Sacraficial cow

I am pretty sure I have just been thrown in front of the bus or as our director put it this morning: "We nned to put our sacrificial cows out in the field, we need targets for people." I looked in the mirror.... *urg* I (we, the department) are the cows until we produce documents/criteria for people to shoot at. Oh wait, people love their local government, they will still want to shoot us no matter what we do. As I am learning, we need each side of the fence to be eaqually engaged/frustrated/up in arms, then we might be close to being fair.
I have so much to learn.
I won't go into detail in what we are doing here at the planning department, for I know politics/planning/government talk is going put most people to sleep/ask why they are reading this/poke their eyes out... all at once.
For me, I am trying to be cool as a cucumber. I am going to twist my own arm in order go to yoga and not get the martini that is calling my name...