New York City has Tony Stark as its Ironman. Carole Triem hopes to be Juneau’s.
She is seeking to be a protector of the city with a second term as a Juneau Assembly member, while also representing the city in the encore of the Ironman Alaska race next year.
Triem is joined by four other incumbents — two other assembly members and two school board members— who seek reelection in their current city positions for this year’s City and Borough of Juneau municipal election.
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Triem said she’s excited to continue her work on the Assembly and said her goals for her next term closely mirror the goals she has right now, particularly, she wants to continue the Assembly’s momentum on trying to bring more housing to Juneau.
Housing has been an issue on her mind since early 2020, but when the pandemic hit, things switched gears for a while. Now that things have mostly settled down, she said she wants to try any and all ideas that could bring the focus back on the housing crisis.
“There isn’t one solution that is going to fix everything, but I think we need to start everything we got to start working on it and see what is going to move the needle,” she said.
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She said focusing on the housing crisis is both “critical and necessary” and said the current steps the city has taken to address the housing issue aren’t enough on their own, but said adding a “stack” of more incentives and policy changes the likelihood of moving the needle toward more housing only goes up.
Another issue Triem hopes to tackle is “to be more longer-term focused on how we spend our money.” She said by looking at the budget from a long-term perspective, she hopes the city can use the money in ways that will benefit long-term issues in Juneau.
She said her former experience training as an economist benefits her role as an assembly member because she said it gives her the ability to “look at things a little differently” and have a more holistic view of city spending and projects.
“We’ve done a lot outside of the budget spending, which is fine, but I don’t think we’re doing a really good job of planning,” she said. “If we are more careful of how we spend our money, we can get better results.”
She said coming into another term, she feels more confident in her ability to figure out what she wants to do and how to do it in order to have more efficient and impactful results.
“I have the knowledge of how the processes work and the issues we face,” she said.
• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or at (651)-528-1807. Follow her on Twitter @clariselarson
