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Commissioner Amanda Fritz of the Portland City Council announced Friday that she will not seek re-election in 2020, opening her seat to a newcomer for the first time in more than a decade.

“I have loved the honor of serving on the Portland City Council,” Fritz, 60, said in a statement. She said it was “tempting” to seek a fourth term, but decided against it.

Fritz, a former psychiatric nurse, rose to the City Council through her involvement in neighborhood politics in Southwest Portland, where she still resides.

She challenged Commissioner Dan Saltzman for his Council seat in 2006, but lost by more than 30,000 votes. Two years later, Fritz ran again, this time for the seat the Sam Adams vacated to run for mayor, and she won in a landslide against Charles Lewis.

Fritz has been commissioner-in-charge of many bureaus while in office, including Parks & Recreation, Emergency Communications, Development Services and the Water Bureau, which she currently heads.

In a letter posted to her city website, Fritz said she has decided to retire from public office because she has “accomplished many of the things that have been in my power to get done.”

Among them, she wrote, are votes to establish city offices overseeing equity initiatives and independent budget analysis, the creation of a publicly-funded campaigns program, reforms to paid sick time policies and passage of a $68 million parks improvement bond, among other decisions.

Fritz wrote in her letter that she had planned to retire in 2016, when her third term would end, and ride “off into the sunset” with her husband, Steve Fritz. But in 2014, he was killed in a car accident.

“When Steve was killed, I found myself in the company of many older Americans, especially women,” Fritz wrote. “I needed a job to maintain health insurance. And I needed motivation to get up in the morning. Bereft of the love of my life, continuing to serve the people of Portland answered both needs.”

Now, Fritz said, she wants to finish strong and help someone else “be the voice of Portlanders in my place.”

“And then, I plan to spend a lot of time in my back yard with my cat, watching the wildlife,” she said.

It’s unclear who may run for Fritz’s seat.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com