The Staff

Abstract

The staff of a unit of local government may be defined as the non-elected employees engaged in assisting the representative organs (and the chief executive) in the preparation and the implementation of the local policies.¹ It is that group of persons says J. S. Mill, “which constitutes the permanent strength of the public service, those who do not change with changes in politics, but remain to aid… (s.c. the political official)… by their experience and traditions, inform him by their knowledge of business, and conduct official details under his general control; those, in short, who form the class of professional public servants.”² Staff members may be employed in the provision of a wide variety of activities; they may be clerical workers, manual workers, police and firemen, and professional workers such as teachers, doctors and engineers.