BURLINGAME — It's hard to imagine the City Council without Rosalie O'Mahony — after all, she was first elected the year the Berlin Wall came down and Madonna's "Like a Prayer" swept the nation.

Yet for the first time since she joined the council in 1989, Burlingame voters appear to have chosen not to re-elect O'Mahony. Barring any late turnaround in election results, the councilwoman, 78, will be ousted from the board next month after five four-year terms, including five stints as mayor.

"It has been a tremendous honor for me, and a great privilege, to have been voted by the people of Burlingame to serve them as their councilwoman for the last 20 years. I have cherished every moment of it," O'Mahony said Wednesday. "Serving them for me has been a sacred honor and a labor of love."

Voters instead gave their preference to eight-year Planning Commissioner Michael Brownrigg, who received 27.4 percent of the vote, and Mayor Ann Keighran and Vice Mayor Cathy Baylock, who received 27.1 percent and 23.1 percent, respectively.

O'Mahony, next at 22.3 percent, was 77 votes behind Baylock with about 5,000 to 6,000 ballots to count as of Wednesday. But O'Mahony said she was not holding out hope the results will change.

"The people have spoken, and I have immense respect for the voice of the people," she said. "When you run for any office, you have to be a realist. There's only two outcomes, you win or lose. I always kept that in

O'Mahony said the reality of the situation has yet to sink in.

"It's a long time to have these kinds of routines that have become pretty entrenched after 20 years," said O'Mahony, who has been a mathematics professor at the College of San Mateo since 1965, when she moved to Burlingame.

O'Mahony always has been a supporter of fiscal prudence and infrastructure projects. It should come as no surprise, then, that she listed her greatest achievements as increasing the city's hotel taxes in 1991 and this year, transforming the old dump into the city's sports fields complex, and pushing for Broadway street improvements, the Highway 101 auxiliary lane project and a recent storm drain measure. The ribbon-cutting at the sports fields complex in March 1997 stands out as her most cherished moment.

But certainly she did not achieve everything she wanted. She wished the Broadway overpass project had been completed by now and that the city would have allocated more money toward resurfacing streets.

There were funny times, too. She recalled a Burlingame apartment dweller who recorded the sound of roosters that kept waking him up early in the morning. The man then played the tape before council members at a meeting and demanded something be done.

Despite her expected departure from the council, O'Mahony's familiar face should still be visible around Burlingame, which she called the best city in America. O'Mahony said she is already looking forward to "serving the community in other ways," but she is not yet sure in what capacity.

"I'm sure that God will lead me to whatever is best," she said.

Mike Rosenberg covers San Mateo, Burlingame, Belmont and transportation issues. Reach him at 650-348-4324.