MacTiernan to hang in as mayor

‘I will resign in time so a new mayor can be elected at those elections and there won’t have to be a by-election,’ she told Guardian Express.

‘I’ll continue to do my work as mayor and people can reflect on me as a human being and what I can achieve as mayor.

‘I’ll get out there and bring as many projects that I started to conclusion.’

Ms MacTiernan said her biggest achievement at Vincent was ‘activating our general spaces’.

‘This includes putting into place massive street art, festival programs, upgrading our town centres, as well as delivering practical things like developing the energy plan which will have a big impact,’ she said.

The Vincent mayor said that while ‘a number of senior people at a national level’ had urged her to run for the Federal seat of Perth, public reaction had prompted her to act.

When asked whether Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was one of the senior people in her ear, she declined to say.

‘Far more persuasive was the hundreds and hundreds of people, including a lot of Vincent punters, who wrote, called and emailed me and bailed me up in the street saying, ‘You’ve got to do it,” Ms MacTiernan said.

‘It was a very hard decision, particularly because I love what I’m doing at Vincent and we do really good things for the community and you can get them done without all the political argy-bargy.’

Ms MacTiernan said climate change, public transport and education were her top priorities.

‘Also, I reckon I’ve got the experience to be able to argue the case for Western Australia,’ she said.

Vincent chief executive John Giorgi said it would be business as usual at the City until Ms MacTiernan resigned.

‘She hasn’t submitted her resignation but she can do so and post date it so she resigns the day before the election ” it’s entirely up to her,’ he said.

‘The deputy mayor will only step in and do additional duties if she is unavailable.

‘They will call for nominations (September 5-12) then there will be an election and whoever wins ” determined by the ratepayers ” gets sworn in as mayor for the remainder of Alannah’s term, which will be for a maximum of two years.’

Darryl Moore is running as the Liberal candidate for the seat.