The Primary Election for the Outagamie County Executive position will be on February 21st. On Outside the Box, we’ve been taking some time to get to know each of the 3 candidates running, and see what their vision for the future of the county looks like. Today I covered several different topics with Candidate Justin Krueger.
We started the conversation talking about what he is hearing from people as he knocks on doors. Specifically, he told me that he hears about the employment problem constantly, and that he has a 2-pronged approach to address the issue. “Fox Valley Technical College implemented a plan called People 1st. That’s where you take the employees an teach them to take care of themselves, before they can take care of the people they care for… A lot of employees in Health and Human Services are overworked and overburdened.”
He then quickly went on the second part of his plan, where he believes that a change in leadership may be the spark the county needs to see an increase in job applications. “It needs new life. We need someone to provide a spark or rebirth to reignite the county… People used to come here and think “”If I could just get a job with the county, I’ll have a great career”” and I don’t see any reason why it can’t be like that again.”
We started wrapping up our conversation talking about what he would change about County Executive Nelson’s approach to the position, and he said that he would like to start focusing on groups of people (special needs, homeless, elderly) not be receiving the help they may need. He believes that his experience working with people with Autism, will give him an edge when addressing that issue. “County services have the greatest impact on the people that have the greatest need in the community.”
The Primary Election will narrow the choices down to 2 and the General Election will be on April 4th.
To listen to the entire conversation, click down below.
[Spreaker]
