Town Staff Are Caught in the Middle

A recent post included comments that suggested staff were happier now than in the past due to greater accountability. Follow up comments would contradict that point of view.

They serve to illustrate the difficult position staff often find themselves in.

When politicians are at loggerheads with citizens, often staff find themselves dragged into the middle and/or the target of citizens frustrations with politicians.

Politicians cycle through, but staff make careers. Staff are effectively barred from commentary for fear of reprisals, regardless of who is in power -- yet they are usually the only people who can make fact based evaluations of how things are being run one term to the next.

Even the recent actions of CAO Neil Garbe are not his own. A CAO would not make demands of citizens (or blogs) without clear direction from Council (or would not last long in the job).

So the next time you feel angered towards a staff member -- remember, they are just implementing the policies developed by Council.

As they say "Don't shoot the messenger".

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