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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.
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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.
Every subject, past 12 months
| Government | Subject | Share of classified work | Items | Of classified | Agenda read | Range | Against the region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town of Cary | Parks and recreation | 26.0% | 149 | 546 | 66% | 24–31% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Arts and public art | 16.6% | 96 | 546 | 66% | 15–21% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Budget and appropriations | 15.8% | 87 | 546 | 66% | 13–19% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Roads and transportation | 15.5% | 88 | 546 | 66% | 13–19% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Rezoning | 13.9% | 79 | 546 | 66% | 12–18% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Housing and affordability | 9.8% | 55 | 546 | 66% | 8–13% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Public facilities | 8.3% | 46 | 546 | 66% | 6–11% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Environment and sustainability | 7.9% | 44 | 546 | 66% | 6–11% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Historic preservation | 7.4% | 42 | 546 | 66% | 6–10% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Contracts and procurement | 7.0% | 37 | 546 | 66% | 5–9% | less than the region |
| Town of Cary | Land conversion and large development | 6.8% | 38 | 546 | 66% | 5–9% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Annexation | 6.7% | 38 | 546 | 66% | 5–9% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Appointments and personnel | 6.4% | 34 | 546 | 66% | 4–9% | less than the region |
| Town of Cary | Water and sewer | 6.4% | 36 | 546 | 66% | 5–9% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Health and human services | 6.3% | 34 | 546 | 66% | 4–9% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Stormwater and flooding | 5.4% | 31 | 546 | 66% | 4–8% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Fire and EMS | 4.8% | 27 | 546 | 66% | 3–7% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Grants and outside funding | 4.6% | 25 | 546 | 66% | 3–7% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Police and public safety | 4.3% | 23 | 546 | 66% | 3–6% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Faith and cultural communities | 3.9% | 22 | 546 | 66% | 3–6% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Broadband and technology | 3.8% | 22 | 546 | 66% | 3–6% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Bonds and debt | 3.7% | 21 | 546 | 66% | 3–6% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Transit | 3.6% | 20 | 546 | 66% | 2–6% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Comprehensive plan | 3.4% | 19 | 546 | 66% | 2–5% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Tax rate and revaluation | 2.9% | 15 | 546 | 66% | 2–4% | less than the region |
| Town of Cary | Intergovernmental agreements | 2.6% | 14 | 546 | 66% | 2–4% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Schools and education | 2.5% | 6 | 546 | 66% | 1–2% | less than the region |
| Town of Cary | Solid waste and recycling | 2.5% | 14 | 546 | 66% | 2–4% | more than the region |
| Town of Cary | Elections and districts | 1.8% | 10 | 546 | 66% | 1–3% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Civil rights and nondiscrimination | 1.8% | 10 | 546 | 66% | 1–3% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Fees and utility rates | 1.5% | 8 | 546 | 66% | 1–3% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Subdivision and site plans | 1.4% | 7 | 546 | 66% | 1–3% | less than the region |
| Town of Cary | Zoning text amendment | 1.2% | 6 | 546 | 66% | 1–2% | less than the region |
| Town of Cary | Economic development incentives | 1.1% | 6 | 546 | 66% | 1–2% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Litigation and settlements | 0.9% | 5 | 546 | 66% | 0–2% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Ethics and transparency | 0.8% | 4 | 546 | 66% | 0–2% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | Data centers and large loads | 0.8% | 4 | 546 | 66% | 0–2% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | State legislative agenda | 0.4% | 2 | 546 | 66% | 0–1% | within the usual range |
| Town of Cary | LGBTQ+ policy | 0.4% | 2 | 546 | 66% | 0–1% | 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.