Compare governments

How much of each government's agenda goes to a subject, next to the regional average. Counting alone would rank these places by size — Cary puts ten times as many items on its agendas as Pittsboro — so everything here is a share or a rate, and the count it rests on is always beside it.

Of the agenda items we have been able to classify for this government, what fraction carry the subject. Not of every item — whether an item is classifiable at all depends on the agenda platform, not on the government.

governments with any

288

agenda items counted

15.8%

regional average

Every subject, past 12 months

Ranked by share of classified work. The bar shows the value; the line across it is the regional average, where one applies. "Agenda read" is how much of that government's agenda carries any subject at all — a share computed over a tenth of an agenda describes a tenth of an agenda.
Government	Subject	Share of classified work	Items	Of classified	Agenda read	Range	Against the region
Town of Holly Springs	Budget and appropriations	13.1%	27	215	46%	9–18%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Parks and recreation	12.7%	28	215	46%	9–18%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Rezoning	10.7%	24	215	46%	8–16%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Roads and transportation	9.6%	22	215	46%	7–15%	more than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Appointments and personnel	8.2%	16	215	46%	5–12%	less than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Annexation	7.5%	17	215	46%	5–12%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Public facilities	6.7%	15	215	46%	4–11%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Contracts and procurement	6.6%	14	215	46%	4–11%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Police and public safety	6.5%	14	215	46%	4–11%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Environment and sustainability	6.2%	14	215	46%	4–11%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Water and sewer	5.3%	12	215	46%	3–10%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Subdivision and site plans	4.4%	10	215	46%	3–8%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Faith and cultural communities	3.9%	9	215	46%	2–8%	more than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Grants and outside funding	3.2%	6	215	46%	1–6%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Zoning text amendment	2.9%	6	215	46%	1–6%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Land conversion and large development	2.8%	6	215	46%	1–6%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Health and human services	2.8%	5	215	46%	1–5%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Schools and education	2.7%	6	215	46%	1–6%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Housing and affordability	2.7%	5	215	46%	1–5%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Civil rights and nondiscrimination	2.5%	6	215	46%	1–6%	more than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Bonds and debt	2.3%	5	215	46%	1–5%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Fire and EMS	2.0%	3	215	46%	0–4%	less than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Transit	1.4%	3	215	46%	0–4%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Intergovernmental agreements	1.3%	2	215	46%	0–3%	less than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Data centers and large loads	1.3%	3	215	46%	0–4%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Stormwater and flooding	1.1%	2	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Elections and districts	1.0%	2	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Economic development incentives	1.0%	2	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Comprehensive plan	0.7%	1	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	State legislative agenda	0.5%	1	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Broadband and technology	0.5%	1	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range
Town of Holly Springs	Equity and inclusion	0.5%	1	215	46%	0–3%	within the usual range

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How to read this

Share is the fraction of a government's classified agenda items carrying the subject — not of every item. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Where a portal publishes a structured item list, that list is the whole agenda, call to order and adjournment included; where it does not, the item list is written out by the summarization worker, which records the substantive business and skips the ceremony. On this site 40% of Cary's items carry a subject against 79% of Apex's, and the difference is the agenda platform, not the town. Dividing by every item made portal governments look half as engaged in everything.

The share is adjusted toward the regional average in proportion to how little evidence stands behind it — a board with four classified items and one rezoning does not get reported as the most development-focused place in the region. The range beside it is a 95% interval on the unadjusted figure.

Against the region says whether that interval clears the regional average. Agenda items are not a random sample of anything, so this is a guard against reading noise as a finding rather than a statistical test. A government with few items will almost always read as within the usual range, because with few items almost nothing can be told apart.

Per 10,000 voters is judged against a per-resident regional rate, not against the share — a small town with a busy agenda can be first per resident and unremarkable as a share, and both are true. The interval there is on the item count rather than a percentage, because once the denominator is a population the items are arrivals and not a proportion. It uses registered voters from the State Board of Elections, summed across counties for a town that straddles a line. Registered voters are not population: they leave out children, non-citizens, and adults who have not registered, and the share who register differs from place to place. It is the denominator this state publishes per municipality and keeps current, which no population estimate does.