Founding Mayor Eva Galambos
Efforts to incorporate the City of Sandy Springs began in 1966 in response to a proposal to annex the area now known as Sandy Springs into the City of Atlanta. By 1976, Sandy Springs resident Dr. Eva Galambos was convinced that local control, through a city of its own, was the best path forward for Sandy Springs.
Led by Dr. Galambos, Sandy Springs residents continued the effort to form their own local government for more than 40 years through groups such as the Committee for Sandy Springs. During that time, Galambos served as a mentor and leader for other women in Sandy Springs, including women who would later be elected to serve with her on the City's first City Council.
In June 2005, 94 percent of residents voted in favor of incorporating the previously unincorporated area of north Fulton County. Sandy Springs was incorporated on December 1, 2005, becoming the first new city in Georgia in nearly 50 years. Since incorporation, the City has made significant progress in providing effective and efficient services to residents.
Mayor Galambos was an early champion of the public-private partnership model of local government and continually sought improvements in City operations. Under her leadership, the City undertook a comprehensive procurement process in 2010 to rebid all general government services. Through this process, the City realized $7 million per year in savings by contracting with multiple firms instead of using the previous single-contractor arrangement.
During Mayor Galambos' tenure, the City operated with no long-term debt while making major improvements to infrastructure and residents' quality of life.
In her 2011 memoir, A Dream Come True: My Very Good Life, Eva Galambos chronicled what she called a very rich life. Her family escaped the Nazis in the 1930s, moving first to Italy and later to Athens, Georgia, where she attended high school and college.
Galambos earned a master's degree in Labor and Industrial Relations in the early 1950s. She was later admitted into the first class at Georgia State University to grant doctoral degrees to women, earning her Ph.D. in Economics in 1969.
Dr. Galambos' consulting work helped establish policies used by municipal governments today. In the late 1970s, she co-authored Making Sense Out of Dollars: Economic Analysis for Local Government, published by the National League of Cities in 1978.
During her tenure as Mayor, Dr. Galambos was an active member of the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and served on GMA's Legislative Policy Council. For her work leading to the creation of Sandy Springs, she received GMA's 2010 People, Place and Purpose Award. She also received the 2011 Andrew Young School Distinguished Alumni Award from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.
When asked to recall her greatest achievement, Eva Galambos was always quick to respond, "My children." She was the mother of three children, Tobae, Michael, and Johnny, and grandmother to six. She met her husband, Dr. John Galambos, at the University of Georgia, and they married in 1949.
Eva Galambos, the City's first mayor, passed away on Sunday, April 19, 2015, at age 87.
Rusty Paul served alongside Mayor Galambos before succeeding her as mayor in January 2014.