Who's looking forward to the pre-election period? For many council officers the six weeks before an election are a happy time – no evening meetings, more gaps in diaries, fewer member requests, and a chance to catch up on projects that had been put on the back burner. But for monitoring officers and heads of communications, the pre-election period creates an additional pressure: the need to carefully assess what is or isn't acceptable for the council to say or do during this period of heightened sensitivity.
Many monitoring officers will work closely with heads of communications to make sensible and pragmatic decisions, but there is often a third person in the relationship – the leader or cabinet member who tries to push the boundaries of what is acceptable, always in the direction of laissez-faire. This is where the subjectivity becomes challenging for all, and it's important to maintain a united front as officers.
