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COMMUNITY
New mayor, new members prepare to join City Council
PHOTO BY PHIL MOSIER
Mayor-elect Rusty Paul, left, celebrates his victory Election Night
with Councilman Tibby DeJulio, who won re-election.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
said on Nov. 13 she had decided not to
seek a recount of the results of the elec
tion. She considered a challenge because
at least a half-dozen voters in one precinct
were given the wrong ballot, she said. “I
made a decision this morning not to pur
sue a recount,” she said. “I don’t think it’s
in the best interest of the voters.”
Sandy Springs’ voters cleared a wide
path for businessman Rusty Paul to lead
the city for the next four years. Paul, a
former City Council member, collected
81 percent of the votes on Nov. 5 to be
come the city’s second mayor. He takes
over from iconic founding Mayor Eva
Galambos, who endorsed Paul.
Paul was swept to the post with an
overwhelming majority, outpolling local
businessman Bob Brown four to one.
The first order of business, Paul said,
will be to get reacquainted with the
new City Council and with city staff.
In District 2, Ken Dishman defeated
incumbent Dianne Fries, 639 to 381.
Dishman said he plans to work
closely with the new mayor to contin
ue building Sandy Springs into a shin
ing example of self-governance. Dish
man thanked Fries for her leadership
and service on the council.
Fries said she was disappointed that
barely 1,000 votes were cast in the race,
adding that she planned to stay in
volved in city issues.
In District 3,
Graham McDon
ald won the seat
vacated by Chip
Collins. Gabriel
Sterling easily held
off a challenge from
Tochie Blad, win
ning two-thirds of
the votes cast.
Tibby DeJu
lio, who will be the
only City Coun
cil member remain
ing from the city’s
first council elected
in 2005 other than
Paul, won re-elec
tion to his District
5 seat, capturing 75
percent of the vote.
DeJulio said he’s
looking forward
to working closely
with the new may
or. “Rusty worked
with Eva and I
for several years
before the city
was born, so he’s
got a great work
ing knowledge of the city,” DeJulio
said.
About 100 Paul supporters who
gathered at J. Christopher’s Tuesday
night were equally enthusiastic.
Trisha Thompson, who serves on
the board of the Sandy Springs Coun
cil of Neighborhoods, said Paul will
be a perfect successor to Galambos.
“This is a jumping-off point from
what Eva has built, an organization of
financial stability,” she said. “It will
bring a new look for the city, a new
vibrancy.”
Survey finds metro Atlantans want better roads and transit
BY DAN WHISHT
danwhisenhunt@reporternewspapers.net
On Nov. 1, the Atlanta Region
al Commission released results of the
“Metro Atlanta Speaks” survey, de
scribed as “one of the most extensive” in
the region’s history.
It revealed some interesting things
about the 10-county Atlanta region. The
A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service
and Research at Kennesaw State Uni
versity surveyed over 2,100 voting age
adults.
Here are some of the
survey’s conclusions:
1) Metro residents want better
roads and public transit. The survey re
ports that 56.8 percent of residents say
traffic has gotten worse. The survey
asked several questions about the state
of the metro region’s roads and public
transportation.
Even though voters in this same
10-county region in 2012 overwhelm
ingly rejected a penny sales tax to im
prove roads and transit, the survey found
21.4 percent of residents think traffic
is the region’s No. 2 problem, ranking
slightly lower than the economy.
An overwhelming 71.3 percent re
sponded that public transportation is
“very important” for the region’s future.
They also think building better roads
and public transit is the best long term
solution, with 40.9 percent supporting
better public transit and 30 percent sup
porting better roads.
Only 2.7 percent of people who re
sponded suggested doing nothing.
In 2012, 63 percent of voters in the
10-county region rejected the Trans
portation Special Purpose Local Op
tion Sales Tax to pay for road and public
transit improvements.
2) Metro residents are OK with
their schools, even though public edu
cation in the metro area has taken some
serious hits over the last couple of years.
Even though the Atlanta Public
Schools cheating scandal and the per
sistent dysfunction of DeKalb Coun
ty Schools have dominated local news
headlines, most people who responded
to the survey were satisfied with public
education as a whole.
The survey says 35.4 percent of peo
ple who responded think the quality of
education in the metro area is “fair” and
29.7 percent think it’s “good.” The sur
vey found 3.8 percent think the quality
of schools is “excellent.”
At the local level, residents were even
more satisfied with their public schools.
The survey says that 19.5 percent of re
spondents think their local schools are
“excellent,” and 35 percent think their
local schools are “good.”
The survey respondents ranked edu
cation as the fourth biggest problem fac
ing the region, behind crime, traffic and
the economy.
3) The Internet and television are
the region’s top news sources.
The decline of newspapers has been
going on for several years, and the sur
vey gives that trend some additional per
spective in metro Atlanta.
According to the survey, 38.7 percent
of people get their news from televi
sion and 34 percent get their news from
the Internet. The survey found 8.7 per
cent of respondents get their informa
tion from newspapers, which is slightly
ahead of the 5.3 percent of people who
get their news through word of mouth.
ss
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