Letter: It’s misleading to call town clerk candidates ‘co-workers’

Posted 10/4/18

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 …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: It’s misleading to call town clerk candidates ‘co-workers’

Posted

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

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.