A local official

I served for many years as a minor functionary in the Civil Service, dealing mostly with the problems involved in getting one Office to comprehend what another Office was doing.....or more likely, not doing.  This is a problem in modern government, since so may laws and regulations tend to stipulate contrary outcomes to the same situation.....the persons who have to untangle the twists and knots of it all are called Staff.....when one group of Staff conflicts with another group of Staff, it's a problem for Senior Staff.....usually people who are becoming grim and jaded and are longing already for Retirement....

An Expediter,  under the latest edition of the Omnibus Civil Service Reform Act....is someone who is tasked with bumping the heads of Senior Staff together until they actually accomplish something.....I thought I was about done with my tour in Civil Service after ten years as Expediter,  Senior Grade, when I was summoned one afternoon to the Office of Advancement.....where I was informed that I was being advanced.   I was being assigned to fill a vacancy in the Miscellaneous Agency.....to replace a sitting official who had met with an unfortunate accident.....of the fatal sort.  There would be a pay upgrade involved, and so larger responsibility would be involved also of course, and I was assured that the Staff involved at the proper level had every confidence in my ability to handle my new tasks.....oh, and you are now a Shielded Officer.

So at the beginning of a new work week I wended my way deep into a Government Office building I had never seen or heard tell of before, to begin a new phase of my career.....dealing with the type of thing that sticks to your boots if you step in it.....well, there was more pay and higher status involved, right?