Town hall secretary, this disappearing profession yet so precious in rural communities

Alerte, dans les petites mairies, sur un manque de secrétaire. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

"It's getting hellish". During its last annual congress, in November, the association of mayors of France sounded the alarm about an essential but disappearing profession: town hall secretaries. A very feminized profession (at 94%) and little valued, it is nevertheless essential to the proper functioning of many of our rural municipalities, as these agents multiply the tasks. Budget, civil status, town planning… In small town halls, town hall secretaries are real Swiss army knives. However, the function is little valued. Illustration in Hérault.

Cabrerolles, in the Faugère region, 350 inhabitants spread over five hamlets with landscapes shaped by the vines of fifteen wine estates. In the central town, however, it is the town hall that we first see, perched on a rocky promontory. At the top of the stairs, behind the door, Bruno Laulhé is the receptionist. With a smile that morning. "However, this is not the task he likes the most", teases Mayor Séverine Saur. This will be the only problem. "He is so precious to me every day". Here we are already at the heart of the matter.

Reception, civil status, deliberation, accounting…

Bruno Laulhé is the town hall secretary. One of the two incumbents out of the seven employees of the municipality, whose operating budget reflects the size of the municipality. Little. "350 000 €", he said without hesitation. If he knows the figure, it’s because he establishes the budget. "If it has to stop for a long time, I don't know how I run the town hall", slice Séverine Saur.

The mayor of Cabrerolles, Séverine Saur, in front of her town hall. L.T.

The elected representative illustrates a reality in many town halls in France. In fact, all of the municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants where the secretary, most of the time a woman, assumes many more tasks than the name of his position suggests. "I do a little bit of everything. From reception of course, physical, telephone or email, but also civil status, administrative follow-up of files, deliberations, accounting, payroll, town planning…& quot;, lists Bruno Laulhé.

On-the-job learning. You have to be versatile"

In this last area, if the competence falls to the community of communes of Avants-Monts, the secretary must forward the requests of the citizens of Cabrerolles, ensuring in the process that the files are complete. "Legislation, I learned it on the job. You have to be versatile, he said. The first quality of a town hall secretary. The term used is often that of Swiss army knife.

And the tool is precious when it is well sharpened. The budget in Cabrerolles, for example, is still "1 000 cash lines" and l&rsquo The political objective of reducing debt, to leave room for additional investment without having to borrow. "Contract completed, we released 50 000 € this year", smiles Bruno Laulhé. The same evening in the municipal council, Séverine Saur will be able to vote nearly 500,000 euros; investment, in particular to carry out the energy renovation of municipal housing. "At the start of the mandate, we managed to build a café-media library, a meeting and cultural place", explains the mayor. So many projects for which it is necessary to seek subsidies, and here too, without Bruno Laulhé to ensure the follow-up of the files in this jungle of public financing, it would be easy to see a few tens of thousands of dollars slip away. euros.

Unattractive status

The mayor and the town clerk therefore work in pairs on all subjects. "He is a perfectionist, he always gets things done even on the most technical files. If I link documents, it's just to be informed, I have total confidence in him", assures the elected official. As if to prove it to him, Bruno Laulhé has just reached the rank of principal administrative assistant 2nd class, an advancement to allow him to see his salary increased. He who experienced several professional lives before landing by the coincidences of life a few kilometers away, at the town hall of Laurens then in Cabrerolles, recognizes it: &quot ;They say that the job is unattractive, but it's the status that is not".

The number

71.58%, this is the percentage of villages with less than 1,000 inhabitants in France, i.e. 24,816 municipalities (3,465 out of 4,433 in Occitanie) for which the town hall secretary is an essential cog. However, today there are 2,000 missing according to the Association of Mayors of France. À By 2030, 30% will be available. retirement, the equivalent of 8,000 10,000 town hall secretaries. Currently, 61% of them fall into category C, a status which remains too unattractive for many. the time when we must recruit.

A new replacement system

About fifty kilometers away, in his town hall in Cazouls-les-Béziers, Philippe Vidal is weighing all the consequences, under his role as president of the Hérault territorial public service management center (CDG), organization one of whose missions is the management of local authority personnel. "I am regularly contacted by my fellow mayors of small towns who struggle to find secretaries, including for replacements. These are positions that are insufficiently recognized and insufficiently paid even though they provide significant expertise in view of the increasingly important demands of administrations", he says.

CDG 34 is therefore launching an experiment, at least to compensate for absences. For a year, he will test the recruitment of two secretaries "itinerant", each attached to a community of communes, Lodévois and Larzac for the&rsquo one, Grand Orb for the other. "They will go to town halls according to needs and if there are none, they will be entrusted with missions within the intercommunality. Thus, they will never be without activity, therefore without salary, explains Philippe Vidal. If the unique system works, it will be extended to other intermunicipalities "where there is already demand".

Training, new law

In the long term, while many retirements are announced in the coming years, the president of the CDG is banking on training established in 2021 in each department of the region by the national center of the territorial civil service (CNFPT) in Occitanie for job seekers. And above all, on the recently passed law (read below) which will allow holders to access the category B grade. "Today, as soon as ;a secretary acquires expertise, she is attracted to the administrations of urban centers where career opportunities are more numerous. We must also allow rural areas to be attractive.

In Cabrerolles, Séverine Saur acquiesces. Bruno Laulhé is 59 years old. Within eight years "maximum", his secretary will assert his retirement rights. You will then have to find a new Swiss army knife.

A legislative step forward for the profession

Of all the senators, he is certainly the one who travels the most kilometers, from towns to villages in his constituency. Very è listening to the issues of mayors, the elected representative of Hérault Hussein Bourgi therefore got involved, at the end of Last year, in the debates on the revaluation of the profession of town hall secretary. "If we add the crisis of vocation of town hall secretaries " those of the elected officials, we run to the next level. the catastrophe", expressedé the socialist à the gallery of the Senate, before recalling: "À lawyers, tax specialists, treasurers, town planners, editors, but also psychologists, they embody the municipal public service & human face".

Hussein Bourgi notably contributed, in the writing of the law, to the the new name of the profession, "general secretary of town hall, in order to underline the character of re transversal and protean of this profession" and thus better take into account the realityé missions and responsibilities.

Behind this new name, there will above all be a new grade, the B à the place du C, à from 2028, therefore a better paying salary scale, as well as mechanisms allowing better career advancement. To ensure the proper implementation of this law, promulgated by the President of the Republic on December 30, the ;nator accepted to participate à a committee responsible for monitoring to write the decrees, around the Minister of the Civil Service Stanislas Guerini.

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