Businessman, author, and entrepreneur Oliver Porter played an instrumental role in the lobbying, cityhood, and structure of Sandy Springs’ city government more than two decades ago.
On Dec. 1, 2025, Sandy Springs will celebrate 20 years of cityhood. Located just north of the perimeter, Sandy Springs has roots dating back to the 1800s when Native Americans frequented the area’s bubbling springs. Known as one of the first cities to follow a public-private partnership model, today the city boasts a population of 106,000, 950 acres of parks and green space, and a bustling arts and dining scene.
Porter was front and center when longtime mayor Eva Galambos, known as the mother of Sandy Springs, City Council Member Tibby DeJulio, Leadership Perimeter’s Carolyn Axt, and others led an unincorporated city of 100,000 people to the Georgia state capitol with the idea that they could be better served as their own entity.
“Lobbying went on for decades,” Porter, 89, recalled. “Eva and I worked hand in glove for several years. She was just the most determined and capable person for 25 years.”
The road to cityhood began with a movement to oppose annexation by the city of Atlanta in 1975. Residents of Sandy Springs were unhappy with Fulton County services, namely police protection, and felt their tax dollars were being used to bolster the less financially stable southern part of the county. Zoning battles between Sandy Springs and the county, which wanted to increase multi-family residential development, were common.
Surveys and polls were conducted. Meetings were held to discuss the pros and cons of becoming a city.
“When we had debates … we were hard pressed to find someone from the other side. We often had to get someone from Atlanta or from Fulton County to represent the opposition,” DeJulio said.
Porter said survey results showed zoning as a top priority, followed by traffic and public safety.
“People were really concerned that the character of the neighborhood was being overturned by the development of too many rental properties. The county had set a limit on rental properties of 52%, and they had already far exceeded that – and it was getting worse. People were concerned that the character of the community was going to be ruined,” Porter said.
DeJulio told Rough Draft that Sandy Springs residents were simply tired of being tied to a non-responsive Fulton County government. One county study showed Sandy Springs residents sent $91 million more to Fulton County than they received in services annually.
But Democrats accused the Sandy Springs cityhood movement of being nothing more than “white flight” and used their power in the General Assembly to block cityhood efforts.
For nearly 25 years, elected officials tried to get the legislature to pass a bill that would authorize a referendum. Finally, in 2005, with Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue in office and a Republican majority in the House and Senate, Sandy Springs finally got its wish: the Legislature authorized a referendum. The people would decide.
For the first time in 50 years, residents would get to vote to create a new city in Georgia. On June 21, 2005, the referendum results showed that 94% of Sandy Springs’ voters chose to incorporate.
Galambos was elected Sandy Springs’ first mayor in November 2005. Porter was a retired vice president of sales, having spent his entire career working at AT&T. He jumped to work, putting in 60 to 70 hours as the volunteer Interim City Manager.
“We were inventing things as we went. The biggest problem was that the legislation which was passed gave no one any authority to do anything. We couldn’t hire anybody. We couldn’t buy anything or lease equipment until the moment the city was started, and at that moment we needed to be fully operational. That’s where I became involved,” Porter said.
Porter – who has since written books and spoken around the world about the method – came up with the alternative of using public-private partnerships to jumpstart city services.
“It worked beautifully. And all of the subsequent cities, 13 new cities I believe it is in Georgia, are based on the Sandy Springs model,” he said.
Within the first year, Sandy Springs hired 135 police officers, tripling their public safety staff, repaired dozens of traffic lights, and paved a path for starting their own fire department.
Looking back, Porter is proud of the way Sandy Springs has grown.
“After 10 years, Sandy Springs had zero tax rate increases. We had improved services across the board. Every internal and external survey showed that people were very pleased with the direction of services. We had accumulated a $40 billion surplus. And most importantly, we had zero long-term debt,” Porter said.
These days, Porter is busy consulting other municipalities, enjoying retirement with his wife Pat, of 66 years, and traveling. He is the author of “Creating the New City of Sandy Springs.”