As she leaves office this week as Sacramento's mayor in favor of Nov. 4 winner Kevin Johnson, Heather Fargo said she's hasn't made any firm decisions about her future, and hasn't ruled out seeking office again.

Fargo, mayor since 2000 and a Sacramento City Council member since 1989, said she's feeling okay as she and her staff clean out desks and ponder their next move.

She said feels she has a long list of accomplishments that she can point to both within city hall and around the city, California's seventh-largest in population.

Among those are more involvement by community members on creating plans for city projects, improving transparency with city operations and making city more responsive to citizen needs, she said.

She's also proud of more visible improvements such as a energetic downtown and midtown scene, new libraries, improving traffic flow and sprucing up city parks.

"I can't go anyplace in town and not see my fingerprints, and that feels good," she said. "You don't get to be eighth in the nation for livability without a lot of things going right."

Fargo, whose term of office ends when Johnson is sworn in, said she's still researching her possibilities after she leaves the mayor's office. Before being elected to the city council in 1989, she was a state parks planner and also a neighborhood activist for Natomas, a neighborhood on Sacramento's north side.

She noted that the three weeks between the election and the new administration coming in isn't much time.

"I want to do something like what I've done for the last 19 years, and that's making a difference," she said. "I'm sorting through what's meaningful right now."

Fargo, 55, said she's pondered what she could've done differently during the campaign to get a different result, and concluded that while she ran a good race, factors outside her control were the deciding ones.

They included Johnson's ability to self-finance his campaign and thus considerably outspend her, and a wave of new voters attracted by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential bid who were also looking for change closer to home.

"An incumbent has a hard time exuding change," said Fargo, though she, like Obama and Johnson, is a Democrat.

She added that she also believed that the downturn in the economy hurt her, and that local media were disinclined to run stories that cast her in a favorable light.

Supporter Anne Rudin, Sacramento's mayor during the 1980s, said one also can't overlook the power of celebrity that Johnson has as a retired NBA All-Star.

"Being a celebrity carries a lot of weight," said Rudin, adding that many supporters didn't believe Fargo would have a serious re-election challenge until Johnson entered the race nearly at the last minute and began seriously spending on his campaign.

But losing the mayor seat, Rudin said, doesn't mean Fargo's political future is empty.

"I think she needs some time to get over this race," Rudin said. "But there are always going to be opportunities to hold political office."

But another observer said Fargo's future might be in policy rather than in electoral office.

Barbara O'Connor, a professor of political communication at California State University, Sacramento, said Fargo's background as a planner makes her more suited to a role on a commission or similar policy-making body.

"She's a real force in that area," O'Connor said. "But I think she's probably had her fill of electoral politics."

Her re-election loss was largely outside her control, so her political brand is largely intact, O'Connor said.

But O'Connor added that Fargo may have made a tactical mistake in running for re-election, at a time when voters were experiencing an economic downturn and were hungry for change. Add in a celebrity candidate like Johnson and his considerable wealth, and it was too much, O'Connor said.

Fargo said she's spoken only briefly to Johnson since the election, and given him little advice.

Her tone suggested that she's still disdainful of Johnson's lack of experience and that relations between the two are chilly after an often negative campaign.

"He's got to look at what he wants to do, but as mayor, you don't get to choose all your own issues," she said, pointing out that the city's budget is likely to require additional cuts in the next few years.

"I would suggest that he continue to respect the communities in this city, and remember that you need five votes here to get it done."