Position Summary
GENERAL SUMMARY OF DUTIES: Under the general supervision of the City Manager, this position is designed to enforce the city’s human rights ordinances, policies, and programs in accordance with state and federal civil rights laws. The Director will serve as a key advisor to city leadership, oversee complaint intakes, develop community education initiatives, and collaborate with stakeholders with the goal of prevention and elimination of unlawful discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodation, credit, and education. The Director will lead the development of initiatives that create an organizational culture of respect and belonging. This position will have an integral part in supporting organizational efforts to become a high-performance, data-driven, and outcome-focused organization with the ultimate goal of creating a community and organization where all feel heard, respected, and valued through planning, partnerships, and people. The individual should have strong emotional intelligence skills and a continuous improvement mindset.
The ideal candidate possesses the ability to follow a management philosophy that includes principles of curiosity; problem-solving; partnerships and teamwork; and two-way accountability. The candidate should exemplify the City’s SPIRIT statement, the values by which we operate: Service, People, Integrity, Responsibility, Innovation and Teamwork.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE CLASS: Work in this class includes responsibility for executive leadership and administrative and financial oversight in directing the activities of the Human Rights Department. The employee reports to the City Manager and serves as the staff liaison to the Human Rights Commission. Extensive leeway is granted for the exercise of independent judgement, initiative, discretion, and collaboration. The employee in this class establishes and maintains effective working relationships with other City employees, business and community groups, state and federal officials, representatives of the media, and the public. Work is reviewed by the City Manager through reports, conferences and results achieved.
Job Duties
JOB DUTIES:
Administrative:
- Prepare departmental budgets and policy recommendations.
- Supervise employees and oversee recordkeeping activities.
Commission:
- Be familiar with, and able to explain, civil rights regulations, policies, and procedures including the protections within the city code and the role and responsibilities of the Human Rights Commission.
- Provide Commissioner orientation and training.
- Prepare agenda items and reports for Human Rights Commission Meetings in consultation with Human Rights Commission Chair.
- Be familiar with open meetings and open records compliance.
- Attend meetings of the Human Rights Commission
- Assist and advise Human Rights Commission in achieving their assigned functions as outlined in the Code of Ordinances.
Internal:
- Serve as an internal advisor and community connector for City leadership on:
- Community Engagement through relationship building and connections.
- Data analysis by assisting city departments on the use of data to identify issues and address institutional and structural barriers preventing full participation in city programs and civic life including access to city services.
- Strategic goal development on how best to create a welcoming and belonging work and community environment.
Community:
- Establish goals, guidelines, and policies for departmental and commission community outreach and education.
- Identify and lead civil rights education outreach efforts.
- Identify and lead initiatives which will engage the community while ensuring underrepresented voices are encouraged to participate and foster a sense of belonging in the community.
- Represent the City in public forums, community dialogues, and collaborative initiatives sponsored by other entities.
Legal:
- Understand and explain civil rights regulations, policies, and procedures.
- Conduct regular national best practices research and comparative analyses to ensure the City’s continued progress toward goals related to civil rights compliance, training, and enforcement.
- Confer with representatives of federal, state and local agencies, elected officials, and community groups on civil rights issues and activities.
- Review legislative issues relating to civil rightsandattend meetings ofprofessional organizations.
- Facilitate processing of discrimination complaints in collaboration with the City Attorney’s office.
- Evaluate external complaint trends to identify trends needing a response, education, intervention, or referral.
Perform other duties as assigned.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:
- Administration and Management – Skills in strategic planning, resource allocation and coordination of people and resources. Knowledge of finance, planning, marketing, budgeting, practices, techniques, procedures, and administration.
- Leadership – Ability to independently, collaboratively, and proactively lead, take initiative, and multitask. Ability to work with a variety of individuals and groups in a constructive and respectful manner while appreciating the unique contributions that bring together the talents of people across multiple identities and life experiences.
- Team Development, Community Collaboration/Engagement, and Partnerships – Skills in development of teams and partners identifying collaboration opportunities. Developing community relationships across various demographics. Create and implement a shared vision.
- Interpersonal, Oral and Written Communication – Listening to others for comprehension. Communicate through public speaking and writing clearly with awareness of the audience. Figuring out how to use new ideas or things while listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions through active learning and listening. Ability to understand legislative and legal language.
- Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Law and Government: Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Communications and Media — Knowledge of media communication, and techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Data Collection, Analysis and Clerical – Record keeping abilities. High level ability to work with computers and tech, software programs, maintain and prepare reports, design fliers and forms. Working knowledge of computer hardware and software, including Office 365 Suite.
- Critical Thinking, Analysis, Complex Problem Solving and Decision Marking – Analyzing problems, thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem and identify/implement solutions. Figuring out how a system/process should work, measuring how well it’s working and how to improve it to arrive at equitable outcomes. Use deductive and inductive reasoning to solve problems. Create new and original ideas.
- Organizational Systems and Structure Analysis – Knowledge of how systemic and structural policies and procedures impact outcomes; and skill at making recommendations to promote organizational culture change proportional opportunity equitable and unbiased changes.
- Information Technology – Ability and willingness to learn and use new skills and knowledge brought about by rapidly changing information and/or technology. Ability to operate a personal computer using standard or customized software applications appropriate to assigned tasks.
- Emotional Intelligence – Ability to understand and navigate one’s own emotions while being attuned to the emotions of others. Demonstrates empathy, self-awareness, and sound judgment to build trust, foster collaboration, resolve conflict, and maintain positive working relationships in a variety of situations.
Qualifications
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Public Administration, Human or Civil Rights, Political Science, Education, Social Work, or a related field; and
- At least five (5) years of professional experience in government, community or educational programs focused on advancing civil rights and/or community engagement.
- Or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the essential knowledge, skills and abilities.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
-
Juris Doctorate or advanced degree in Public Administration, Human or Civil Rights, Political Science, Education, Social Work, or a related field.
- Experience in local government providing services to community members from a wide variety of backgrounds and demographics.
- Bilingual or multilingual fluency.
Supplemental Information
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT: Employee shall establish their principal place of residence within fifty (50) miles of their place of employment as soon as practicable after appointment, but no later than two years from date of hire.
WORK ENVIRONMENT: Duties include occasional irregular hours and working nights, weekends and holidays. Work is performed in a variety of settings including offices, community meetings, businesses, classrooms, and homes in the community. Frequent independent travel throughout the city is required.
SUPERVISORY STATUS: Administrative
FLSA (OVERTIME) STATUS: Exempt
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