To the editor:

What a laugh when I saw the front page of the newspaper with the comments of John Faria.

Though I have tended to vote more Democratic in my choices I have never considered a party affiliation over the best candidate for the job on the Town Council. In my opinion, this is the most organized cohesive and thoughtful town council thus far.

The choice of Mary Parella as the chairwoman was smart and excellent regardless of the party. Though Nathan and Ed are great visionaries, experience in a chairperson’s role is important as I learned first-hand with David Barbosa at the helm of the search committee for harbormaster. His experience was invaluable, not because he is a Democrat, but because of his long history on the dynamics of how things work.

When Mr. Faria (whom I have never met) refers to "same old, same old" I laughed at the hypocrisy of the statement because every single thing he mentioned was in fact old-school and ironically what he accused Tim of. I can't imagine going back to the condescending tones and the eye rolling of previous town council members. Those were embarrassing times for our town.

Our present Town Council has been impressive especially in their ability to be open-minded and collaborative with the town businesses and organizations of our town. Tim adds light and a calm approach to the panel; Ed and Nathan add a smart business focus; and Mary and Halsey add thoughtful questions and years of Bristol experience. Tony Teixeira as the Town Administrator rounds out our leadership to a new level and the combination of all of them acting like grown-ups shows a refreshing level of admirable maturity that frankly I have never witnessed.

I am finally proud of the leadership of our tight-knit community.

If Mr. Faria would stop thinking like a pouting John Boehner and start thinking like a visionary who can cross party lines to get important initiatives done, we could actually lead our state with our ideas for a change. Staying in the lines and in the old square box of yesteryears' master-level party mentality will not help our town move forward and set precedence for other towns to follow. Isn’t the point of a strong and balanced town council to improve and better our town for our residents and our visitors? Our town may be historically old, but we don’t have to think like that. We can be trailblazers who work together with kind hearts and laser light focus on what the future holds and how we want it shaped.

As a 13-year successful business woman in town, and a 25-year resident, mom, community activist and absolute lover and supporter of our incredible authentic Town of Bristol, it is my hope that we can stop focusing on party division and come together to help each other be more successful.

I really hope Mr. Faria can change his old school approach to small town politics with his lack of vision and replace it with what can be.

Alayne White

11 Constitutution St.