David Kotecki's guest commentary, "Passero's ideas don't hold up to scrutiny" (Feb. 15), responding to mine was thoughtful, however, it raises common misconceptions that jeopardize the city's pursuit of regional and private partnership opportunities, such as the missed opportunity because New London is not participating in the regional animal control project.

Any regional effort requires negotiating partnership agreements. Participating in a regional partnership need not require sacrificing good public policy, displacing municipal jobs or engaging in a "race to the bottom."

Refusing to participate by assuming good public policy cannot be achieved with regional cooperation is short-sighted and will lead to missed opportunity.

The public-private partnership that is providing renovated highway rest stops may not be perfect, as little human endeavor is, but it did relieve the taxpayer of the cost of building and maintaining these necessary public facilities, greatly improved quality and is generating revenue.

Now that the New London school construction bond has been approved, I am working with the school building committee to ensure that local businesses can compete for contracts associated with the project and residents are hired for the good paying, career construction jobs created.