Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will take the oath of office as the United States Ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on Thursday.
President Joe Biden nominated Barrett for the position in August, with the Senate confirming the nomination last week.
This morning, Barrett – who has served as mayor since 2004 – began the process of transitioning authority to Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson at a ceremonial event in his office at City Hall, putting in his resignation as mayor effective 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
Signed, sealed and delivered. Barrett puts his signature on his resignation letter and hands it to the city clerk. pic.twitter.com/M3xU0shLtZ — Victor Jacobo (@victorjacobo_) December 22, 2021
Because he is president of the Common Council, Johnson will serve as interim mayor until a special election is held on April 5. The winner of that election would serve the last two years of Barrett's current term.
A primary will be held on Feb. 15.
Barrett will officially take his oath and his new political position at 9 a.m. Thursday at the office of Judge Lynn Adelman at the Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
