While her bid for re-election didn’t come to fruition in November 2007, Keehn is pleased with her accomplishments in the two years as mayor.

“It’s been a whirlwind two years for me,” Keehn said on Dec. 27. “It’s been very interesting and exciting. For the most part I enjoyed it.”

She said she’s totally enjoyed meeting thousands of people the past two years.

“It’s been a real honor to represent Saratoga Springs,” Keehn said. “I’ll miss the excitement of the political process on the grass-roots level.”

Keehn said now that she has first-hand experience in local politics she finds it more fascinating than she did before she was elected mayor.

“I’ll be following some bigger issues that are bound to come again and again,” Keehn said of watching City Council meetings.

One of the new things that came up under her watch was being able to watch the council meetings from the city’s Web site. She said the technical people in the finance department are the ones responsible for getting the site up and running.

Some of the issues Keehn will be keeping her eye on is maintaining open space and how the council will approach that, getting department spending in line and under control and the progress of a new public safety building.

Keehn said the council was able to secure a new revenue source to pay for that facility. Grants were also fulfilled during her watch, which otherwise would have been lost money for the city.

“Most of all I opened up the process of government like it had never been done before,” she said. “I put new people on all boards and made an effort to reach out no matter people’s party affiliation. I think I raised the bar on ethical standards and holding politicians accountable for their actions.”

Keehn said each new council member will have to create their position for themselves. Each department has standard requirements, but the three new members will find their own niche with dealing their respective department.

She said any questions will be able to be answered by the city hall employees that have worked there for many years.

“There are a lot of good people working there,” she said.

Keehn said she is extremely grateful for all the support she received throughout her campaigns and is very appreciative to those who stepped up and helped the community.

“We live in a community that gets involved,” Keehn said.

The new City Council has just four years total experience between them, which Keehn thinks is very interesting.

Other issues, Keehn said she couldn’t get a consensus on with the council but would like to see addressed is affordable housing and trying to prevent unnecessary lawsuits against the city. She said it is very costly to the taxpayers.

“I hope each member of the council makes decisions on what they believe is best for the community and realize you will not be able to please everyone as an elected official,” Keehn said.

Keehn said they need to listen to what the public is calling for.

As for running for a political office in the future, Keehn said she hasn’t closed the door on anything.

“I’ll take some time off and spend it with my family,” she said. “I definitely enjoyed being in public office and will keep all my options open.”