Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim on Monday named Francisco Rivera director of the city’s Emergency Operations Center, putting a longtime city emergency worker in charge of the office that helps steer response when things go wrong. Rivera replaces Scott Appleby, who reportedly retired last year, after David Reyes had been serving in the role on an acting basis.
Ganim said Rivera represents “the very best of Bridgeport’s dedicated workforce” and praised his more than a decade and a half on the front lines of the city’s emergency response, from taking 911 calls to helping manage critical regional incidents. He said Rivera’s institutional knowledge and leadership under pressure made him the right person to lead the center.
Rivera’s path through Bridgeport’s emergency communications system began in August 2010, when he started as a telecommunicator. He later became a certified trainer and was promoted to ECC supervisor in 2012, a post in which he oversaw daily operations and technological troubleshooting for the department. Most recently, he served as acting deputy director of public safety communications, with direct supervisory and budgetary oversight of the 911 communications center.
The city said Rivera was chosen through a competitive civil service process that included several emergency response professionals from the region. His experience also included administrative work involving NCIC/COLLECT and policy drafting, along with responses to multi-alarm fires, severe weather emergencies and the 2013 train derailment. The appointment gives Bridgeport a permanent director with deep knowledge of the department after months of acting leadership.
Rivera said he was honored to take the job and continue serving Bridgeport residents. He said he understands the weight of responsibility for both citizens and first responders, and said his focus will be on effective communication, rapid response, mitigation and preparedness so Bridgeport remains a safe and resilient community.
The appointment matters because the Emergency Operations Center is where coordination and 911 oversight meet during an emergency, and Bridgeport is putting that job in the hands of someone who has already spent nearly 16 years inside the system. With Rivera now in the post, the city is betting that experience in the dispatch room and in crisis management will matter more than a fresh start.
