Adelaide City Council member Phillip Martin announces he will run for Lord Mayor

A councillor named as allegedly playing a large part in the toxic culture at Adelaide City Council wants to become lord mayor.

The battle for the lord mayoralty has begun with North Adelaide councillor Phillip Martin announcing he will stand against incumbent Sandy Verschoor.

Cr Martin has been named in a previously confidential report as being one of the main individuals allegedly responsible for a toxic culture with Adelaide City Council.

He has claimed there are multiple versions of the report by Adelaide law firm EMA Legal, which cost ratepayers $100,000.

“I today announce my intention to contest next year’s election for a new Lord Mayor for the City of Adelaide,” he said on Monday morning.

“In the absence of the announcement by any other candidate committed to replacing Lord Mayor Verschoor and her Team Adelaide group, I feel compelled to do everything I can to restore the reputation of Adelaide to that of the progressive and well managed city.”

Councillor Phillip Martin during an Adelaide City Council meeting. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Cr Martin said the council’s dominant faction, Team Adelaide, had voted to release one version of a report “while other versions have been kept secret”.

He claimed a refusal by Ms Verschoor and acting chief executive Clare Mockler to “explain their role in this flawed, political process is, for many of my ratepayers, the last straw.

“We are also burdened by a series of continuing blunders, a culture of hiding decision making behind closed doors and there is complete absence of a clear vision for our city in the coming decade,” he said.

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor during an Adelaide City Council meeting. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Cr Martin claimed the council had “not budgeted for any new infrastructure initiatives between now and 2031”.

“There’s not even a single dollar allocated in the Long Term Financial Plan to purchase a brick to begin the promised new Adelaide Aquatic Centre from which it’s possible Council support will be withdrawn as early as June,” he said.

“At the same time, services on which our stakeholders rely have been cut to the bone to offset substantial debt the Lord Mayor and Team Adelaide have accumulated in the four years since the City of Adelaide was absolutely debt free.”

“Covid-19 is to blame for a small part of it, but I will as a Lord Mayoral candidate explain how mismanaged operating budgets are at the core of this Team Adelaide-made disaster.”

Ms Verschoor welcomed Cr Martin’s challenge, saying “bring it on”.

“I find it astonishing the findings of the report would be used as a mandate to run to lead Australia’s most liveable city,” she said.

“We should be talking about how we modify and bring councillors’ behaviour towards staff to account.”

Ms Verschoor disputed Cr Martin’s claims there were no major infrastructure projects planned by the council.

“There continues to be significant investment in our long-term financial plans including city shaping projects such as the Central Market Arcade Redevelopment, Eighty Eight O’Connell and so many other projects,” she said.

“And we’re doing this with both a balanced budget and reduction of over $100 million in the long-term financial plan.”

Ms Verschoor said her focus would remain on supporting the community and businesses through the pandemic “as was seen last week when council supported a raft of measures to ‘Reignite Adelaide’ and bring people safely back to the city”.