The Juneau Assembly bid farewell to two longtime members at its meeting Monday night.
Assembly members Christine Woll and Alicia Hughes-Skandijs stepped down from their seats to welcome new members Joyce Niven and Mila Cosgrove, who were elected in the recent municipal election. Assembly member Paul Kelly was also reelected to his seat.
Woll and Hughes-Skandijs announced earlier this year that they did not plan to run for re-election. Both said they wanted to spend more time with their families and enjoy their free time. Hughes-Skandijs was first elected to fill a partial term in 2019. She and Woll were then elected for full terms in 2020 and reelected in 2023.
At the meeting, Assembly members championed Woll as a mentor and role model. During her six-year tenure, she chaired the Assembly Finance Committee and helped navigate the Assembly through difficult budget cycles and funding woes. Deputy Mayor Greg Smith said he jokingly used to call her the best student in class.
“She was just prepared, had always done her homework, but was also just very thoughtful in her decisions, grounded in values, and (I) just always appreciated her perspective, even when we differed,” he said.
Woll called her time on the Assembly a privilege of a lifetime.
“I think it’s easy when you read the news and go on the internet to feel like the fabric of our society is falling apart,” she said. “I feel like my time in this room gives me optimism about what we can do as a community.”
Assembly members applauded Hughes-Skandijs for her strong commitment to her values. During her eight years on the Assembly, Hughes-Skandijs chaired the Assembly Lands, Housing and Economic Development Committee, and was a major proponent of new housing projects and development across the borough.
Assembly member Ella Adkison said she will miss Hughes-Skandijs’ kind and welcoming presence.
“I think your real superpower is knowing when to be this Assembly’s rock and knowing when to rock the boat,” she said. “I hope to channel that going forward because it’s brought this assembly to so many places. I don’t think we would have gotten without you.”
Hughes-Skandijs called being on the Assembly “one of the biggest honors of my lifetime.”
“I feel like it’s one of those things that I wish that everybody in Juneau could do, because it gives you such a better understanding of our community and the people in it, and the passion that the community has for the community and for one another,” she said.
She offered a slice of advice to her successors.
“My biggest hope for you all is that while you’re in this room making these hard decisions, you think of everybody who’s not in this room because that’s who you’re making decisions for,” she said. “It’s all the other folks who are outside of this room who elected you to make the decisions.”
At the meeting, the Assembly unanimously reappointed Smith as deputy mayor, and Adkison as the new finance committee chair.
