Sandy Springs: You’d best not mess with our mayor

By Jim Osterman

I’ve never met the Honorable Eva Galambos, but after the score of this week’s mayoral election here in Sandy Springs, I’d say she has earned a place on the list of people not to be messed with.

At the tender age of 81 she nailed down 84 percent of the vote, the same points she scored four years ago. No disrespect to the other folks who ran for mayor, but if her winning margin was rain, I’d be out in the backyard right now building a boat three hundred cubits by fifty cubits.

There are politicians who get 55 percent of the vote and call it a “landslide” and a “strong” mandate. My dog Jake could probably pull 55 percent.

If 55 percent is a landslide, then 84 percent is going to require the creation of a new descriptor. Or perhaps Mayor Galambos can redefine the benchmark the way Paul Hogan did in “Crocodile Dundee,” when he was threatened by a thug with a switchblade.

Dundee smirks at the attacker’s blade. “That’s not a knife,” he says, before wielding a ginormous Bowie knife. “That’s a knife.”

Indeed, future politicians and news commentators might want to run any winning margin through the Galambos Test — if it’s not 84 percent, well, no landslide. But this isn’t just about being able to haul in a boatload of votes. According to her bio:

She was president of Committee for Sandy Springs from 1975-2005, leading the effort to incorporate Sandy Springs. She is a co-founder and former secretary of Sandy Springs Revitalization; founder of Sandy Springs Clean and Beautiful; chairwoman of services committee for the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods; former chairwoman of the Fulton County Public Housing Authority and founder of Sandy Springs Civic Roundtable.

And along the way she raised three kids and worked as an economist specializing in urban finance and labor economics. She has also served as an arbitrator resolving disputes between labor and management — handy during those pesky teen years.

She swims 25 laps per day. I have friends who do triathlons who would yelp if they had to stroke 25 laps per day.

And she has stared down lymphoma, including chemotherapy. The disease is tough enough on its own, but the cure is no day at the beach. Remission involves more than a few pills and some bed rest. No one breaks into a pharmacy to steal chemo meds.

I’ve not loved everything the city has done during Her Honor’s inceptive term. But when you factor in the landslide, three decades of consistent efforts to help create our little slice of Valhalla and beating cancer, at the very least I would say this to all municipalities surrounding us:

“Don’t mess with Sandy Springs. Our mayor can beat up your mayor.”

Jim Osterman has lived in Sandy Springs since 1962,