GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt is reflecting on sixteen years in office as he prepares to step aside and welcome a new face into the role.
By the end of Tuesday, we’ll know whether that’s Eric Genrich or Pat Buckley.
No matter who it is, Mayor Schmitt recommends getting out, spending as much time as possible with residents, and enjoying the little things.
“Eagle Scout ceremonies, the 100-year-old birthday parties, the neighborhood block parties,” explains Mayor Schmitt. “I mean those things will give the mayor a lot of knowledge and additional confidence.”
Schmitt is not publicly endorsing either candidate and mentioned that he wants to do his best to make it an easy transition for either candidate, no matter who is victorious Tuesday.
One of his pieces of advice to the new mayor is to get out of city hall as often as possible and gain insight from the residents themselves.
“The council is an elected body, but you don’t want to get all your advice in the walls of city hall,” he explains. “You really want to get out and be with people as much as you can.”
During his sixteen year tenure, Schmitt oversaw considerable growth in the downtown area, including the completion of the Hotel Northland restoration.
When reflecting on highlights, he pointed to various successful long-term projects in the downtown area, but ultimately finds satisfaction in high morale throughout the city.
“If the pride is higher than it was sixteen years ago and people are more confident to live here and kids are more willing to stay here and not move, then I’ve done my job,” he says.
Some moments of difficulty during his tenure included pleading guilty to three campaign finance misdemeanors in 2015.
But, Schmitt appears to have a clear conscious when looking back at his career.
“No, I really don’t have any regrets,” he says. “I mean, I made some mistakes, but you live long enough and you do enough things you’re going to make a mistake or two.”
For him, the past handful of months have been different without hitting the campaign trail and vying for votes like he’s accustomed to doing this time of year.
“It’s the first time my name hasn’t been on the ballot in twenty years,” he says. “And that’s different just with voting, it’s like, where’s my name?”
Schmitt was around Green Bay City Hall on Monday as many of the items and gifts he’s received in the past sixteen years in office he’s now giving away to the public.
Some of those items have come from friends, other mayors, and international students in the city.
Schmitt says he has an item to give to the new mayor following the election, but is keeping that in his office for safe keeping.
