On Wednesday the city announced the launch of Rep'd, a new online, video-based method for all 20 council representatives to field questions from the public and provide information. It will be piloted for six months at a cost of $12,000.
The technology dates back to 2020, according to the company's website, when co-founders brothers Dave and Mike Baumwoll "set out to improve communication within local communities amidst entrenched social media bubbles, relentless trolling, and unprecedented levels of polarization. They created Rep'd to strengthen community connections and restore trust and transparency between community members and those that lead them."
Councilman Scott Burns learned about the tool earlier this year and pushed to deploy it locally. It can be accessed at repd.us/bridgeport.
"So you go on the Rep'd page, you submit a question. We look at it, review it, and if it falls within our domain of responsibility we'll try to put out an answer," Burns said Wednesday. "And it's all video."
Council President Aidee Nieves also liked the video-based communication.
"There's no written responses," she said. "We do these small videos."
Over time, she continued, a library of footage of answers to various inquiries will be built up and readily available. She said council members can also use the technology to make announcements. One hope is that people will become more familiar with their individual council persons. There are two per Bridgeport's 10 districts.
Burns said Rep'd is a more professional and centralized way to communicate with the public "so we don't depend on each council representative doing something on Facebook."
And some members who have Facebook pages use them for a mix of council, political and personal business, which sometimes means attacking rivals or getting into back-and-forth arguments with critics.
Nieves and Burns said policies will be put into place to ensure that is not what Bridgeport's Rep'd site becomes.
"This is more geared toward solely city issues (and) nonpolitical," Nieves said. She added the launch was delayed until after the September primaries and November's general elections. New and returning council members like herself and Burns were sworn in Dec. 1.
"We didn't want to do it over the summer where people were going to say council members are just using this as a political platform," Nieves said.
Callie Heilmann, a leader of the Bridgeport Generation Now civic group, said her group welcomed meaningful improvements to open government and additional tools for civic engagement.
"As a next step, we hope that the City Council will finally livestream all meetings, as well as return to in-person committee meetings," Heilmann said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic most committee meetings are teleconferences, while anyone wishing to sit in on a full council gathering has to do so in-person at City Hall.
Even as Rep'd is being introduced locally the council is also moving forward with a long-discussed effort to hire a legislative director.
The $52,000 to $64,000 position, funded in this year's municipal budget, is currently being advertised by the civil service department. The aim is to provide council members with professional support to help provide research and perform data-gathering, craft policies/legislation and tackle other projects.
The job is a non-union, appointed one. Nieves acknowledged that is not ideal given that it offers little job security if there are changes in council leadership after two years. But, she emphasized, the point is for it to be occupied by a professional, not a political insider or loyalist.
"It could be Republican or unaffiliated," Nieves said, referring to the fact all 20 current council members are Democrats.
She is encouraging individuals who have been involved in similar work with other municipalities, the courts or state government in particular to apply.
"To me the screening process is going to be super high," Nieves said. "The bar is high."
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