Heather Fargo

Heather Fargo (born December 12, 1952, in Oakland, California) has been Mayor of Sacramento, California since 2001. She was elected Mayor in November 2000; replacing Jimmie Yee who served for Interim Mayor for over a year after the death of former Mayor Joe Serna. She was elected with 53% of the vote against City Councilman Rob Kerth in 2000, reelected overwhelmingly in 2004 but in 2008 was forced into a runoff election after former NBA star Kevin Johnson obtained 47% of the vote to her 40% of the vote.

Early Life and Education

Heather Fargo was raised in the Central Valley, primarily in Stockton. Heather Fargo received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Planning and Management from the University of California, Davis in 1975. In 1981, Fargo earned a Certificate of Completion from the Revenue Sources Management School in Boulder, Colorado. Mayor Fargo also completed the State and Local Government Executive Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1991.

City Council Years

Heather Fargo was first elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1989 to a five year term as Sacramento was transitioning to even year city-wide elections. Fargo represented District One which includes Downtown and Natomas. In the September primary, she came in second place to businesswoman Kate Karpilow but beat future City Councilman Ray Tretheway who came in third place and incumbent David Shore who came in fourth place. However, Fargo came back to beat Karpilow in November.

Upon Grantland Johnson's resignation from the County Board of Supervisors in 1994, Fargo decided to run for the Board. In that election, she faced attorney and community activist Roger Dickinson. In a closely fought election, Dickinson narrowly beat Fargo. After that loss she was re-elected in 1994 and 1998. Prior to becoming Mayor full-time, she was employed as a manager of the California State Parks Volunteer Program.

2000 Mayoral Campaign

Upon the November 1999 death of Mayor Joe Serna, Jr., Land Park city councilman Jimmie Yee became the acting mayor. Upon his decision to return full time to city council duties, several candidates announced their intentions to run. Othern than Fargo, three other councilmembers were also seeking the mayorship. North Sacramento city councilman Rob Kerth who represented an area immediately adjacent to Fargo's also decided to run. In addition, Steve Cohn, the city councilman for East Sacramento ran along with Robbie Waters who represents the Pocket and Greenhaven areas decided to run along with several lesser known candidates that included businessman and attorney Joe Genshlea, and community activist Julie Padilla. Fargo who won 22% of the vote in the primary and Kerth who won 20% of the vote made it into the November runoff.

2004 Mayoral Campaign

Fargo did not face as stiff competition in her 2004 reelection. Her main opponent was Ross W. Relles, Jr., a businessman. Other candidates were Deputy Attorney General Mark Soble and Lorenzo Patino Law School President Leonard Padilla. Fargo won overwhelmingly in the primary election; thus no runoff was necessary.

2008 Mayoral Campaign

The primary election for Mayor took place on 3 June 2008. Fargo received 39% of the vote, while former NBA star and Sacramento native Kevin Johnson received 46% of the vote. Since neither received a majority of the votes a run off election is scheduled for November. [cite news
author = Mary Lynne Vellinga
title = Johnson leads mayor's race
work = Sacramento Bee
date= 2008-06-04
url = http://www.sacbee.com/734/story/987573.html
accessdate = 2008-06-04]

During the primary election campaign, Fargo initially claimed that she had the support of all the city councilmembers. Yet, Councilman Robbie Waters, Steve Cohn, and Sandra Sheedy all ended up endorsing Johnson during the primary. Fact|date=September 2008 On September 4th, 2008 Councilman Kevin McCarty endorsed Heather Fargo [ [http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1210240.html SacBee - McCarty endorsing Fargo for Sacramento mayor] ] .

Causes

Environment

Heather Fargo was a founding member and the first secretary of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, which is considered an important voice in Sacramento’s environmental community. Fact|date=September 2008

Illegal Guns

During her tenure Mayor Fargo became a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, [cite web| url=http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml| title=Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

Mayoral tenure

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mayor Fargo made several attempts to provide taxpayer financing of a new stadium for the Kings NBA basketball franchise. However, these attempts were unsuccessful. Fact|date=September 2008

In 2006 and 2007, Mayor Fargo was named "Best Local Elected Official" by the readers of Sacramento Magazine in their annual poll. [ [http://www.sacmag.com/media/Sacramento-Magazine/Best-of-Sacramento/ Best of Sacramento - Sacramento, California ] ]

Electoral history

2000 Primary Election for Mayor of Sacramento

Because Fargo received a majority of the votes in the primary election, no general election was necessary.

2008 Primary Election for Mayor of Sacramento

Johnson and Fargo will proceed to a runoff election in November.
###@@@KEY@@@###incumbent succession box
before = Jimmie R. Yee
title = Mayor of Sacramento, California
start = 2001

References