Perth’s sister city, Houston, Texas became the largest US city to elect an openly gay Mayor when Annise Parker took office last month.
Although considered a tightly contested election against fellow Democrat Gene Locke, a former city attorney, fewer than 17 per cent of registered voters partook and Ms Parker won office with 53.6 percent of the vote.
Ms Parker had already served the city for past 11 years as a councilor and then City Controller, a role in which she saved tens of millions of dollars conducting tough independent audits of the city departments.
She uncovered electronic bank frauds, as well as wasted dollars due to inefficiencies in the police department and city and metro’s street construction.
Aside from promising to redirect the funds to help make neighbourhoods safer, her election campaign was based on boosting job numbers by making Houston the new headquarters for energy development, including alternative sources like wind and solar.
Pink news reported that Ms Parker told supporters the night before her swearing-in: ‘I have been so grateful for the opportunity in the national and international media to talk about Houston.
‘This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community, just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that’s what my administration will be about,’ she said.
Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said she had yet to meet Ms Parker, who was in the middle of her campaign when Ms Scaffidi was in Houston for the celebration of the sister cities’ 25th anniversary.
Ms Scaffidi says the Houston Mayor will visit Perth for the World Energy Cities Partnership annual general meeting in October.
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