GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay’s new mayor is encouraging residents to take advantage of his “open door policy.”
The initiative by Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich means that for an hour every week residents can come right into city hall and meet with him, without an appointment, to discuss whatever they want.
His first session was Thursday afternoon.
“One gentleman wanted to talk about the condition of the roads,” explains Mayor Genrich. “Another gentleman wanted to talk about transit.”
For him, it’s a new idea to bring to his position in the hopes of building trust between city hall and the community.
Also, it correlates with a number of ideas he brought up on the campaign trail that were geared towards giving residents a voice in local politics.
“The government is us, it’s city residents,” he says.
Mayor Genrich hopes that if community members have felt that their voice was falling on deaf ears in the past, that will change with this initiative.
“It’s not something that I think has been done in recent history, but, I just wanted to send a message that city hall is open to all citizens across the city of Green Bay,” he explains.
He adds that one goal is to hear from residents about what’s important to them so he can better allocate time and resources to get out and tackle challenges head-on.
“I’m really interested in pulling in the input of folks and also pushing out, as much as we can, city business into the neighborhoods,” he says.
Mayor Genrich says he’ll be able to more efficiently recognize the specific neighborhood needs if people utilize the open office hour to its full capacity.
“We’re going to be organizing some walk and talk’s with the mayor’s office and then also some folks from different departments, like law enforcement, and inspection staff, neighborhood folks,” he explains.
For now, Mayor Genrich’s open office hour is Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30, but that could move around in the future.
Updates on his calendar can be found on the city’s website.
