Politics isn't only about competition, at least not in those races where office seekers run unopposed.

One such case is in Sutter Creek, where Sandy Anderson has pledged to devote the next four years of her life to service on the city council. Anderson and her husband Chuck came to Sutter Creek nine years ago, supposedly to settle into a peaceful working retirement as owners and operators of a bed and breakfast they call the Eureka Street Inn. On a quiet side street, between downtown and the Knight Foundry, the inn has four rooms available in its nearly 100-year-old Craftsman-style home.

Not one to simply tend the garden and care for her guests, Anderson has been unable to resist the lure of the small city's underlying group of activists.

She's been drawn into local organizations: the Sutter Creek Business and Professional Association, serving on its board of directors for years; the Sutter Creek Promotions Committee; and the sidewalk committee, trying to unravel the knotty problems involved in making the historic downtown handicap-accessible.

The power of Hollywood played a part in Anderson's decision to run for city council. In the 2007 film "The Bucket List," cancer patients Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson work at checking off items on lists of the things they want to do before they die. Realization that her own bucket list included service on the city council reinforced suggestions that began two years ago that she run for a council seat.

Local friends encouraged Anderson to go for it. When Sutter Creek Councilman Brent Parsons announced his intention to attempt a switch to a seat on the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors, Anderson decided to file her papers. As it turned out, no one else chose to oppose her for Parsons' seat.

"It's probably good for the council to have a female voice," said the departing Parsons. "She's a businessperson. She should bring some good business knowledge to the council and she won't have the history I have."

Anderson's membership in the sidewalk committee brought her a first glimpse of the regulations that she'll be encountering as a city official. City Attorney Dennis Crabb informed Anderson that her presence at sidewalk committee meetings, as a city council member "evident," will tip the balance to making those meetings subject to The Brown Act.

The first controversy Anderson faces may involve the city's promotions committee, of which she is a member. "I think it's the primary vehicle by which we support tourism," Anderson said in backing the efforts of the committee. Among Sutter Creek's more frugal residents, the city's financial support of the promotions committee has become the occasional focus of cost-cutting suggestions. "It's working better in Sutter Creek," Anderson asserted, "than in other parts of the county."

With the city's budget causing a stir of late, Anderson's experience as senior vice president of marketing for Coast Commercial Bank in Santa Cruz should come in handy. Anderson has scheduled time with City Manager Rob Duke to analyze the budget, as well as other complex city matters, such as wastewater treatment and the recently-implemented Strategic Sewage Management Plan.

With five grandchildren living in Sutter Creek and a husband on the Amador County Unified School Board, Anderson hopes to get to work on school issues facing the city and the county. "Sutter Creek Primary School is totally full," Anderson said. "The state mandates class size and we're there."

Citing the recent Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort offer to deed a 17-acre school site on the northern edge of their proposed project, she spoke of her husband Chuck's preference to see construction of a K-8 school there. Presently, seventh and eighth grade students moving up from Sutter Creek Primary are bussed down to Ione Junior High School. She also hopes to establish safe walking routes to schools in town.

Anderson believes that Sutter Creek's emergence as the wastewater treatment provider for Martell and proposed large projects like Gold Rush and Wicklow Way, as well as its own effluent, presents more of an opportunity than a burden. "I think providing service where we can, thereby providing revenues, is a good thing," she said.

Foremost on virtually all Sutter Creek City Council and Planning Commissions right now is the Gold Rush project. Anderson is undaunted. "I think I've kept an open mind, especially about Gold Rush," she said. "I don't think it's going to be that difficult. I think the Gold Rush project has grown us up."

Soon to be Anderson's colleague, Councilman Pat Crosby offered a warm welcome. "I think she'll make a great council person," he said. "I've known her since she came to town and she's served on the Promotions Committee and SCB."

Crosby has clearly seen Anderson in action. "I can either take notes or participate in a meeting," he admitted. " I can't do both. She can!"

Former city council member Heidi Boitano had some advice to give. "Send your husband to the post office to pick up the mail," she said, "and go shopping at midnight."