Councilwoman Marti Emerald has 18 months left in office, but she’s already looking forward to sleeping in — at her future home in Imperial Beach.
After being honored Wednesday night by the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club, the District 9 representative told Times of San Diego that she’s hoping her post-council life will be “very long and extemporaneous.”
Emerald, the former veteran consumer reporter for KGTV, announced her retirement in mid-April. But she’s been spare on her future while being treated for breast cancer.
The councilwoman has said in the past that her doctors report she had an “excellent prognosis for full recovery.”
She concedes she hasn’t thought about her plans thoroughly but said they will include a move to Imperial Beach, where she will live with her daughter and new husband, Karl Bradley.
Emerald says she has a “lot of causes that are very important to me,” including mental health, since her daughter has issues.
In Imperial Beach, she may get involved with environmental causes, she said after receiving a plaque, and hug, from club president Linda Armacost at the Mission Trails Regional Park visitors center.
And she might follow in the footsteps of former Councilwoman Donna Frye, who became president of Californians Aware,, which fights for public-agency transparency.
Emerald said she too might affiliate with a larger organization.
But she vowed she would still have something to say about San Diego issues.
“I’ll be around,” she said. “I’m not going away.”
