Sandy Verschoor, the Adelaide Deputy Lord Mayor, will run for top job
A SERVING city councillor will today bid to become Adelaide’s first female Lord Mayor in almost two decades.
A SERVING city councillor will today bid to become Adelaide’s first female Lord Mayor in almost two decades.
Sandy Verschoor is a former chief executive of the Adelaide Festival and the Fringe Festival and has also held key roles with WOMADelaide and the Festival of Ideas. She will nominate for Town Hall’s top job after making a decision late last week.
If successful at the November local government elections, she would become just the third female Lord Mayor of Adelaide, and first since Dr Jane Lomax-Smith in 2000.
Serving Lord Mayor Martin Haese has decided not to contest the upcoming council elections and will stand down.
Other candidates to put their hand up for the top job include former Deputy Lord Mayor Mark Hamilton and dance-studio owner Steven Kelly.
Cr Verschoor, a former Adelaide City Council senior manager and its current Deputy Lord Mayor, last night told The Advertiser she hoped to help Adelaide evolve into a city that attracted people, creativity and investment.
This, she argued, would encourage the city’s best and brightest residents to remain in Adelaide or return home from stints interstate or overseas.
“I love this city and believe Adelaide is poised (and) ready for great things,” she said. “A future that is progressive and dynamic, where environmentally sustainability, indigenous and multiculturalism and creativity are not tacked on afterthoughts but fundamental to everything we do.
“I am ready to lead the next council towards that future. To future-proof our city.”
Cr Verschoor joined the council in 2015 when she won the area councillor by-election triggered by former Greens Senator Robert Simms entering Federal Politics – making the council evenly comprised of both men and women for the first time since 1840. She was then elected to the role of Deputy Lord Mayor in June 2016. Before she joined the elected member body, Cr Verschoor spent three years as the council’s general manager for city culture and community services.
During this time, she said she helped develop and lead the council’s Vibrant Adelaide agenda, initiated a transformation of Leigh and Peel streets, helped introduce more public art into infrastructure as well as managing small bars licensing changes introduced by the former Labor State Government. Outlining her agenda if she won, she said would prioritise tackling homelessness.
“There is so much positive work being done that I am absolutely convinced we can end homelessness in Adelaide and become a beacon of social justice around the country,” she said. She also hoped to position Adelaide as the country’s epicentre of screen industries, food and wine culture.
She said she would also cut red tape, reduce costs and provide better business support.
Nominations for council elections close tomorrow.
