Patti Bushee has become a fixture in Santa Fe's local government since joining the City Council in 1994. Even she wonders how long it will last.

During that 14-year history, she's been re-elected four times and once lost a campaign for mayor. Although rumors fly around the city about her political ambitions — namely that she plans to run for mayor in 2010 — Bushee says she's focused on keeping her council seat for one more term.

After that, Bushee said during an interview, she will be ready to shed some of her hectic schedule.

"In all likelihood, if elected, this will be my last term on the council. I don't think I can keep up the pace," she said. "I don't think I want to."

After she finishes her 9-to-5 job as public outreach administrator at the State Engineer's Water Use and Conservation Bureau, nearly every evening is booked with a City Council committee meeting or with reading the inches-thick packets of materials for deliberation. Bushee chairs the Public Works Committee and serves on several other City Council groups.

She ended up on the governing body by mistake, she said. Debbie Jaramillo appointed Bushee to serve out the rest of her term when Jaramillo was elected mayor. Bushee said in a recent interview that when Jaramillo asked her to sit on the council, she politely declined. But bullish Jaramillo wouldn't take no for an answer.

Less than a year later, after the councilor had won an election, Jaramillo told Bushee she regretted appointing "bimbos" like her.

In those early years, Bushee's name often appeared with the tag of "the city's first openly gay city councilor." While that is still true, and it's true that she advocated for gay rights as a founding member of the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance, Bushee said the label isn't thrown out as much as it used to be.

"It used to be the kind of precursor to my name," she said. "It's not how I define myself, but it's not something I hide from."

She lives in the tallest house on Mesa Vista, in the Barrio de Torreon neighborhood, west of Casa Solano. She shares the home with partner Elizabeth A. Martin, who she identifies as her "life partner," and the couple's four small dogs and cat.

"I'm an apparition in so many ways to Santa Fe politics. I am not from around here. I am who I am. I have been frank and spoken my mind," she said.

One such instance occurred when Bushee stuck her neck out to support Asenath Kepler, a former city manager who was fired by the City Council. Bushee and two others voted against that action.

Kepler, who prior to her stint as city manager had served as city attorney from 1994 to 1996, said Thursday that she respects Bushee and has seen her grow as a councilor.

"When I took a position on something, she would ask really hard questions about why and how," Kepler said. "She is not just taking what I say or what anybody else says and just nodding her head. She really drills down."

Bushee, who owned a landscaping business for more than 20 years, puts off a granola vibe. Last year, she started riding a Vespa as her main transportation and preaching the virtues of gas conservation.

She glows about the eight summers she spent in a primitive mountain cabin with "the Jemez mountains as a TV screen" when she first moved to Santa Fe in the 1980s and about her weekends at a cabin she recently purchased in Chama.

"I need water and I need quiet," she said. "My cell phone does not even work up there."

Over her political career, Bushee said, she is most proud of her support of a citywide smoking ban, first in restaurants and other buildings, then also at bars; and of her involvement with the Early Neighborhood Notification process and its early, contested incarnation, called Community Impact Statements.

Although she hasn't always identified public safety as one of "her issues," she said, Bushee has been a critic of the Police Department, recently picking on the way burglaries and street-level narcotics were being investigated.

She weathered the storms of the city's purchasing the Railyard property in 1995 and this year witnessed a neighborhood outcry over the unintended consequences of development there.

Other supporters noted Bushee's voice on water conservation, open space and trails, and other "sustainability issues," is valued.

Sara Noss, director of the Santa Fe Farmer's Market Institute, worked for Bushee in the 1990s as a gardener and counts herself "an old friend," she said She also sees the professional side of Bushee.

"Patti is a good advocate for what we are trying to achieve here in terms of education and bringing fresh food to the city," said Noss, "She tends to have a more citywide view of things altogether."



PATTI J. BUSHEE

Age: 48

Birthplace: Stoneham, Mass.; moved to Santa Fe 25 years ago from Portland, Maine.

Education: Bachelor of Arts degree in international affairs, University of Maine (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), studied international economics at George Washington University; studied for a year in Spain at La Universidad de Sevilla.

Occupation: Employed at the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, working on water conservation issues. Previously owned Ladybug Landscaping for more than 20 years.

Experience: City councilor for 14 years; has worked on legislation at the local, state and federal levels; chairs the city's Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee, Election Review and Rules Committee and Public Works Committee, and serves on the Public Utilities Committee.

Personal: Lives with partner Elizabeth A. Martin and four small dogs and one cat.

Have you ever been arrested? No.