GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – A fresh face is stepping into an important county position that hasn’t seen a change in leadership going back decades.
Jerry Polus has held the position of Brown County Veterans Service Officer (CVSO) for the past 28 years, but following his retirement on January 4, it’s Joe Aulik that’s stepping in.
Aulik has nearly twenty years of experience in closely associated roles, spending sixteen years as the Kewaunee County Veterans Service Officer and most recently three-and-a-half years as the Director of Veterans Services in Winnebago County.
His official first day in Brown County was on Monday and he is delighted to return to his hometown of Green Bay.
Aulik was introduced at a meeting held inside the Brown County Clerks Building that was attended by Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach and various veteran advocates throughout the area.
Streckenbach explained that the process of appointing Aulik was slightly unusual. He delegated the responsibility to members of a veterans community screen committee, instead of making an executive decision himself.
He explains the thought process behind that decision.
“There has to be a belief that the veterans services officer represents the veterans community and I wanted to make sure that when we made this appointment that the individual truly represented the views and the opinions of the veterans organizations,” he says. “And there’s no better way than to actually ask them to be a part of the process of hiring the next veterans services officer.”
Three of the individuals involved in the hiring process and part of the veterans community screen committee were present on Monday.
Ken Corry, Commander of VFW Post 2037 in Green Bay, says the appointment committee overwhelmingly found Aulik to be the right person for the job.
Corry is excited about the change.
“That breath of fresh air is nice,” he says. “You know, it’s like a new season.”
He adds that Polus was a great leader and served the position well, but he’s excited for the opportunity to have some tools expanded upon in the future.
“Outreach, social media, things along those lines, that maybe weren’t done as much in the past that we can do now going forward,” he explains.
He says that outreach is central to the success of the CVSO role.
“That is how we get some of those veterans that don’t really know about the benefits,” says Corry.
Aulik agrees that outreach and social media will both be major factors in combating what he considers to be a major problem both locally and in the state.
“Major thing that we have in the state of Wisconsin is a suicide problem,” explains Aulik. “We average about four to five in Brown County that every year take their life.”
He adds that currently, over thirteen veterans a month take their life in Wisconsin.
As he assumes this new position, working to put that number in a downward trend will be a major goal.
“Hopefully by connecting them [veterans] with their benefits, maybe we can save some lives and reduce that to zero,” says Aulik.
