Two new Juneau Assembly members were presented with temporary paper nameplates as they were sworn in Monday night and two departing Assembly members got now-traditional farewell poems from newly reelected Mayor Beth Weldon during the Assembly’s first meeting following the Oct. 1 municipal election.
Maureen Hall and Neil Steininger were sworn in by Municipal Attorney Emily Wright, respectively replacing Deputy Mayor Michelle Bonnet Hale and Wáahlaal Gíidaak Barbara Blake, near the beginning of a meeting that ended up lasting more than four hours due to a flood of matters needing addressing. Shortly after the new members were sworn in, Assembly member Greg Smith was unanimously chosen as deputy mayor.
The first sendoff tributes by Weldon and other Assembly members were offered to Blake, who attended her final meeting remotely due to travel complications. But while she was physically absent, her final minutes as an Assembly member were formidable as Monday’s meeting opened with a formal apology by the City and Borough of Juneau for the 1962 burning of the Douglas Indian Village that she drafted for what Weldon called a “long overdue” occurrence.
Weldon was sworn in privately last Wednesday for a third term as mayor after the election results were certified the previous day. The poem Weldon wrote for Blake, who opted not to seek reelection to a second three-year term, noted her activism on a wide range of other Alaska Native matters.
“Her voice was heard in the Assembly room, even though her face was mostly on Zoom,” Weldon recited. “Careful and deliberate questions she did ask, and making good decisions she was up to the task. Her BS meter was very low and she responded with an emphatic ‘no.’”
Blake, in her farewell remarks to the Assembly members, said she appreciates how the group respectfully took on hard issues where there were disagreements without getting acrimonious.
“I love that we all work and think, and put our heart into a community where we can sit at that table together and maybe disagree, but we walk out knowing that we were all doing what we could for our community,” she said.
Hale, who declined to seek reelection after serving two terms, was presented with a quilt by Weldon and Municipal Clerk Beth McEwen as part of the farewell festivities. Weldon, in her poem for the departing deputy mayor, noted the personal devotion she had to community issues — such as riding Capital Transit buses for more than a year as she sought to improve the public transit system.
“While some of our decisions seem calculated and cold, she brought to the Assembly a heart of gold,” Weldon recited. “Her passion showed in her emotional pleas to remember the human factor — pretty please. Some of her comments were a little pointed, but her statements — unlike mine — were rarely disjointed.”
Hale, noting her first term on the Assembly including dealing with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, said it meant the work by the group “literally saved lives.”
“I’m proud of a few things and I’m proud of that one, and I want to thank my fellow Assembly members for being on the team as we did that,” she said.”It’s an incredible group of colleagues, an incredible staff that we have, who often have to take sometimes more flak than the Assembly does. We take a lot up here, but sometimes the staff is right in the front lines and that’s not fair. But they’re incredible and it’s been wonderful working with all of you.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
Departing Deputy Mayor (standing at right) is presented with a quilt by Mayor Beth Weldon and Municipal Clerk Beth McEwen during a Juneau Assembly meeting Monday night at City Hall. Assembly member Greg Smith (seated at right) was chosen as the new deputy mayor after two new Assembly members were sworn in, one of whom is replacing Hale. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
