By Brenna Angel
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In a study of local governments across the country, Lexington ranks 78th out of 100 for operational efficiency. That's according to IBM, which presented its findings to the Urban County Council's Economic & Community Development Committee Tuesday.
Spokesman David Edwards says the study looked at per capita spending for city services such as police, fire, parks, public works, and planning and zoning.
"If we were to move you from 78th in the ranking to 20th, what would that mean in terms of the amount of resources you would be spending? What that means is you would actually be spending about $140 million less than you currently do."
IBM found that on average, city governments spend an average of $705 per person to deliver core services to the public. Lexington, however, spends $923 per capita, making it operationally less efficient than most communities in the 100-city analysis.
"You spend more on police and fire versus your peers, relatively speaking, than your other departments. So it's really police and fire is where we would say that's a place that you should be looking very hard at," says Edwards.
The study was completely funded by IBM, which sells consulting services to local governments. Edwards says the company invested in the "Smarter Cities" assessments in hopes that cities will use IBM's offerings to find solutions to budget problems.
The company isn't publishing the list of cities it reviewed, but the presentation showed Madison, Wisconsin and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida were near Lexington in the rankings.
Council member George Myers expressed interest in learning more about the consultation, but no official action was taken by the committee.