Public/Private Partnerships for Local Governments

Four new cities have been created in Georgia in the past three years. The author was responsible for the implementation of Sandy Springs, the first new city to be incorporated in Georgia in fifty years. His previous book, Creating the New City of Sandy Springs, was published to serve as a guide for other communities considering incorporation. The book introduced the concept of a broadly based Public/Private partnership. Subsequently, the author served in an advisory role to the other three new cities, all of which adopted the Public/private partnership model.  A fifth new city that the author is advising is expected to be formed late in 2008. It too, is moving toward the adoption of the model.

The record of success in these cities is outlined in this new book. Success is defined as the provision of more efficient government services and providing the maximum level of responsiveness to the citizens.

Based on the experience of these new cities, this book strongly urges that existing cities which have followed the traditional organizational structure, for too long, give strong consideration to converting their services to the Public/Private partnership model.

The Public/Private partnership model is gaining interest on a national level and recently has attracted international interest. The author was invited to participate in a number of large symposia and meetings in Japan with government, business and academic leaders, to explain the model, and its benefits.

Traditional methods of providing local government services have in many cases resulted in levels of bureaucracy and waste that are unacceptable. It is time that elected officials consider new and better methods. The Public/Private partnership model as described in this, and the author’s first book, provides a roadmap for introducing improved government services that should be studied by all local officials.

  Oliver W. Porter has become a leading proponent of the value of Public/Private partnerships to local governments. Mr. Porter’s involvement with this subject and his development of a new model for providing municipal services began with the community, now city, of Sandy Springs, Georgia. In January, 2005, he accepted the challenge of implementing the first new city in Georgia in fifty years; a city that would serve 90,000 citizens, the seventh largest city in the state, at birth. The challenge was made extremely difficult by the fact that he, nor anyone else, would have any funds, staff or authority prior to the incorporation date for the city.  Working as the volunteer Interim City Manager, Oliver Porter recruited and organized the other volunteers to perform the data gathering and analysis necessary to understand the needs and financial capability of the new city. Recognizing that under the constraints with which he dealt, it would not be possible to start the city using traditional methods for providing services, he proposed a new model to the community.  After selling his concept of a Public/Private partnership, he moved in only a few months to actually bring the concept to reality. During that period, Mr. Porter also served as the Chairman of an advisory group, the Governor’s Commission on Sandy Springs. Upon the successful implementation of the city, Mr. Porter served the city for four months as a transition consultant. During this period he wrote his first book, Creating the New City of Sandy Springs; The 21^st Century Paradigm: Private Industry. The book has served as a very useful guide for other new cities, particularly those that were interested in the new model.

   The value of the Sandy Springs model is confirmed by the actions of other communities in the state. In the two years following the incorporation of Sandy Springs, three new cities have followed suit. All three have embraced the model created by Mr. Porter, and he has served as the principal advisor to all. The state legislature has just authorized a referendum on the creation of a fifth city. Oliver Porter has been selected to serve again as the advisor  and it is expected that the Public/Private partnership model will be given strong consideration.

   The local metropolitan newspaper has published articles referring to Mr. Porter as the “Incorporation Guru”,  the “Metro Maestro” and “Father of Cities” in reporting his activities on behalf of local governments.

   After publication of his first book, Mr. Porter has provided advice and assistance to a number of communities and existing cities across America.

Very recently his influence was extended to the international scene when he was invited under a grant by the Ministry of Education and Finance of Japan to participate in a series of symposia and meetings with leaders of government, business and academia in that country. It appears very possible that several Japanese cities may begin conversion to the Public/Private partnership model.

   Given the above, the reader might assume that Oliver Porter’s background was in the area of Government. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Possibly the lack of a background in government enhanced Mr. Porter’s ability to “think out of the box” in seeking new methods for providing services. A native of South Carolina, Mr. Porter attended the University of South Carolina on a naval ROTC scholarship. Graduating in the top ten percent of his class, with a degree in Civil Engineering, he was a member of Tau Beta Pi, engineering honor society, and the president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Upon graduation he served for three years as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Resigning his commission, Mr. Porter entered the corporate world as an engineer with Southern Bell Telephone. He attained the status of a Registered Professional Engineer in South Carolina and earned an MBA at Georgia State University, where he was again in the top ten percent of his class and inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, honor society for management. Moving rapidly through a number of positions of increasing responsibility in engineering, planning, finance and marketing he chose to transfer to AT&T at the time of the splitting up of the Bell System. He set up and managed the fourteen state Southern Region for General Business Markets, retiring as Vice President of sales in 1989.

   During his corporate career and in subsequent years Oliver Porter has been very active in charitable affairs. He served as the National Chairman of two major health organizations – the National Kidney Foundation and the Combined Health Appeal of America. He was the founding leader of the latter organization as he was for two state charities. Over the years Mr. Porter founded, or served as the catalyst for, over a dozen state and metropolitan health charities. He also has been instrumental in the establishment of churches in a number of locations. Pursuing his interest in painting during retirement, Oliver Porter has become an artist and has served as the Chairman of Georgia’s largest art club and a board member of the Foundation for Hospital Art. All of this corporate and charitable organizational experience was valuable in his efforts to create a new model for local government.

   Recently Mr. Porter has been named a Research fellow by Georgia Tech and is advising on a study comparing Public/Private partnerships with comparable traditionally managed cities.

   In addition to all of the above activities, Oliver Porter is an avid pursuer of physical fitness. He enjoys the distinction of being the only person who can claim to have run the first Peachtree Road Race, a 10K event with over 55,000 participants; peddled the BRAG, a 400 plus mile bike ride across Georgia, and paddled in the first ‘Canoe Across Georgia’. Mr. Porter believes that these accomplishments may point more to his stamina than his intelligence.

   Married for 49 years with children and grandchildren, Oliver Porter has enjoyed a full life. Corporate executive, charitable leader, implementer of cities, entrepreneur, scholar, athlete, artist and author, he has been often referred to as a “renaissance man”.

  In response to the increasing interest in Public/Private partnerships across America, and now in Japan, Oliver Porter has written this second book which recommends the application of the Public/Private partnership concept for existing cities.

five. His previous book Creating the New

City of Sandy Springs has served as a primer

Local Governments Oliver W. Porter