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

1,393

agenda items counted

13.1%

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 Garner	Appointments and personnel	29.9%	62	185	44%	27–41%	more than the region
Durham County	Budget and appropriations	28.3%	59	191	80%	25–38%	more than the region
Town of Pittsboro	Budget and appropriations	27.0%	42	139	20%	23–38%	more than the region
Town of Hillsborough	Budget and appropriations	26.9%	47	158	54%	23–37%	more than the region
Wake County	Appointments and personnel	25.2%	116	442	50%	22–31%	more than the region
Town of Pittsboro	Parks and recreation	23.7%	38	139	20%	21–35%	more than the region
Town of Cary	Rezoning	21.4%	64	274	40%	19–29%	more than the region
Town of Fuquay-Varina	Parks and recreation	21.2%	57	250	46%	18–28%	more than the region
Town of Apex	Appointments and personnel	19.9%	45	212	77%	16–27%	more than the region
Wake County	Fire and EMS	19.4%	91	442	50%	17–25%	more than the region
Town of Cary	Parks and recreation	18.3%	53	274	40%	15–24%	more than the region
Durham County	Contracts and procurement	18.1%	39	191	80%	15–27%	more than the region
Durham County	Health and human services	17.9%	39	191	80%	15–27%	more than the region
Town of Fuquay-Varina	Budget and appropriations	17.7%	45	250	46%	14–23%	within the usual range
Town of Morrisville	Budget and appropriations	17.4%	2	8	73%	7–59%	within the usual range
Town of Cary	Budget and appropriations	16.7%	46	274	40%	13–22%	within the usual range
Town of Wake Forest	Budget and appropriations	15.9%	11	69	56%	9–26%	within the usual range
Town of Apex	Annexation	15.5%	37	212	77%	13–23%	more than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Budget and appropriations	15.2%	17	114	42%	10–23%	within the usual range
Town of Garner	Parks and recreation	14.9%	29	185	44%	11–22%	within the usual range
Town of Garner	Budget and appropriations	14.8%	27	185	44%	10–20%	within the usual range
Town of Knightdale	Budget and appropriations	14.4%	13	94	52%	8–22%	within the usual range
Town of Fuquay-Varina	Rezoning	14.2%	38	250	46%	11–20%	more than the region
Town of Cary	Annexation	14.0%	42	274	40%	12–20%	more than the region
Town of Wake Forest	Roads and transportation	13.9%	13	69	56%	11–30%	more than the region
Town of Hillsborough	Parks and recreation	13.9%	23	158	54%	10–21%	within the usual range
Town of Chapel Hill	Historic preservation	13.8%	33	205	17%	12–22%	more than the region
Chatham County	Appointments and personnel	13.7%	57	413	40%	11–17%	within the usual range
City of Durham	Budget and appropriations	13.7%	6	50	81%	6–24%	within the usual range
Chatham County	Budget and appropriations	13.5%	55	413	40%	10–17%	within the usual range
Durham County	Police and public safety	13.2%	28	191	80%	10–20%	more than the region
Town of Chapel Hill	Appointments and personnel	13.2%	27	205	17%	9–18%	within the usual range
Town of Apex	Rezoning	13.1%	30	212	77%	10–19%	more than the region
Town of Morrisville	Appointments and personnel	13.0%	1	8	73%	2–47%	within the usual range
City of Durham	Water and sewer	12.5%	10	50	81%	11–33%	more than the region
Town of Knightdale	Parks and recreation	12.3%	12	94	52%	7–21%	within the usual range
Town of Knightdale	Appointments and personnel	12.1%	11	94	52%	7–20%	within the usual range
City of Durham	Contracts and procurement	12.1%	8	50	81%	8–29%	more than the region
Town of Holly Springs	Rezoning	11.8%	15	114	42%	8–21%	more than the region
City of Durham	Appointments and personnel	11.4%	5	50	81%	4–21%	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.