There are city fathers. Then there is the father of cities. Across Georgia, even across the world, Oliver Porter is becoming known as the latter.

The man whose novel plan for running a government helped spawn the newborn cities of Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton in Fulton County now has turned his municipality-making mind to Dunwoody.

Phil Skinner/AJC (ENLARGE)

Oliver Porter, shown in his home art studio, helped to create the cities of Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton. Now he has turned his attention to the DeKalb County community of Dunwoody.

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The north DeKalb County community is headed toward a July 15 cityhood vote, and Porter, as an unpaid operations consultant, stands to be one of the city's chief architects — if residents vote to break away from the county.

Porter's job is to guide 10 citizen task forces as they study how to set up a new, independent government.

Should a Dunwoody city outsource many of its services, as Sandy Springs did, or should it hire and train a full municipal staff to handle everything from code enforcement to zoning and planning? Or, maybe some combination?

Those are the kinds of questions the task forces will consider. Their findings will be presented as recommendations to the mayor and council who are to be elected in September if voters approve the breakaway. The new government would begin operating Dec. 1.

As Porter describes it, he and the task force members will be "defining the options they have available to them."

Porter's work for Sandy Springs, where he lives, as well as the two books he's written on city formation have helped earn him an international following. Recently, a city in Japan looked to him for assistance.

It's all become quite a second career for the remarkably energetic 71-year-old retired business executive. He puts in long days at his new calling because "I enjoy it. I feel it's worthwhile."

Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos credits Porter. "He was so instrumental in getting us ready," she said. "He started from nothing and gave us a plan. He said, 'This is what you have to do, month by month.'"

Porter volunteered to help Dunwoody. He lives in an area of Sandy Springs known as "The Panhandle," which runs along Dunwoody's northern border.

"I'm really more closely involved in the Dunwoody community," he said. "I drive the streets there every day, I do my shopping there and have friends there."

Citizens for Dunwoody, the nonprofit group that has led the cityhood vote effort and marshaled the task forces, brought Porter in for what member Brian Anderson said were obvious reasons.

"We saw Sandy Springs' success, and he had overwhelming experience," Anderson said. "He's not going to overlook something. He's been there. We don't want to start a city with a 'gotcha' in there that we hadn't considered."

Porter admits he wasn't experienced when he took on the Sandy Springs job — he had no history in government. But drawing on his "pretty good corporate background" that included executive positions at nonprofit organizations and in private industry at AT&T, he soon saw the problems with starting a city in hurry: Not much time and not enough money.

"I began to look for alternatives," he said.

That led to the model in Sandy Springs that leans heavily on providing services through a contract with a private firm, with some key services like police kept in-house. "The outcome," Porter said, "has worked."

A city of Dunwoody probably would offer some mix of traditional government blended with new-age contracts and partnerships, he said.

Porter said incorporation isn't always the best thing, but often, it is.

"I'm in favor of bringing local government as close to the people as you can," he said. "In a huge local county [like Fulton and DeKalb], the services have moved too far away from the people. A community of over 40,000 people [like Dunwoody] is certainly able to support local government."

Dunwoody cityhood critics suggest that to pay for services, residents will have to bear higher taxes. Porter doesn't buy it.

"At least at this point, I'm quite confident Dunwoody can be started without tax increases," he said. More to the point, a city of Dunwoody would offer "a superior model of local government tailored to Dunwoody's needs," he said.

Galambos said having Porter on board will make a difference.

"He's gone through the process with several cities," she said. "He's entitled to be called an expert."