It always happens in a city election. Someone takes issue with how much city staff are paid, or how many city staff there are, or asks what the heck do all those city staff do all day?
City staff, of course - similar to earthquake drills - are best advised to get under their desks during election campaigns and just wait until the dust settles.
Part of the reason for targeting staff is pretty simple: many of us in the private sector are simply jealous of them. They, for the most part, have job security, great pensions, weekends off, and better food vending machines and coffee.
In exchange for all the goodies they receive, they get to be piñatas for politicians and taxpayers. That is, until those same politicians end up having to get said staff to pull together endless reports and sit in endless meetings listening to politicians spout campaign rhetoric that has little to do with the reality of running a city. Then said politicians usually realize they need the staff and redirect their scapegoating to other levels of government - until, of course, they want to run for positions in those government offices.
Now, do we think that all city staff are hard-working angels? No, of course not.
We've exposed, through our newspaper, some pretty outlandish abuses over the decades. But, for the vast majority of city staffers, days are spent toiling to ensure taxpayers get good service for their dollars.
Strangely enough, in this city, none of the candidates target the fire depart-ment staff ratios or demand core service reviews of the police service. No, that just might be politically unpopular and - heaven forbid - lose them some valuable, and powerful, support.
But who would really miss it if a couple of city planners, bylaw officers or recreation workers disappeared? No one - well, perhaps no one until you wanted a development project approved, that rat-infested house next door cleaned up, or someone in the community centre to make sure your child didn't get pushed around by some other kids.
