Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The second day of the 2026 Sandy Springs City Council Retreat featured presentations and discussions on major infrastructure and community projects, including the GDOT SR 400 Express Lanes, a stormwater asset assessment, a transportation master plan update, and concepts for a new recreation facility at Hammond Park. Mayor Rusty Paul opened with an apology for his conduct the previous day while stressing the need for continuous improvement and pushing beyond bureaucracy.
Respectful of everybody's time before we kick off our formal presentation today. I'd like to uh address my behavior yesterday. Um I meant everything I said, and I'm not gonna apologize for it, but I just want to, you know, somebody came up to me later and said, you know, these people work 30, 40, 50 hours a week, 60 hours a week, 80 hours a week, and the mayor's yelling at them in a public meeting. That's not what is not my intent. It's not my intent. Uh but um I'll tell you what set me off was when I saw accomplishments were the guidelines, the plans, and everything. Those aren't accomplishments, those are tools. Tools, accomplishments are changes on the ground that result from that. When we were when I don't think there's anybody in this room when they were five years old, and your parents, friends came up and asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up. I don't think anybody said I want to grow up to be a bureaucrat. That's not, you know, as engineers you wanted to build big projects and things and that made people's lives better. As planners, you wanted to create beautiful urban environments that people th lived in and thrived and enjoyed. And uh, so that's what we're all trying to get here. Uh but being a bureaucratic is not nobody's born a bureaucrat, but it's an evolutionary process. It's a mindset that creeps in over time. Uh and uh we have to fight it every day. But I just want you to know that I think next year is my 50th year in elective office. I started, I was the I was the uh the young uh whippersnapper. Now I'm the ancient mariner. Uh but I've worked in at the federal, state, and local levels. Our team here is as good as there is anywhere. You are the best of the best. So if I if I indicated anything other than the high level of respect that I have for this team, uh I hope that was not intentional and and and uh was uh I I hope I I've clear cleared that up this morning because I have tremendous respect for everybody who works on this team because you're the but you are the best of the best. I meant what I said yesterday when I'm around the state, even in Washington last week. People know about Sandy Springs. People come up and ask me questions about the uh you know how you do things. They we have a reputation out there for being the best of the best, and that's a reputation that I I share proudly with everybody else. So if I if if anybody felt that they weren't respected, uh for that I apologize. But I will tell you this, this is my mindset. If you accept mediocrity, that's all you'll get. And we don't there's nobody in this room that believes that we want to be mediocre. Uh so uh we we you're gonna get pushed. In the private sector, if I miss my numbers for one quarter, I got yelled at. If in if I missed them in the second quarter, I got fired. We don't have those motivations in the in the public realm. So we have to find other ways to make sure we wake up every day with that passion to make a difference, make changes. You know, what you showed us yesterday coming out of Ginger's office, what Matt had done uh up at North River, that was phenomenal. That's what we aspire to every day in this organization, and you did it. So if I didn't communicate that as well as I should have, uh, but I'm passionate still after all these years.