The county government was recently as ranked the most-efficient local government in the Gainesville area because of the way it spends its money.
Greg Michels, who conducted the survey with Austin, Texas-based Municipal Analysis Services Inc., said the goal was to find cities and counties that manage finances effectively.
“The result is an objective list of governments that are financially efficient with their citizens while being more financially stable,” he said.
The survey compares the amount of money taken in, the amount given to employees and the amount kept to run the government, Michels said.
Data from the Alachua County government was compared with data from the City of Alachua, the City of Gainesville and the City of Chiefland.
Alachua County received a score of 55, showing a high potential performance with the resources available, according to the data.
Alachua County scored 10 percentage points higher than any other city in the survey’s region.
The City of Chiefland scored second-highest in the area. Teal Pomeroy, Chiefland’s mayor-commissioner, attributed the score to new City Manager Kevin Gay.
Pomeroy said Chiefland will operate debt free for the following fiscal year and successfully received approval for the majority of its requested grants.
“Everything seems to be going real well,” Pomeroy said.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/4/2013 under the headline "Alachua County government ranked most efficient in area"
