by 11 points on vendor risk.
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.
Newport Beach
66
/100
Watchlist
Confidence: High
Reserves are trending upward
Newport Beach shows an improving reserve direction versus recent years.
Vendor concentration is elevated
29.6% 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 13.1 points.
Default metrics favor per-resident or share-of-budget framing over raw dollars.
| Metric | Santa Ana | Newport Beach |
|---|---|---|
| GovMatrix score | 70/100 | 66/100 |
| Administrative overhead | 21.0% | 0.0% |
| Top vendor share | 22.4% | 29.6% |
| Budget growth YoY | -0.7% | 6.6% |
| Budget per resident | $2,752 | $5,254 |
| Confidence | High | High |
These six pillars make the overall score explainable instead of mystical.
Financial Stability
Santa Ana 68 • Newport Beach 70
Santa Ana: Improving reserves and -0.7% budget growth shape this pillar.
Newport Beach: Improving reserves and 6.6% budget growth shape this pillar.
Spending Efficiency
Santa Ana 77 • Newport Beach 66
Santa Ana: 21.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.
Newport Beach: 0.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.
Transparency
Santa Ana 87 • Newport Beach 87
Santa Ana: 3/4 documents are parsed into the current dataset.
Newport Beach: 3/4 documents are parsed into the current dataset.
Vendor Risk
Santa Ana 61 • Newport Beach 50
Santa Ana: 22.4% top-vendor share and 1 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.
Newport Beach: 29.6% top-vendor share and 1 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.
Trend / Anomaly
Santa Ana 54 • Newport Beach 61
Santa Ana: Professional Services is the biggest growth area at 18.4%.
Newport Beach: Contracted Services is the biggest growth area at 16.1%.
Public Burden
Santa Ana 82 • Newport Beach 57
Santa Ana: $2,751 per resident frames the current adopted budget.
Newport Beach: $5,254 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.
Newport Beach
3 machine-readable documents and 1 evidence-linked findings back this score.