Before being elected to the New South Wales Parliament, Sartor was the second longest-serving Lord Mayor of Sydney, after Clover Moore, having held the post for nearly 12 years from September 1991 to March 2003.

During his tenure as Lord Mayor, unfounded claims were made in an effort to discredit Sartor, in relation to alleged sexual harassment, by Liberal politician, John Hannaford.

[9] Hannaford subsequently failed to provide any evidence to support his allegations, and was in turn investigated by the NSW Parliament for abuse of parliamentary privilege.

Sartor first sought to enter state politics in 1988, when he contested the inner-city Electoral district of McKell as an Independent, running against the endorsed Labor candidate, Sandra Nori.

[13] In announcing his resignation, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally paid tribute to Mr Sartor's work as Australia's first cancer minister.

[3] In 2005 Premier Bob Carr appointed Sartor as the first Minister for Redfern Waterloo overseeing the Redfern-Waterloo Authority and exercising planning powers over an area of inner Sydney.

Despite this, the Authority was able to deliver urban renewal projects for a number of derelict sites including the former Redfern Public School and a substantial redevelopment of the Australian Technology Park to incorporate headquarters for the Sydney television station Channel Seven.

In 2008, the NSW Greens demanded a Royal Commission into alleged links between Sartor's planning approvals and Labor Party donations by major developers.

[18] Sartor denied his planning decisions had been influenced by developer donations and threatened legal action against media outlets which repeated the claims.