SACRAMENTO CITY HALL - Outgoing Mayor Heather Fargo accepted well wishes, hugs and thanks from dozens of supporters Tuesday, as she prepared to leave office at the end of the month in favor of Nov. 4 victor Kevin Johnson.

Fargo, mayor since 2000 and the city's first full-time mayor, allowed others to do most of the speaking for her at a farewell event, saying only that she would make her farewell remarks before a City Council meeting later Tuesday.

Anne Rudin, Sacramento's mayor from 1983 to 1992, said to a crowd of about 70 that despite Fargo's loss to Johnson, she shouldn't think she didn't have a lot of support.

"We wanted to let her know that we are among the almost 50,000 that wanted her to become mayor for another term," Rudin said. "It is really amazing to see one woman who did so many things," she added, holding up a brochure distributed to attendees at the event.

The brochure listed, and other speakers noted, that Fargo had been a key part of revitalizing the city's downtown and midtown areas, transit improvements, flood protection and business development.

One speaker noted that Fargo helped a feral cat population be safely and humanely moved out of an empty lot that was then filled with an apartment complex.

"We not only saved the cats, we saved the bats, too," Fargo interjected, recalling that during a heat wave two years ago, she worked on saving a bat colony that was being affected by weeks of century-mark temperatures.

Johnson is scheduled to be sworn into office in early December.

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