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Veteran Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington announced today that he won't seek to retain his seat in the November election. 

Worthington, who was first elected to office in 1996, made the announcement at a news conference on the steps of City Hall at which he passed a baton to Rigel Robinson, a recent University of California Berkeley graduate who he is endorsing in the race to succeed him. 

In a brief phone interview, Worthington, 64, said one of the things he's proudest of is increasing the diversity of the people who work for the city and serve on its commissions. 

Worthington also said, "I've empowered a whole generation of young people" by appointing more than 400 students, including Robinson, to city commissions. 

He said Robinson has served on the Police Review Commission, the Zoning Board and the Planning Commission. 

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who served as Worthington's appointee to the Housing Commission and worked as his legislative aide, said in a statement, "Kriss produced a prodigious proliferation of progressive public policy." 

Arreguin said thousands of ordinances, resolutions, proclamations and council items authored by Worthington addressed environmental, labor, tenant, consumer, affordable housing, student housing, disabled, senior and other issues. 

"Almost all won, and some were adopted by other cities or the state," Arreguin said. 

James Chang of the Berkeley Rent Stablization Board said, "In 1996, Kriss Worthington smashed stereotypes by becoming the first openly gay person elected to the Berkeley City Council." 

Chang said Worthington "led efforts to make Berkeley the first U.S. City Council to endorse marriage equality and the first city to train every police employee on LGBT sensitivity." 

Worthington is the second veteran Berkeley City Council member to announce this year that they won't seek re-election. 

Linda Maio, who has been in office for 25 years, said in March that she won't run again.