Brown County Supervisor Patrick Evans is pushing for an advisory referendum on the November ballot. He wants to know how voters feel about the County Board's invocation at the start of Board meetings that includes the words God and Amen.
You'll recall, last month the Board voted down a proposal to replace the prayer with a Moment of Reflection that would be free of religious references. NBC26 spoke with a supervisor who supported the now failed measure.
"I voted to have it be changed, because I feel that we need to have more diversity and be more inclusive here in Brown County," said District 8 Brown County Supervisor Megan Borchardt.
Now, Supervisor Evans, who's also running for Green Bay Mayor, has submitted paperwork asking for an advisory referendum to be placed on the November 6th ballot. It would ask voters, "Should the Brown County Board of Supervisors continue to open their monthly Board meeting with a Christian style (prayer) Invocation?" Evans hopes voters say yes.
"I personally hope that people support it. If they don't that's understandable too, but it's the will of the people and I believe in that," he said. "This is not a slight against any other religion. It's just more of saying this is the tradition we have. Let's have the people of Brown County have their say, and we'll put it to rest from there."
If the advisory referendum gets approval to go on the ballot, voters would not be voting to make a change. It would just gauge how people feel about a faith-based invocation at the County Board meetings.
Both a committee and the full County Board must approve Evan's request in August for the question to appear on the November ballot.
