Bridgeport council amends nepotism policy to allow relatives to serve as city volunteers

The Bridgeport City Council approved an ordinance amending the city's personnel policy to exempt volunteer service in city departments from the city's nepotism restrictions for relatives of elected officials and the city manager.

City Manager Rob told the council the city's personnel policy had been stricter than state nepotism law and effectively barred relatives of elected officials from serving in volunteer roles, including with the volunteer fire department. Rob said the amendment was drafted to address a specific request to allow a councilmember's relative to serve as a volunteer and that staff is working on a comprehensive update of the full personnel policy.

Several council members discussed whether the exemption should cover volunteers in any city department, not only the fire department; Councilmember Matt Van Hoose moved the version that exempts "volunteer service for any department of the city" from the restriction. City staff clarified the change would not apply to appointed boards or paid employment but to unpaid volunteers who would work with city departments.

Councilmember Ben Hughes told the council his son had applied to be a volunteer firefighter and that he would abstain from the vote to avoid any appearance of bias. The motion to approve the ordinance, as amended, was made by Matt Van Hoose, seconded by Sylvia Ramirez, and passed with four votes in favor and one abstention.

Councilmembers said the city's human-resources staff is drafting a larger revision to the personnel manual that will be presented to the council in the future, giving members another opportunity to revisit the nepotism language if they wish.

The ordinance revises section 3.03(a) of chapter 3 of the personnel policy manual; the council recorded direction to make the specified change for volunteer service in city departments.