Porter, City Startup Advisor, Sits Down with Lakeside City Alliance

From the Lakeside City Alliance newsletter:

Oliver Porter of Sandy Springs, is known as the father of the new model of creating cities in Georgia. In 2009, the Reason Foundation gave him the “Innovator in Action” award for devising the public-private partnership concept for the creation of new cities. Porter has advised the startup of new cities, including Dunwoody, Johns Creek and Chattahoochee Hills, and served as chairman of the charter commission for the formation of the city of Sandy Springs. He is a senior research fellow at Georgia Tech on this issue of creating innovative, new cities.

1. Why do you think there is so much citizen interest in creating cities in the past few years in metro Atlanta, such as in North DeKalb with the creation of Dunwoody, Brookhaven and now a potential city of Lakeside?

Porter: Citizens have formed new cities for three primary reasons: to have more control over their government, to have more efficient government, and to have better services.
 
2. Some believe that cities just add another layer of government, while others believe that they deliver services more efficiently.  What are your thoughts on this issue?

Porter: Governments that are closer to the people are more easily controlled by their citizens.    That means they are more responsive to the needs of citizens.

3. How do the newer cities in DeKalb differ, if at all, from other established local governments, such as DeKalb and Fulton counties or the city of Atlanta or even the city of Decatur, Chamblee or Doraville? 

Porter: The newer cities have contracted with private industry to provide services. The results have proven to be more efficient and responsive to the citizens.
 
4.  You said that the results of contracts with private industry to provide city services have proven to be more efficient. How so?

Porter: Among other things, PPP’s [public-private partnerships] offer leading-edge technology, improved employee morale and efficiency, reduce the cost of pensions and other benefits, provide greater flexibility in the use of resources, and reduce the cities’ investment in equipment and buildings.  Existing bureaucracies[, however,] have to maintain non- productive employees and outdated technologies. Bureaucratic management has proliferated. Too much is invested in equipment requiring costly maintenance. Their budget processes lead to ever- increasing costs and/or poorer service.
 
5. Do you think Georgians identify more with their home town or city or their county? Is that changing and why?

Porter: People identify with the communities that most closely share their needs and interests; the smaller the government, the more closely knit the community. It is obvious that the trend has been toward governments that are closer to the people.


LCA next plans to seek "response from interim DeKalb CEO Lee May on his views of a potential city of Lakeside and the cityhood movement that is taking off in DeKalb County."