Privatization of new cities has changed since Sandy Springs began
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.
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.
