For six years, she's been the face of Austin -- its leader, promoter and head cheerleader, if you will.

Now, Bonnie Rietz is looking to the future and hopes to complete another two-year term as Austin's mayor.

The decision to run again was one she had to consider carefully, though. She says she needed time to think about the possibility of being mayor again, to see if she still enjoyed it and was still good at it. "I'm glad I took the time to think about it, and once I made the decision, I was really glad and really excited about it," Rietz says.

Changes she would like to see continue are developing the Cook Farm property, revitalizing downtown Austin and improving the quality of life in the city.

Rietz is unsure about what exactly she wants to see developed on the Cook Farm property because "it's open to so many things, but I hope for businesses which will diversify the economy and provide well-paying jobs for people. I think I would like to see it grown on the order of the current industrial park with a variety of small businesses, but I would also be happy to see businesses within the community move out there and grow and expand."

She would like to see continued revitalization of the downtown area because "if people visit the downtown of a community and it's not active or energetic, then they think, 'oh, it's a dying community.' I don't want that to happen to Austin."

To prevent that, she says the city has "been working on several different things for several years." She lists the antique-style street lamps, flower baskets, the trails around Mill Pond, the building of the library, the continued renovation of the Paramount Theatre and the development of the apartment buildings downtown as some of those projects.

In the future, Rietz says she would like to see renovations continue on downtown buildings and would love to see the removal of the metal fronts of the buildings. "I would like for us to work on at least one building a year to get that awful metal off and restore it," she says.

With all the changes she's helped initiate within the city, she says it's hard to pinpoint one event that she feels is her biggest accomplishment. "There are so many things because a lot of it has to do with a general feeling of pride," she says.

Director of Administrative Services for the city of Austin Tom Dankert says her support of the city staff has been one of the things he's admired most about her. "She's been very supportive of our ideas and is always asking for our input. I've always enjoyed working with her and she's always had a positive attitude."

Dankert says he also admires the mayor's work ethic. "You can always find her in her office, Monday through Thursday. The mayor only gets paid what? About $9,000 a year, I think. She probably puts in a good 1,500 hours a year, so she's obviously doing it for the love of the job, not the money."

"She's very willing to put in the hours," he says and remembers last year when she went to Washington, D.C. with a few other city officials to lobby for the $2.5 million to buy out the homes in the flood plain.

Even if a project isn't as successful as her campaign to get government funds for the flood buy out project, he says "she doesn't hold it against anyone, she says 'where can we go from here' and goes on to the next project."

Rietz's positive outlook also makes it hard for her to pinpoint low moments of her mayoral career. "One of the down times was when the second sheet of ice was turned down at the county level. That was a rough time. It was a low point when it appeared it was falling through even though we felt it was so important for the community and for the children," she says.

However, she continues, "I'm such an optimistic person, I don't usually look at something as a failure or a negative. I look at it as a challenge and ask 'what can I do to get this baby done?' When I look back, I have a really positive outlook."

Her positive attitude and ability to work through rough situations has made council member Mickey Jorgenson "one of her biggest fans."

"She is so good at staying focused and keeping us focused on things that are good for the community and at keeping the best interests of the community at heart," Jorgenson says.

Jorgenson also says Rietz is "such an asset to the community, she has such a commitment to the community and such a vision to the community. I really do have great admiration for her. I really mean that and it only comes from working with her. She would be, for me, a tough act to follow. She would have big shoes to fill."

At some point, those shoes will have to be filled. If Rietz wins the next election, she isn't certain whether she would run for a fifth term. "I haven't put an endpoint on it," she explains. "I know that if I'm elected for the next two years, at the end of those, I'll reevaluate if I'm still enjoying it and am still doing a good job."

Call Amanda L. Rohde at 434-2214 or e-mail her at amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com