Laura Glesby Photo
Ruiz and Ahmad Monday night with Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola..
Lifelong New Haven residents William Ruiz and Abdul Ahmad hope to increase transparent communication between local voters and their elected officials. On Monday evening, they pitched a tool for making that happen to members of the Board of Alders.
Ruiz gave a presentation about an app that he and fellow native New Havener Ahmad created to the alders during the public caucus session they hold immediately before their regular bimonthly meetings. The app, called PolitiXentral, organizes information about each user’s local, state, and federal representatives in one place. It features profiles of the politicians’ stances and values, as well as their party affiliations and the committees they serve on. At the meeting, Ruiz and Ahmad encouraged the alders to participate in the app’s development by providing brief “mission statements” for users to see.
“Think of it like a LinkedIn, a Facebook, but for politicians,” Ruiz explained.
The PolitiXentral app.
In addition to the profiles of representatives, PolitiXentral consolidates details about upcoming political races. The app recently bolstered its coverage of the New Haven mayoral campaign, which it labels a “hot race.” It presents short statements from each of the five mayoral candidates on topics like “jobs,” “slumlords,” and “school deficit.” Users can view the candidates’ stances in a side-by-side comparison.
The developers asked the alders Monday night to sign up for the app in order to complete their profiles and receive messages from constituents.
After the meeting, Ruiz explained that he and Ahmad created the app after noticing that the city’s website is “convoluted and confusing.” He and Ahmad ultimately aim to increase voter turnout by disseminating clear information about candidates and elected officials in a centralized location. Their app forges a “bridge between City Hall and the city,” Ruiz said.
PolitiXentral was released in beta testing mode in early May, and Ruiz and Ahmad have since altered the app in response to feedback. After a suggestion from Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steven Winter, the pair implemented a messaging component that allows users to contact their representatives within the app. They also added a link for users to register to vote online.
Ruiz and Ahmad plan to build in more features in the future, including reminders about voting deadlines and political events. They anticipate that the app will be fully formed for New Haven residents by July.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison had not heard of the app before Monday’s presentation, but said that she welcomes the “innovative” means of communicating with residents of her ward.
Morrison said that she speaks with her constituents about her work as an alder mainly during campaign season, once every other year. In between elections, she added, “the only thing that’s really recorded is our votes. And the votes don’t always speak to the masses in regards to all the work that we do.”
Outside of campaigning, Morrison uses an email newsletter to update her constituents on her work. But creating that newsletter took an enormous effort. “One of my ward co-chairs helped me go door to door to door to go out and gather all these email addresses,” she recalled.
PolitiXentral, Morrison said, might provide an easier method of sending updates to the residents of her ward. “I definitely have to look more into it to see how I can be a part of this process,” she said.