GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Three months after a Green Bay resident filed a code of conduct complaint against Mayor Eric Genrich, the city’s ethics board is hearing arguments for whether or not the complaint is legitimate.
Kimber Rollin, who is running for a seat on Brown County’s Board of Supervisors, filed the complaint in November. The complaint includes familiar allegations of misconduct against Genrich for how the November 2020 election was carried out.
“This is more of a general grievance or an elections complaint, much of which has nothing to do with the mayor of Green Bay and has to do with a private individual,” said Daniel Lenz, Genrich’s attorney.
“I’m just an ordinary citizen who filed the complaint as best as I could,” said Rollin.
Rollin’s complaint alleges Genrich violated state laws by allowing Michael Spitzer Rubenstein to run the city’s central count operations for the November 2020 election. Spitzer-Rubenstein is a former Democratic operative from New York, who city officials have said provided election assistance as part of a $1.6 million grant it received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life.
“I am not a lawyer, but I think that Wisconsin statutes states that the clerk is to run the central count, not a man from New York,” said Rollin.
Genrich has denied Spitzer-Rubenstein led election operations.
Genrich’s attorney claims Rollin’s complaint should be thrown out because it wasn’t filed timely per the city’s code, it doesn’t include a violation of the code, and it doesn’t include evidence for a violation.
“I respect that Ms. Rollin is not an attorney, but she was clearly able to review the code to find out the complaint had to be sworn and had to include her address,” said Lenz. “They aren’t particularly difficult provisions.”
Rollin contends her complaint was timely because the code says complaints must be filed within a year of discovery. She claims she didn’t hear about Genrich’s actions until spring of 2021 when documents from open records requests were made public.
The ethics board deliberated in closed session on whether it should allow the complaint to move forward with a hearing. The board returned to open session to state its decision will be put into writing, reviewed, and revealed at a future meeting.
This complaint is similar to another from five residents, filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission. In that case, the complaint was dismissed. The residents are appealing in Brown County Circuit Court.
There’s also an ongoing election review ordered by Assembly Republicans. It isn’t clear when that review will be finished.
