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.

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U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) listens as House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) speaks to the media after the House narrowly passed a bill forwarding President Donald Trump's agenda, May 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/TNS)

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U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) listens as House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) speaks to the media after the House narrowly passed a bill forwarding President Donald Trump's agenda, May 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/TNS)

Credit: TNS