The population is 4,244 municipalities that respond to the 2001 Municipal Form of
Government Survey conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).For comparability to prior research, we draw our sample from the 365 responding municipalities with population greater than 50,000 citizens (Copley, J. Gaver, and K. Gaver 1995; Baber et al. 2013). We obtain audit committee details during the sample period of 2001 through 2004 via a mailed survey and follow-up procedures (see Appendix A). After deleting municipalities with missing financial, governance, and audit committee data, the final sample consists of 240 unique
municipalities (66 percent). Table 1 outlines the sample selection procedures.