GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay’s city council passed a resolution Tuesday night expressing confidence in how the city conducted the November election. However, almost half the council sat out the vote.
Conservatives, including Republican state lawmakers, have alleged Mayor Eric Genrich’s office illegally let outside groups take over decision making from the city clerk for the election. City officials have strongly denied the accusations.
At the virtual meeting, seven Green Bay area residents told city council members it’s time to put allegations of wrong doing with the November election to bed.
“I’m incredibly offended that legislators from both inside and outside this community are spending their time pointing fingers around a conspiracy theory that is rooted in bias, far-right wing ideology,” said Natalie Hoffman of Green Bay.
Two residents spoke in favor of more investigation into a $1.6 million grant the city received to administer the election and conditions that they say came with the money.
“We all want fair elections,” said Sandy Duckett of Green Bay. “We don’t want outsiders to come into our elections and run them for us. That is what we have staff for.”
In response to allegations of wrong doing, Green Bay City Attorney Vanessa Chavez released a 19-page report two weeks ago, detailing how the city conducted the election.
“This report is just another step in dispensing with all of these false allegations, insinuations and innuendos about things that never even occurred,” said Barb Dorff, Green Bay City Council Vice President.
Some are questioning two incidents in the report where Chavez states Genrich sided with advice from an outside consultant, going against the wishes of then city clerk, Kris Teske.
“So the mayor is within the statutory requirements, within his authority to be able to override certain decisions?” Alderperson Brian Johnson asked Chavez during the meeting.
“When I’m looking at it and the only things I’m seeing are these handfuls of issues where there were some disagreements about how things should happen and the mayor’s opinion won out, those don’t rise to that level of indicating the clerk didn’t have supervision or wasn’t in charge. It’s isolated incidents,” answered Chavez.
Five council members (Jesse Brunette, Chris Wery, Craig Stevens, John VanderLeest, and Brian Johnson) decided there were too many unanswered questions to support or oppose the election resolution.
Six council members (Barb Dorff, Bill Galvin, Veronica Corpus-Dax, Kathy Lefebvre, Randy Scannell, and Lynn Gerlach) supported the election resolution, most saying they’re proud of how the city carried out the election in the middle of the pandemic.
Mark Steuer was the only council member to vote against it.
Most of those abstaining said they first want a decision on a complaint filed with the state elections commission, which alleges state and federal laws were violated.
It’s unclear when there might be an outcome to that complaint, which was filed by five city residents including the head of the Republican Party of Brown County.
They also said they want to hear the conclusion of the state Assembly committee on elections, which has been holding hearings on the issue as part of a broader investigation into how the state conducted the election.
Chavez told the council she has provided dates to the head of that committee that would work for her and Genrich to appear in front of the committee.
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