Shop

On your beat, you probably tend to focus on FUNCTIONAL performance -- Does the community get whatever service is intended (ambulance service, education, police protection, unrutted roads)? The spending is in the less obvious OPERATIONAL side of the organization. Whatever else it is -- a county, a school board, a city, a university -- it's also essentially a business that's spending a lot of money to buy things. In many places, the school board is the single largest employer and one of the biggest buyers of building supplies, office supplies and cleaning supplies. It's a great investigative reporting opportunity