Juneau Assembly Member Carole Triem is resigning from her seat, effective July 10. Triem said it will be hard to say goodbye to the Assembly, city staff and Juneau.
“It’s not easy to leave Juneau, although I will say making the decision to go with my husband and help our family was not a difficult decision,” she said. “I’m really sad about all the circumstances involved, and I’m really going to miss the Assembly.”
Triem is leaving her seat to care for a family member with medical needs in Australia.
She was elected to the Assembly in 2018 for a one-year term and reelected for three-year terms in 2019 and 2022.
“I’ve been with this group of people, mostly unchanged, through a lot,” Triem said. “I think that was really important — that there was an experienced Assembly through COVID and then coming out of COVID.”
Triem also chairs the finance committee. She said she’ll meet with Mayor Beth Weldon and staff from the city’s finance department to discuss how to improve the community funding request process.
“I have some strong feelings on that and would like to improve that process and leave that as my parting gift to the Assembly to make their lives easier next April,” Triem said.
Triem’s resignation means there will be four Assembly seats up for grabs in the October municipal election. Two of those seats will be areawide. The three-year term will go to the candidate with the most votes, and the candidate with the second most votes will serve the remaining two years of Triem’s term.
With a new city manager, new finance director and four open Assembly seats, Triem said Juneau has an opportunity to “refresh the energy” of its leaders.
“We got through this major, literally life-or-death crisis,” she said. “Now, the issues are different, but they’re also really important. Tourism, the city budget, all of these things I think are important issues that need energetic people to take them on.”
Triem said she’s not sure when she’ll return to Juneau, or whether she’ll run for office again. But she called her time on the Juneau Assembly “massively rewarding.”
“It’s the most important thing I’ve done in my life so far,” Triem said. “Worth the sacrifices, worth the late nights.”
This story has been updated.
