GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Brown County Courthouse was packed on Tuesday with elected officials and well-wishers to witness a new Green Bay mayor be sworn-in for the first time in sixteen years.
Mayor-elect Eric Genrich is now simply, Mr. Mayor.
It’s been a quick turn-around for the former state representative who dominated in the mayoral primary and the spring election.
He says he can’t wait to get to work.
“I mean it’s been great,” says Mayor Genrich. “It’s a short turnaround, which is good because I’m obviously eager to get to work.”
The mayor admits that there’s a lot of things on his “to-do list” right out of the gate, including making a few personnel decisions.
“There is a two-year appointment cycle for our department heads, so looking forward to getting to know all of them better and in a professional capacity,” he says.
Genrich stressed along the campaign trail the importance of forging relationships, which is something he again revisited on Tuesday.
“That’s what I’m most interested in pursuing immediately, is starting off with the right foot forward in a collaborative way,” he says. “Recognizing how much we can do with the county, and the city, and the Oneida Nation.”
To achieve this, Genrich wants to follow-up with action and demonstrate that he’s not all talk.
He says this will manifest itself in heightened accessibility to both department heads and members of the community.
“[I’m] committed to having regular, open office hours,” explains Genrich. “[I’m] committed to being in neighborhoods doing sort of walk and talks with community leaders, with inspection staff, with law enforcement.”
Genrich was sworn-in on Tuesday during a joint ceremony along with Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
The move was a symbolic measure, which was meant to signify the unification between both the city and the county moving forward.
“Really to make that commitment that we are going to be working together in a really positive fashion to move the entire region forward,” says Genrich.
Genrich defeated Pat Buckley in the spring election on April 2 and is succeeding former Mayor Jim Schmitt who decided previously not to run for a fifth term in office.
