BRIAN Sambell is certainly no stranger to the responsibilities of Mayor, and was last week elected as Gawler Council’s new deputy.
It’s been two years since council had a dedicated Deputy Mayor and Mr Sambell was “proud” to be nominated by Cr David Hughes during the election last Monday night.
The almost 78-year-old has lived in Gawler East all his life and served as Mayor for two terms from 2006 to 2014.
He described big plans for the role – mainly supporting Mayor Karen Redman in her duties.
“Coming back onto council after being Mayor for eight years it was one of those things where I thought ‘no I’ve still got a few beans left and I would like to still be involved’ because I just love Gawler,” he said.
“I’m 78 in a few months and living here all that time and being involved with three different businesses which were very successful, I thought ‘no I’d like to do a bit more’.
“Mayor Karen is certainly a dynamic person in what she does and her passion for Gawler is absolutely fantastic.
“The elected members are so important to be able to support the Mayor and work with the CEO and staff, so we can go forward.”
The new Deputy Mayor hoped to bring “more positiveness” back into the chamber at the council meetings.
“There has been a lot of unrest to say the least and some of it may well be misunderstanding, a lot of it is very personal, and together we have got to look at what the public and the community are expecting of us,” Mr Sambell said.
“Now I’m hoping to work with not only our Mayor Karen, but more solidly with the elected members to be able to get a better unity in the chamber, because meetings have been dragging long and late only because of personal arguments and misunderstandings.
“We have got to change that. I’m certainly not saying that they are wrong in what they are asking, but I think now there has been enough said and let’s get on with it.
“If we don’t move on with it, we are just going to have controversy after controversy…
“From what I’ve heard and been told people have lost a lot of confidence in council’s decisions and as Deputy Mayor now I will certainly work very, very hard to turn that around.”
Despite clashing personalities, Mr Sambell praised his fellow councillors’ commitment to Gawler.
“I have a lot of admiration for all of the councillors,” he said.
“I haven’t got any that I could say, ‘sorry you don’t seem to be doing your job’ – they are all passionate and they all have their individual ways, and if we could somehow put that all together we could be a lot stronger council.”
Crs Paul Little, Cody Davies and Ian Tooley were also nominated for the Deputy Mayor position.