Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Council severs ties in Green Bay
Posted June 21, 2007
Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Council severs ties in Green Bay
By Paul Srubas
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
GREEN BAY — Unwillingness to continue working with Mayor Jim Schmitt is at least partly behind the reorganization of the Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Council of Green Bay, which will now operate as an independent, regional council, its leader, Matt Hollenbeck said Tuesday.
The organization, established by previous Mayor Paul Jadin in 1999, will be called the Hispanic Community Council of Northeastern Wisconsin.
The group plans to focus on more regional issues, rather than being limited to Green Bay, and is preparing to become a non-profit 501C3 operation, Hollenbeck said.
The move is related to the organization's growth and for the growing needs of Hispanic people in a wider geographic area than Green Bay, Hollenbeck said. But, although the separation has been in the works for a while, Hollenbeck said its relationship with Schmitt also was behind it.
The city's new immigration ordinance, which requires anyone obtaining a license, contract or grant from the city to promise to adhere to all federal immigration laws, was partly responsible, he said. "Obviously, we have a huge difference of opinion with the mayor's office on that," Hollenbeck said.
Schmitt sought to get the advisory council's endorsement of the ordinance when it was still in the planning stages.
"He couldn't understand why we couldn't support it," Hollenbeck said.
Members of the council also were disappointed when the city began billing the council for the city services that previously had been donated for council activities, Hollenbeck said.
"We're supposed to be an extension of the mayor's office," Hollenbeck said. "He's getting all the publicity benefit from the touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy activities we were putting on, and we were getting the bills. What's the mutual benefit of this relationship?"
Schmitt seldom actually approached the council for advice and didn't attend its meetings, Hollenbeck said.
Schmitt reacted with surprise to Hollenbeck's comments and said the council could have come to him any time with complaints but never did. A city staff member always attended the council's meetings as the mayor's representative, he said.
"I don't know what they expected," he said of the council.
The city's immigration ordinance was an attempt to improve the community and should in no way be construed as anti-Hispanic, Schmitt said.
"I did ask them to support it, and I felt if they truly understood the ordinance, they'd know there was no discrimination or ill-will intended," Schmitt said. "I thought it would be a good thing if they joined in to say, 'Hey, let's do things legally.'"
Schmitt disagreed that he never sought the council's advice on issues.
However, Schmitt agreed that it's probably time for the council to grow beyond Green Bay's borders in its interests, and he said he looked forward to continuing to work with the organization.
"I think the regional approach is the right thing to do," he said. "They should feel good they're growing to be more regional."
Hollenbeck said the organization, as a free-standing advocacy group, will no longer be confined to putting on events and now will be able to take up political issues without running the risk of conflicting with the mayor's agenda.
Filed by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbc...C0101/70621048
