Sandy Springs Maintains Services

As reported in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sandy Springs has passed a 2012 budget with no service cuts while cutting costs by over $7 million.

How did they do this?

City officials have said switching from CH2M Hill as the provider of most city services provided big savings. They estimate around $7 million in savings by allowing companies to bid on separate services instead of all of them being put together.  "Dividing the contracts up has been good for the city," Councilwoman Dianne Fries said. This is supported by the City Manager, John McDonough who added, "Due to the savings realized from the re-bid of the city's general government services, Sandy Springs was not faced with making significant budget cuts."

Dunwoody was out front on the proper way to contract for city services, but it is comforting to have the affirmation of our "big sister" to the west. Now if Dunwoody could just show DeKalb County how to save some of our money...