Ganim tells employees to stop talking to media without permission

BRIDGEPORT — As he gears up for re-election in 2019, Mayor Joe Ganim is cracking down on city employees speaking to the media without permission and coaching.

On Wednesday, Janene Hawkins, head of labor relations in City Hall, circulated a communications and media policy signed by Ganim and Assistant Chief Administrative Officer John Gomes.

All city employees, departments and subdivisions are supposed to alert Communications Director Rowena White about a media inquiry and provide the reporter’s/ news outlet’s name, questions asked and deadline.

“The Director of Communica- tions is responsible for the coordination of citywide media relations and for ensuring accuracy, consistency and quality in the city’s overall responses to the media,” reads the policy. “Together, we will discuss the query and a response. The Communications Director will be available to assist with clarifying points and/or to verify the information being discussed.”

Hawkins in her email wrote, “Please govern yourselves accordingly.”

Such a policy is hardly unusual in the public sector. A similar effort to control the message was implemented under Ganim’s predecessor, Bill Finch, in late 2009.

But when Ganim successfully challenged Finch in the 2015 Demo- cratic mayoral primary, he often mocked his opponent’s communications operation and efforts to keep information from getting out of City Hall. Ganim pledged to be more transparent.

And initially under his first spokesman, Av Harris, Ganim — who had enjoyed plenty of free press during the campaign — had a looser approach when it came to allowing employees to talk to reporters. Staffers were asked to give the mayor’s office a heads up about any conversations with the press, but generally were trusted to handle themselves if they were comfortable doing so.

While White, hired in February 2017, has tried to make sure all media inquiries go through her, many of Ganim’s department heads have still remained more accessible to reporters than Finch’s were.

Employees under Finch rarely responded to calls from the press. Finch had a prickly relationship with some in the press, often complaining that negative news reports undermined his efforts to improve Bridgeport and its image.

Ganim became more guarded when it came to some in the media after losing August’s Democratic gubernatorial primary to now Governor-elect Ned Lamont.

When one Hearst Connecticut Media reporter accustomed to texting Ganim questions did so in late August and early September, the mayor twice-responded, “Please don’t text me. Thank you.”