Deputy City Clerk / Manager, Legislative Services
Position Overview:
The Deputy City Clerk of a municipality plays an important role within the local government organization; the role is enabled under section 74(2) of the Local Governance Act.
Reporting to the City Clerk, this senior position has a significant level of responsibility and autonomy that requires professionalism and tact. The successful candidate must have the ability to take initiative, manage time, and work independently. The incumbent will be responsible for Council minutes, agenda development, organizing meetings, maintaining official records, supervising administrative staff, managing departmental correspondence, coordinating public inquiry responses and performing the statutory duties of the City Clerk in his or her absence.
As Deputy City Clerk and a manager in the Legislative Services team, you oversee, manage, and coordinate the activities and services of assigned functions and program areas within the Clerk's Office; coordinate assigned activities with other services, outside Agencies, Boards and Commissions, and the general public, and provide highly responsible and complex staff assistance to the City Clerk.
Key Result Areas
As Deputy City Clerk you enhance the ability of the City of Saint John to fulfill its service mandates; working collaboratively across the organization to ensure service delivery continues to address the needs of the community.
• Consider Council's priorities and directions for the organization and evaluate the extent to which progress is being made to ensure service delivery is customer focused and resource conscious.
• Enable the governance, structured debate and decision-making processes of Common Council and its committees in compliance with relevant legislation, bylaws, and procedures.
• Assist the City Clerk in assuming responsibility for the accurate recording of Common Council proceedings and actions; attend Common Council meetings to take notes and record Common Council meetings, proceedings and actions; prepare minutes, agendas, correspondence.
• Oversee the maintenance of Common Council minutes, agendas, historical records, bylaws and zoning codes.
• Assist with the Right to Information requests if/when required.
• Assist in the administration of municipal elections and Common Council orientation.
• Strengthen ties between the Corporation, the City's Agencies, Boards and Commissions and other organizations that share a commitment to the sustainable development of Saint John and the delivery of quality public service; ensuring there is alignment between the activities of these organizations and Council's priorities. Serve as staff on a variety of committees; prepare and present reports and other necessary documents.
• Encourage personal and professional development activities that foster a culture of collaboration and creativity; focusing on building relationships across the organization, external agencies including Agencies Boards and Commissions, other levels of government, and the public in support of a positive, productive and collegial workforce.
• Foster a commitment to quality customer service in the delivery of municipal services; ensuring courteous, knowledgeable, and responsive interactions with citizens that help to demonstrate the value of public investments (tax dollars) into the community.
• Provide balanced direction and attention to all areas of responsibility within the organization unit.
• Promote a collaborative and coordinated approach to service delivery, working with service areas across the organization as required, to more effectively and efficiently achieve community and organizational goals.
• Fulfill regulatory requirements of the position in accordance with all relevant legislation that affects the City including municipal bylaws, relevant provincial legislation including the Local Governance Act, Municipal Elections Act, Privacy and Right to Information, Archives Act and applicable policies and bylaws that govern the City's records management functions.
• Ensure service objectives, policies and systems are aligned to efficiently address community needs.
• Review with appropriate staff the annual work plan in accordance with Council's Priorities and corporate strategic objectives; ensuring services can be delivered effectively within available resources.
• Select, train, motivate and evaluate assigned personnel; provide or coordinate staff training; work with staff to correct deficiencies; implement discipline procedures.
• Demonstrate accountability for service results by ensuring clear outcomes for service delivery are established, performance is measured and publicly reported, and service improvement strategies are implemented.
• Support staff of all service areas and agencies in achieving their operational mandates through the provision of timely, complete and accurate Council/Corporate information by: ensuring departmental records and document management systems, and related policies, methods and procedures, meet or exceed professional and legislative standards and operational requirements; ensuring compliance with all legislative/bylaw requirements; and providing support to strategic management initiatives by serving on and/or leading project teams and implementing information management solutions with corporate implications.
• Optimize the utility and availability of the official information resources of the City of Saint John to the Common Council and the public by: developing and reviewing strategies and policies in accordance with identified needs of Common Council and the public; maintaining a formal EDMS and related policies and procedures consistent with the needs of the Council and public; ensuring the development and maintenance of cataloguing, archiving, indexing and retention policies and procedures to aid timely and accurate access and research; and investigating and recommending areas for continuous improvement.
• Support and develop employees through effective departmental leadership by modeling organizational values; setting and communicating clear performance expectations; providing a safe, quality, motivating work environment; managing employee training and development, and resolving issues, sensitively, confidentially, effectively and in accordance with organizational industrial relations practices.
• Ensure the financial integrity and functioning of the Office by assisting in planning, creating and monitoring the annual Operating Budget.
Service Areas of Responsibility
• Council Governance and Procedures
• Records and Information Management
• Right to Information and Protection of Privacy
Essential Qualifications:
• University Degree in Business, Arts, Sciences or another related degree
• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible and relevant experience in government or a large corporation is essential
• Understanding of policies and procedures in public sector organizations
• Ability to analyze information and exercise sound judgment
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and meet established deadlines
• High regard for confidentiality
• Proficiency with MS Office (Word, PowerPoint)
• Ability to transcribe from dictation, notes, and electronic recordings
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a team environment
• Highly organized and able to handle changing workloads
• Previous supervisory experience
Competencies
As a member of the management team the incumbent must demonstrative the following competencies:
Strategic Leadership: Developing and inspiring commitment to a vision of success; supporting, promoting and ensuring alignment with the organization's vision and values. More specifically, the incumbent provides leadership in the development of the vision and strategic objectives for the organization and aligns change initiatives with organizational values.
Customer-Focus: Identifying and responding to current future public needs; providing service excellence to both internal and external customers. More specifically, champions a strategic direction of being a customer focused organization.
Accountability: Understanding scope and responsibility in the delivery of public service. More specifically, charts the future direction of major components of municipal service and ensures alignment with strategic directions set by Common Council as well as stewardship of the best long-term interests of the community.
Collaboration: Building working relationships with others (including Internal and external) to achieve common goals and positive results. More specifically, the incumbent facilitates collaboration across the organization and with other organizations.
Innovation: Questioning status quo, exploring alternatives and responding to challenges with creativity using intuition, experimentation and fresh perspectives. This involves encouraging leadership and fostering creativity in others. More specifically, develops an environment that nurtures creative thinking, questioning and experimentation.
Results-Oriented: Focusing personal and team efforts on achieving results consistent with the organization's strategic objectives.
Compliance: Follows organizational and security policies; maintains confidentiality and protects business information; and maintains required corporate records.
Communication: Listening to others and communicating in an effective manner that fosters open communication within the service stream and across the organization to foster a collaborative and productive workplace. More specifically, the incumbent communicates strategically to achieve specific objectives.
Influence: Gaining support from and convincing others to advance the objectives of the organization. More specifically, the incumbent designs strategies that position and promote ideas and concepts to stakeholders.
Developing Others: Providing a supportive environment for enhanced performance and professional growth to foster the development of others. More specifically, the incumbent creates a continuous learning environment ensuring there are opportunities for growth and development.
Working Environment
Work schedule includes mandatory attendance at all meetings of Common Council held at night and/or on the weekend. Work environment is both formal and informal, team oriented, having variable tasks, pace and pressure.
The successful applicant may be eligible to participate in a Flexible Time Options Program which includes the option of working a 4 or 5-day work week, subject to business requirements.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we live and which we serve. We encourage and support applications from Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minority groups. Candidates who belong to such groups, who are qualified, will be given preference at the time of selection.
Applications will be accepted through our online system only. Qualified applicants should submit their cover letters and resumes to:
City of Saint John
Attn: Hiring Committee
www.saintjohn.ca (careers/employment opportunities)