I took exception to the headline appearing in the Bristol Phoenix on Sept. 20 regarding the two candidates for Town Clerk, as it erroneously categorized them as co-workers. This inadvertently created the impression their responsibilities and knowledge level were the same, as co-workers are typically people who work together for the same hours, reporting to the same management, at the same level of responsibility, doing similar jobs.

In the case covered in the article, the first individual is an extensively trained, certified and experienced manager, who is known to be on-call 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and whose duties and responsibilities cover every aspect of the office of Town Clerk as defined by Town Ordinance, Town Charter, State Statute and Federal law. The second individual is one of four clerical support staff with a defined work schedule, who was hired by and was trained and performs certain routine tasks under the direction and supervision of the first person. 

I see this much like the distinction between Navy commanding officers and support personnel as experience and level of responsibility is vastly different.

Dick Devault, Captain USN (Ret.)

Bristol