GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach is firing back at critics of former Health Director Chua Xiong, just days after she finished out her tenure.
Xiong turned in her resignation on March 4.
“She had a job opportunity that came forward that ultimately was something she wanted to pursue for her own professional career,” Streckenbach tells WTAQ. “I’m not surprised in terms of pursuing her career goals, but at the same time, anytime you have a department head decide to resign and take a different path, yeah you’re surprised.”
Streckenbach says before Xiong took the job has the county’s health director last year, she expressed certain career goals to him.
Debi Armbruster has been appointed interim health director, as the search for a permanent replacement begins. Armbruster is a nurse manager in the department with over 40 years of experience.
Xiong became a target for critics in December after deciding there was insufficient evidence linking illnesses reported by residents in southern Brown County who live near the Shirley Wind Farm.
“By statute, she is the only person that can make that determination,” Streckenbach explains. “We allowed for Chua to go through her examination and ultimately to make the decision. I think Chua chose the path that she felt the path, professionally, that she felt comfortable making.”
WTAQ’s Jerry Bader is among those who’ve suggested that Xiong was pressured to make that decision, as a way to avoid having Brown County sued by North Carolina-based Duke Energy Renewables, who owns the Shirley Wind Farm.
“This idea suggesting that I had any involvement is ultimately false and inaccurate,” Streckenbach said, adding that Chua Xiong could only explain her rationale for the decision.
