St. Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry has decided that she won't seek re-election next year, she said Friday.

"It's time for a change," she said. "We have done a ton of really wonderful work and we have set the table for the next person to be incredibly successful, and it seemed like the time to do it."

But Lantry did not rule out running for mayor in 2017. Mayor Chris Coleman, who was re-elected last year, has said that he does not plan to seek a fourth term.

Lantry said it occurred to her recently that perhaps the time had come to end what will be, by the time her term expires in 2016, an 18-year tenure on the City Council representing the Seventh Ward on the city's East Side.

"Someone said something about an election, and it was the first time since 1995" — when she first ran for office — "that I had to stop and think whether I was going to run for re-election," she said.

Lantry's knowledge of the city, her no-nonsense attitude and blunt humor, combined with a bent for compromise, have made her an effective leader at City Hall.

While she has typically sided with Coleman, who arrived on the council with her in 1998, she has taken issue with him on budget issues and specific projects that he supported, such as city financing for the Palace Theater.

In 2004, a liberal majority on the council made Lantry council president to provide more forceful opposition to then-Mayor Randy Kelly, a conservative DFLer.

Lantry, 53, grew up on St. Paul's East Side in a household with deep DFL roots. Her mother, Marilyn Lantry, was a state senator in the 1980s, and her father, Jerry Lantry, was a labor leader who once ran the St. Paul Civic Center.

She was a rental property manager and former district council member when she first ran for the City Council in 1995, losing to incumbent Dino Guerin.

Two years later, after Guerin was elected to the Ramsey County Board, Lantry won the Seventh Ward seat with 72 percent of the vote. She hasn't been seriously challenged since.

Lantry is the second City Council incumbent to say she won't seek re-election. Dave Thune, another longtime council member and former council president who represents the Second Ward downtown and on the West Side, said a while ago that this will be his last term on the council.

The news about Lantry likely will set off a scramble among a number of candidates hoping to replace her. Party caucuses are in February.

"Kathy's done a remarkable job of serving the city, and an exceptional job as president of the council," Thune said. "She has a real good way of dealing with people, whether they're friendly or contentious. She's been able to have people come in front of us in reasonable and orderly fashion, and done a good job of organizing the council itself."

Kevin Duchschere • 651-925-5035