Is Royson James Serious?

From today's fish wrap, Mr. James blames bureaucrats for the wild gyrations taking place on city council:

In such an environment, citizens should be able to depend on city staff for clear and credible accounts of which services are essential and which are frills. Instead, what we have too often is a policy position trumpeted by staff under one regime and reversed by the same staff under a new regime. In other words, too many of the city’s bureaucrats are influenced by politics, not policy.

This, it seems to me, turns public service on its head. In our tradition, the politicians decide policy and the public service give advice and carry out the orders of the politicians. So, yes, the public service can and will produce any plan to fit any policy from those who govern, regardless of which political group is in charge. The civil servants are not "influenced" by politics, they are simply doing their jobs, by following the will of their masters.

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