Monday is Beth McEwen’s last day as Juneau’s municipal clerk. She’s retiring from the city clerk’s office after 25 years.
In that role, she’s overseen Juneau’s local elections, the workings of the Juneau Assembly and – occasionally – even performed marriages. She was also named Alaska’s municipal clerk of the year in 2023.
KTOO sat down with her in the Assembly chambers at City Hall to talk about what she’s learned over the years.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Beth McEwen: I’m excited, nervous. Pinch me, I don’t know what’s really happening.
Yvonne Krumrey: Yeah. I mean, you’ve been here for a while.
Beth McEwen: Yeah, I started in the clerk’s office in 2000 – January of 2000 – so it’s been a minute.
Yvonne Krumrey: How did you come into the clerk’s office? Was that something you always wanted to do?
Beth McEwen: When I was going to school and I was studying, I wanted to be somehow in public service. I knew that I always wanted to work with people, and that was my passion from the time I was a kid, you know. Never even heard of a municipal clerk before.
I was a government geek from the time I was a kid. My very first time I ever appeared in the newspaper was as a two year old waving the American flag in a fourth of July parade. So I kind of came at it from a young age that I was always patriotic.
I loved government and all things related to government. I’m sure that’s because my parents, you know, at an early age, indoctrinated me into everything about democracy and how it’s for the people, by the people and of the people.
And when the clerk and the deputy clerk both resigned at the end of 1999 we were without a clerk and without a deputy clerk. And I had been working in the law department for a couple of years by then, and I thought, you know, I don’t know exactly what all the job duties are of a clerk, but it couldn’t be all that different from a legal secretary, so I applied, and rather than having a real job interview, the manager said, “When are you starting now?”
Yvonne Krumrey: I’m curious, what lessons have you learned in your time at the clerk?
Beth McEwen: Oh, lots of lessons. When we first started in 2000—there’s a notice of public hearing requirement that the charter requires that neither one of us were fully aware of the requirement and how that played out.
For the first three months of our tenure in the clerk’s office, we didn’t do it properly. So after three months, every single piece of legislation that the assembly had adopted, we had to readopt and go through kind of an omnibus meeting. I never forgot that lesson learned.
Just emphasized, if there is a notice of public hearing that needs to go out, we’re doing it. And those are just, you know, those are the kind of oops lessons that, once they’re learned the hard way, they stay learned.
And then you pass those on to your successors and everyone else.
Yvonne Krumrey: Is there anything that you’ve seen change in Juneau that you’re especially like, proud of, or that you’re happy to have seen change or grow?
Beth McEwen: I have seen a lot of change, but the one thing that I really am encouraged by is people in this community care about this community, and they care enough to run for office and serve in public, either elected or appointed office. We have over 230 board, commission, committee, volunteer members who serve in some way in our community,
And those caring community members keep coming, you know, and we’re very fortunate that all.
Although I’ve seen lots of change in my tenure, I have seen the dedication of our fellow citizens, be part of the community and care enough to give back to our community as a whole.
Yvonne Krumrey: My last question is, what do you plan to do next?
Beth McEwen: I hop a plane and go to Europe for almost three months, four months, something like that. One of the first things I get to do is a five day immersion French cooking school.
Oh, I guess the other thing that I am doing on that trip to Europe is I’ve always wanted to go to the International Institute, municipal clerks, International Symposium. And it happens to be in England in September, and I was already going to be there, so I’m going to go to a week long symposium as a retired clerk, because it was always during our election season. So it wasn’t like I was ever going to be able to go until I was retired.
