Freeport Mayor Zach Gent is open for business in virtual office

It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing at the borough offices in Freeport this year.

Day-to-day operations were impacted when the borough secretary had a health issue in September. With no backup secretary to fill the void, the borough offices were temporarily closed.

The events made it clear to Freeport Mayor Zack Gent that a brick-and-mortar office was not enough for him to conduct borough business.

Enter social media — specifically, the Freeport Borough Virtual Mayor’s Office on Facebook.

Gent said he wanted to take advantage of the fact that people have become accustomed to communicating remotely, especially through the pandemic.

“It’s changing times,” he said. “I wanted something set up, God forbid, if a pandemic happens again, I can at least get communications out there.”

Instead of creating a forum for bickering, the Mayor’s Office Facebook page can do more, Gent said. He started the page last month and had almost 200 followers as of Thursday.

“You see other social media pages, and people can be upset on there, trying to bring the town down,” Gent said. “Freeport is going uphill now, and we will celebrate big and little successes.”

Residents who don’t want others to know their complaints or questions can send a personal message via Facebook to Gent for him to answer.

They also can find him at the Freeport Borough offices, now that they have reopened.

Gent was inspired to launch the Facebook page for transparency and to get to know the residents.

Recently, he received an anonymous letter sent to his home and office.

“It was well written, but it bothered me that I couldn’t follow up with that person,” he said.

The mayor’s office can provide knowledgeable answers to questions and information residents should know about upcoming events or changes in the borough, Gent said. If he doesn’t know something, he said, he will find out.

“Officially, I’m the middle man for the public,” Gent said.

His job, as he sees it, is to be there to listen to residents’ complaints or questions. And the communications don’t always have to remain virtual, as some situations call for face-to-face meetings.

Gent recently stopped by to see a resident who wanted to know about the status of a nearby house that was blighted.

“Is she going to trust me more if I meet with her or rather call from the mayor’s office?” he asked. Gent believes the situation required an in-person visit.

Mayors in Pennsylvania are elected executives of municipalities and can decide how to provide information to residents, said James Nowalk, mayor of Whitehall and president of the Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association.

“It’s commendable to be able to get feedback from the people of Freeport and to be able to communicate with the council and hear what people are concerned about,” he said.

Nowalk called out Yaniv Aronson, mayor of Conshohocken, a borough near Philadelphia, for doing an outstanding job of communicating with residents via a monthly newsletter and a Facebook page.

“His communications celebrate events in the town, and he does a great job with social media,” Nowalk said.

As time goes on, people likely will see public officials doing more on social media and coming up with other ways to reach their constituents, just like Gent has done.

“This is a great role for the mayor to play,” Nowalk said.