From Jim's Story

One of the best pieces of advice I received as mayor came from former Green Bay Mayor Roman “Romie” Denissen.

As I remember it, his message was simple: if all your advice comes from inside City Hall, you are in trouble.

That became an operating rule for me.

City staff bring essential knowledge. Council members bring the concerns they hear from their districts. Reports and meetings matter. But none of them can replace being present in the community and hearing directly from the people who live with the results of a decision.

That is why I spent so much time at neighborhood meetings, ribbon cuttings, retirement gatherings, funerals, schools, businesses, nonprofit events, and community celebrations. Those were not interruptions from the job. They were part of the job.

You learn different things when people talk to you in a hallway, at a park, outside a church, or while waiting in line. Residents often tell you what is working, what is not, and what government has missed in language that never appears in a formal report.

Visible leadership is not about being seen for its own sake. It is about making it easier for people to reach their government and harder for leaders to become insulated from the city they serve.

Green Bay’s next mayor will face complicated issues. The answers will not come from one office, one political group, or one circle of advisers. They will come from listening across the city and then doing the work of turning what we hear into results.

Romie’s advice still holds: City Hall works best when its doors open outward.

Before I entered public service, I spent years building a manufacturing company in Green Bay. That meant solving problems every day: products, equipment, customers, employees, deliveries, and the rules that come with running a business.

One summer day, a city inspector delivered a notice saying the turning radius at our loading dock did not meet city requirements. That was serious. If trucks could not get in and out, our business could not operate.

We pulled the paperwork, checked the measurements, and worked through the requirements. The dock complied. But resolving the notice took far more time and effort than it should have.

The lasting lesson was not that rules are bad. Good rules protect workers, customers, neighbors, and the public. The lesson was that government has to be accurate, responsive, and willing to listen when the facts do not fit the first conclusion.

It is easy for someone inside a system to see one notice or one file. The resident or business owner sees payroll, a delivery schedule, employees waiting for an answer, and a problem that can grow more expensive every day it remains unresolved.

Experiences like that helped move me from frustration to public service. Complaining about City Hall was not enough. I wanted to help build a city government that solved problems with people instead of creating more distance between residents and their government.

That remains my standard. Listen early. Get the facts right. Explain the answer. Fix what is not working. Then follow through until the resident can see the result.