GovMatrix City Score

Irvine gets a plain-language judgment backed by traceable evidence.

The score is not a single opaque number. It rolls up fiscal stability, spending allocation, transparency, procurement risk, anomaly signals, and public burden into one citizen-friendly readout.

Peer group: mid-size CA municipalitiesComparison quality: ReasonableModel: score_v2

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Adopted budget

$1.8B

FY2027

Budget per resident

$5,805

Public-burden framing, not raw-dollar framing

Top vendor share

15.1%

Procurement concentration in tracked payments

Displayed score

/100

Stable

Confidence: High

Top-level judgment

Mostly stable, but a few spending or procurement patterns deserve follow-up.

GovMatrix compares Irvine against mid-size CA municipalities and compresses the displayed score when source confidence is lower.

Confidence adjustment

Raw model score: 73.1

2 machine-readable documents and 1 evidence-linked findings back this score.

Main reasons

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.

Financial Stability

/100

Declining reserves and 40.4% budget growth shape this pillar.

Spending Efficiency

/100

0.0% administrative overhead and consulting growth drive this score.

Transparency

/100

2/2 documents are parsed into the current dataset.

Vendor Risk

/100

15.1% top-vendor share and 0 no-bid contracts affect this pillar.

Trend / Anomaly

/100

Public Safety Operations is the biggest growth area at 9.6%.

Public Burden

/100

$5,804 per resident frames the current adopted budget.

AI explanation layer

Deterministic facts first, language second

View source profile

In one sentence

Mostly stable, but a few spending or procurement patterns deserve follow-up.

Benchmarked against 6 nearest jurisdictions using population, geography, and source coverage.

What stands out

Reserve trend: Declining

Reserve direction is used as the durability proxy in the current financial stability model.

Budget-to-actual variance: 3.3%

Higher variance can indicate planning drift or year-end pressure.

Top vendor share: 15.1%

West Coast Fleet Services LLC accounts for the largest share of tracked payments.

Questions residents should ask

What reserve policy is the city targeting, and why did reserves not improve this year?

Reserve direction is one of the clearest signals residents can ask about in open session.

Which categories drove the biggest gap between plan and actual spending?

Budget-to-actual drift is where broad totals turn into specific management decisions.

Why does this city spend differently from its nearest peers on administration and contracted work?

A peer comparison forces officials to explain whether the difference is structural or discretionary.

Provenance

Every conclusion should be traceable

How we score

Source coverage

2 documents

2 parsed, 0 OCR-only, 0 review-needed

Last updated 2026-03-16

Evidence links

1 findings

Findings are tied to source documents and used to constrain explanations.

2 machine-readable documents and 1 evidence-linked findings back this score.

FY 2023-25 Adopted Budget

FY2025 • Budget • parsed

Open source

FY 2025-27 Adopted Budget Book

FY2027 • Budget • parsed

Open source

Budget allocation with context

Toggle between share of tracked spend, per-resident impact, and year-over-year change.

Fleet

$388,750

51.2% of total

Technology

$194,500

25.6% of total

Maintenance

$175,300

23.1% of total

Key normalized metrics

Raw totals are less useful than resident-level and peer-relative framing.

Tracked spend per resident

Sample-based operational lens

Budget growth

40.4%

Year-over-year change in adopted budget

Biggest swing

Public Safety Operations

Up 9.6% year over year

Vendor and procurement pressure

Concentration is a risk indicator, not an accusation.

Top vendor share: 15.1%

West Coast Fleet Services LLC

51.2% of top-vendor tracked spend • 1 contracts

$388,750

Tracked vendor signal

Harbor Data Systems

25.6% of top-vendor tracked spend • 1 contracts

$194,500

Tracked vendor signal

Regional Utility Maintenance

23.1% of top-vendor tracked spend • 0 contracts

$175,300

Tracked vendor signal

What deserves a closer look

These are watch indicators surfaced from current payment, contract, and trend data.

Transportation: Quarterly preventative maintenance package

Trend context

Public Safety Operations increased 9.6%, while One-time Capital Projects moved -4.7%.

Compare with peers

Comparison

Compare Irvine against similar cities

Benchmarking turns a score into a defensible story.

Open compare view

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.

GovMatrix score

Irvine: 73/100Santa Ana: 70/100

Administrative overhead

Irvine: 0.0%Santa Ana: 21.0%

Top vendor share

Irvine: 15.1%Santa Ana: 22.4%

Budget growth YoY

Irvine: 40.4%Santa Ana: -0.7%

Budget per resident

Irvine: $5,805Santa Ana: $2,752

Confidence

Irvine: HighSanta Ana: High

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