Lee Vandervis (born 1955) is a local-body politician who was first elected to the Dunedin City Council in the 2004 local elections. Vandervis has run for mayor in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022; finishing second in 2007 and 2019. Vandervis failed to win mayor again in 2022, but he was re-elected to the Council. Vandervis has often been an independent voice in council, notably opposing his own council in a protracted court battle. Personal life Lee Vandervis was born in 1955 in Balclutha. He is the second son of Dutch immigrant parents, who settled in New Zealand after the Second World War. Vandervis received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Otago, and has worked as a music technician for many years. In the mid 1970s he went to the United Kingdom and worked as an acoustic engineer for Midas Audio. In 1981, Vandervis returned to Dunedin and set up Vandervision Lighting Audio and Video in the early 1980s. Vandervis has eight children with the youngest being severely autistic. Politics At the 1984 New Zealand general election Vandervis stood for Bob Jones' New Zealand Party in the Dunedin North electorate. He polled in third place. 2004–2013 terms In 2004 Vandervis successfully stood for the Dunedin City as a Council councillor and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor coming third with 9.1% of the vote. In the 2007 election he stood on a platform opposing then proposed replacement stadium for Carisbrook. He was defeated both as a councillor (by a margin of four votes after the counting of the special votes), as well as a mayoral candidate. He came second after the incumbent, Peter Chin, but only gained 17% of the votes. During the 2010 election campaign one of his volunteers installing an election hoarding pierced an 11 kV cable near Mosgiel causing a power outage to 747 consumers. The site had been designated for hoarding by the Council, but no mention of the presence of the cable had been made; the volunteer was unharmed. Vandervis was again third in the Mayoral race with 15.2% of the vote. He was re-elected as a Councillor. Vandervis served as the Chair of the Dunedin City Council Heritage Fund and the Heritage Buildings Re-use Committee.He resigned from that role on 22 September 2020. He is also on the Board of the Otago Settlers Museum. Vandervis states that he is focused on challenging