GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The race to be Green Bay’s mayor takes center stage, as incumbent Eric Genrich and challenger Chad Weininger squared off Thursday night in what likely will be their only debate.
The candidates did not hold back on their criticism of one another in the one-hour debate, moderated by the League of Women Voters at Franklin Middle School.
“I know Eric is talking about local democracy, he’s big on that,” said Weininger, the director of administration for Brown County. “During the 2020 election, he disenfranchised hundreds if not thousands of voters.”
“I don’t know that too many people can imagine Chad plotting around in his khakis fighting crime himself,” said Genrich, who has served one four-year term as mayor. “That is why we have a chief of police. That is why we have a police department.”
Genrich proclaimed public safety his number one priority.
“Over the last four years, we’ve increased the police department’s budget by nearly 13% — $4 million,” said Genrich. “It’s the largest increase of any department in the city of Green Bay.”
Weininger says Genrich could have done more for public safety had the city joined a lawsuit against opioid makers.
“We’re missing an extra $2 million to help the county in its effort to fight opiate addiction that is going to save lives. That is going to save little kids from dying,” said Weininger.
The candidates also clashed on whether enough is being done to bring in economic development to help combat increases in property taxes.
“We’re not doing very well in development,” said Weininger. “We’re known as one of the worst places to do business. We’re not as agile as our neighbors.”
“Just the other day, I was talking with a developer from the city of Milwaukee who hasn’t yet done work beyond that city but is really interested in coming to the city of Green Bay,” said Genrich. “So, we’re always looking at opportunities to grow that tax base.”
The two also debated a topic that has somewhat overshadowed this race: the use of audio surveillance at city hall.
“If it was just a public safety issue, then it just would have went to the police office. No one else would have had access to it,” said Weininger. “That makes me quite concerned because I, in good faith, have gone to the city hall to negotiate on the C Reiss deal. I’ve had private conversations with our corp. counsel out in those halls. So, I don’t know what was listened to or what was not listened to.”
“The people that brought this lawsuit against the city of Green Bay all have political or financial ties to Chad Weininger,” said Genrich. “It is perfectly fine to have a discussion about these sorts of security systems, but this was not something that was done in good faith. It was something that was undertaken in an underhanded way by allies of Chad Weininger.”
Genrich and Weininger also differed on whether more can be done to fix the city’s streets.
“Twenty-two miles of city streets, 11 bridge improvements over the last four years, but as we were talking about with those shared revenue enhancements, that’s what is really going to be necessary for us to be able to continue to move the needle,” said Genrich.
“Eric talks about doing 22 miles of road,” said Weininger. “We have 580 miles of road in the city of Green Bay, so if you divide that out, that’s less than 1% a year — I think .008%. We need to be at 3% just to stay even. So, there’s a funding issue there.”
Voters will be heading to the polls in less than three weeks on April 4.
While Genrich handily won this race four years ago, but Weininger had 87 more votes than him in the four-person Feb. 21 primary.
