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Privatization of new cities has changed since Sandy Springs began

Rusty Paul, mayor of Sandy Springs, shows off concept photographs of new Sandy Springs City Center at his office. For years, the city of Sandy Springs was held up as a model for how to keep government efficient by outsourcing almost all services to private companies. But that model has changed over the years, with the city using more specialized service providers instead of one large private company. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Rusty Paul, mayor of Sandy Springs, shows off concept photographs of new Sandy Springs City Center at his office. For years, the city of Sandy Springs was held up as a model for how to keep government efficient by outsourcing almost all services to private companies. But that model has changed over the years, with the city using more specialized service providers instead of one large private company. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
By Mark Niesse and Arielle Kass
May 17, 2017

When Sandy Springs became the first of metro Atlanta’s new cities, it pioneered a novel way to run local government, with services delivered by companies and just a handful of public employees.

The outsourced model of government soon became the template for each city that followed. Those new communities sought professional management of parks, business licensing, courts and more.

But 12 years into the cityhood movement, these young municipalities are straying from their original, rigid reliance on privatized government.

“It wasn’t all that it promised to be,” former Brookhaven Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams said.

To read more about the privatization model, and what cities are doing, read the full story only at myAJC.com.

About the Authors

Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.

Follow Mark Niesse on twitter

Arielle Kass covers Gwinnett County for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She started at the paper in 2010, and has covered business and local government beats around metro Atlanta. Arielle is a graduate of Emory University.

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