Botelho lauds Danner at final Assembly meeting

Ruth Danner
Ruth Danner. Photo by Casey Kelly/KTOO.

Assemblywoman Ruth Danner was honored at her final meeting Monday.

Danner will be traveling on business next week when newly-elected assembly members Jerry Nankervis and Loren Jones take the oath of office along with Mayor-elect Merrill Sanford.

Outgoing Mayor Bruce Botelho presented Danner with a plaque bearing the city seal. He thanked her for her service, especially on homelessness issues as chair of the Assembly Human Resources Committee. Botelho also alluded to the sometimes rocky relationship Danner had with her fellow assembly members, which included his own threat to censure her earlier this year.

“There are always bumpy spots. It’s the nature of a family, and we’ve had them,” Botelho said. “But we’ve also had many great successes and I think we’ll look back, all of us, with fondness on these years of service.”

Danner and Botelho shared an embrace after she accepted her plaque.

Danner said she thought her greatest accomplishment on the Assembly was working to make the city’s senior citizen and disabled veteran property tax hardship exemption more transparent. She also said she was proud of working with her fellow assembly members to narrow the number of people who qualify for the exemption.

“Like most things worth doing it was easy and it didn’t make everybody happy,” Danner said. “But in the end I think it was the right thing to do.”

In her final motion as an Assembly member, Danner asked for the Human Resources Committee to make a recommendation to the full Assembly about opening the hardship exemption to Juneau’s emergency responders who are injured in the line of duty. The motion passed unanimously.

The CBJ Canvass Board meets Tuesday to certify results from last week’s municipal election. The newly-elected Assembly members and Mayor will be sworn in at a special meeting next Monday.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications