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This article shows how efficiency improvements in local finances affect the professional situations of human resource (HR) directors at work in medium size municipalities. Three typical situations emerge from this analysis: the HR directors’ role and position are reinforced; their status as expert are maintained and finally their function is downgraded. But the contribution of this research goes beyond this assessment. It also shows that if elected representatives are more inclined to devote themselves to operational services, they can also take an active interest in functional services, to the point of assuming direct control of them in certain situations.