CITY OF JANESVILLE DIVERSITY STATEMENT:
The residents of Janesville choose this community, not just as a place to live, but as a place to realize life’s opportunities. We strive to sustain a community culture where differences are recognized, understood, and appreciated. As such, the City of Janesville recognizes the importance of developing an environment where diversity is not merely accepted but embraced and celebrated. As public servants, we believe everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. To this end, we will diligently recruit and retain the most talented employees in an environment that fosters maximizing one’s potential. Therefore, we encourage individuals from all backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to consider employment with the City of Janesville and serve the residents of “Wisconsin’s Park Place”.
OBJECTIVE:
Under the general direction of the Assistant to the City Manager, this position leads and coordinates the City’s communications and public information program. The Communications Specialist develops and implements comprehensive communications strategies to foster effective engagement between the City and its stakeholders with particular emphasis on supporting communication between the City Manager’s Office and City employees, residents, media representatives, elected and appointed officials, business leaders, and community organizations.
This position is responsible for managing a broad range of communication and public outreach initiatives, including the development and execution of social media campaigns, website content design and maintenance, strategic marketing efforts, branding and messaging initiatives, and public engagement activities intended to enhance transparency, awareness, and community involvement.
RELATIONSHIPS:
Reports to: Assistant to the City Manager
Supervision Exercised: Has no regular supervisory duties but may delegate work to Intern or Executive Assistant.
Maintains regular and effective working relationships with appointed and elected officials; Department, Division, and Office Heads; City employees, business representatives; community organizations; media representatives; and the general public.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Essential duties are not necessarily listed in priority order.
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Develops, executes, and refines, as necessary, a public communication strategy that is aligned with the City’s mission, goals, and strategic objectives.
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Manages the development and maintenance of the City’s website, Intranet, and other information platforms as the City deems appropriate to ensure an efficient, effective, and user-friendly information source.
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Manages and coordinates the City’s main social media presence to include regular monitoring, posting, and timely response to citizens’ questions or concerns, and oversees the social media presence of other City departments.
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Serves as a liaison between the City and news media; develops press releases for distribution; monitors and informs City Administration of pertinent media coverage; and responds to media inquiries, including providing interviews.
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Develops and implements the City’s annual legislative program, including establishing a legislative agenda; monitoring legislative issues; and communicating the City’s interests to Federal, State, and other local policymakers and administrators.
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Coordinates the writing and development of surveys, newsletters, informational brochures, messages, videos, and presentations for distribution to the public. Updates existing and new brochures/letters/forms, as needed.
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Develops and executes a strategy for collecting and utilizing community feedback. Maintains open lines of communication with all community organizations and provides prompt responses to requests for public information about the City.
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Serves as the City’s Public Information Officer (PIO), and as such, responds to activations of the City’s Emergency Operations Center and works in conjunction with other City leaders to coordinate crisis management communications for the City.
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Plans special events and assists with the successful execution of the City Manager's Office events.
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Prepares agendas, policy statements, reports, and other materials for City Council meetings and meetings of other governing bodies, as required.
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Adheres to all departmental and City safety policies, practices, and procedures; reports any unsafe activities to supervisor or the Human Resources Office.
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Attends professional development workshops and seminars to keep abreast of trends and developments of municipal government. Maintains knowledge of emerging modes of communication and assesses their applicability to, and/or inclusion in, the City’s communication program.
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Serves as a member of various staff committees, as assigned and may serve as a member on various community boards or committees.
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Follows all safety regulations, policies, and procedures; reports all unsafe conditions and acts to supervisor; reports all accidents to the supervisor immediately whenever possible; follows recognized safe work practices.
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Performs other special projects and other duties as assigned or required during regular and non-business hours, including providing support as a part of any City response to essential or emergency operations.
EQUIPMENT, INSTRUMENTS, AND MACHINES:
Machinery and equipment including personal computer, printer, telephone, fax machine, copier, scanner, 10-key calculator, camera, and other standardized or specialized office equipment.
WORKING CONDITIONS AND PHYSICAL FACTORS:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Work Environment:
The employee will spend the majority of the working day inside speaking with other employees or members of the public. The working conditions in the office are comfortable. The noise level is generally quiet to moderately noisy.
Physical Demands:
While performing the duties of this job, the employee regularly works in an office environment. An individual in this position is frequently involved in sedentary work, which requires sitting for the majority of the time. This position occasionally walks, stands, stoops, kneels, crouches, crawls and exerts up to 25 pounds of force by lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, or otherwise moving objects. The employee is frequently required to see/observe, talk/speak and listen/hear; use their hands to finger, handle, feel or operate objects and equipment; repetitive arm, wrist, hand and eye movements are included. There is frequent twisting, reaching, wrist turning and grasping. The employee may be required to climb or balance.
Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. Hand-eye coordination is necessary to operate computers and various pieces of equipment. Employee is required to use cognitive ability to reason, analyze and verbalize thoughts and ideas. Requires the ability to recognize and identify similarities or differences between characteristics of colors, shapes and sounds associated with job-related objects, materials or tasks.
Work Schedule and Additional Requirements:
The position has a regular Monday- Friday, 40-hour work week schedule. Attendance at meetings and special events before and after regular business hours may be required.
DISCLAIMER
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related or a logical assignment to the position, or is responsive to the needs of the City of Janesville.
The job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and employee and is subject to change by the employer as the needs of the employer and requirements of the job change.
The City of Janesville, Wisconsin is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer.
