Jim Ridderbush is the newest Green Bay City Council member, replacing former District 8 council member Chris Wery after a 6-5 vote on June 10 by the 11 other council members.
“Thank you for all your support, and I really look forward to working with this council and making it one of the best councils ever, as far as I can say,” Ridderbush said before moving from the public gallery to sitting between council members Ben Delie and Alyssa Proffitt. Wery resigned in May to take care of family health issues.
Ridderbush’s appointment to serve until April 2026 ― effective immediately ― marked the end of a long road for him to get on the City Council. He had campaigned against Wery in 2024 to represent District 8, and prior to that run, he had campaigned in 2018 to represent District 9, ultimately losing to City Council member Brian Johnson.
Ridderbush is no stranger to politics or leadership, much like the opponents he was vying against ― Megan Borchardt, a Brown County Board member, and Mark Anderson, a former president of the Lombardi Neighborhood Association. He serves as the president of the Marquette Park neighborhood association and vice president of the United Food and Commercial Works Local 1473 labor union. He introduced former Vice President Kamala Harris at the Resch Expo during her first campaign visit to northeastern Wisconsin.
When asked to present himself in front of the City Council, he leaned on those years of leadership experience and brought a PowerPoint presentation to make his case as a community-oriented collaborator and consensus builder.
“I can talk to anybody,” Ridderbush said. “I don’t care what political spectrum you’re on. I respect your opinion, and I hope you respect mine, and I like working to solve the problems for the city of Green Bay.”
For his district, he wanted to tackle long-standing speeding concerns along Ninth Street and Gross Avenue, Ridderbush said, as well as traffic and safety concerns that would come with the new Kwik Trip development on West Mason Street. In regard to the city as a whole, Ridderbush believed bureaucratic red tape could be removed to build more affordable housing options. He wanted to support city workers and “keep young people, include minority communities, attract new residents and businesses,” in order to “expand our city’s identity,” according to his presentation.
When asked by the City Council what his top three priorities would be in the city’s upcoming budget cycle, Ridderbush shrugged and said, “Well, roads are probably the priority. Roads are one of the top ones. Yeah, I don’t really know how to answer the rest of it.”
He would look to state legislators to secure funding for roads and infrastructure, Ridderbush said.
Several council members asked questions relating to how candidates would handle criticism and disagreements on issues presented to the council from constituents, other council members or city staff. Ridderbush said he was willing to listen and have his mind changed.
He said you have to have thick skin. “You’ve got to be able to deal with conflict, and you’ve got to be able to be the middleman, and that’s what I do on a daily basis at my job; I’m a middleman between the workers and management, and I try to find [resolutions] for whatever the issues may be.”
Six council members put Ridderbush as their first choice when it came time to vote for Wery’s replacement, just enough to secure a majority in the first and only round of voting. They were Jim Hutchison, Bill Galvin, Joey Prestley, Alyssa Proffitt, Ben Delie and Kathy Hinkfuss.
Five others had put Anderson as their first choice — Jennifer Grant, William Morgan, Craig Stevens, Brian Johnson and Melinda Eck. No council member put Borchardt as their first choice to replace Wery.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Jim Ridderbush replaces Chris Wery following tight Green Bay City Council vote
Reporting by Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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