Description
Salary: $35,464 - $48,802
Position Grade: 10G
Department: Multiple Departments
Job Type: Permanent
Examination Number: EX1208
Location: St. Louis, MO
This position is selected for the Hiring Incentive Program. The incentive shall be in the amount of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1500.00). The hiring incentive will be paid (if funds are available) by the Department/Division which appoints the applicant. The hiring incentive is not available to current City employees.
Incumbents in this position are responsible for the growing, care and maintenance of plants, shrubs and flowers in municipal nurseries, parks and building grounds. Duties include: sowing seeds, planting flower beds and transplanting seedlings; watering, pruning, fertilizing, weeding, mulching, mowing, edging and spraying pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
- Performs such duties as plowing, cultivating, planting, weeding, watering, trimming, cutting, pruning and spraying chemicals to control disease and/or insects.
- Diffing, propagating, and maintaining flowers and plant life in a greenhouse or outside bed and planter.
- May also be instructed to prepare and landscape garden areas for improvement, set up floral displays for special events and remove ice and snow from sidewalk.
- Operate trucks, tillers, tractors and other gasoline or diesel-powered equipment related to the job.
- On occasion, a Gardener may be asked to act as lead worker for other Gardeners and/or laborers.
- May transport crew and perform minor maintenance services on assigned equipment. Also check equipment daily before using.
- Use personal protective safety equipment at all times.
- Loads, transports, and unloads plants and materials using stake bed truck, dump truck, front loader, fork lift, and van; transports crew to and from work sites. Instructs crew in planting and maintenance activities as necessary.
- Schedules, distributes/balances and guides the work assignments of co-workers, according to established workflow/assignment requirements, to assist supervisory staff with timely completion of the assigned work load.
- Some positions in this class assist in greenhouse operations and/or may participate in the selection of plants.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Data Utilization: Requires the ability to process, calculate, compute, summate, and/or tabulate data and/or information. Includes the ability to perform subsequent action in relation to these computational operations.
- Human Interaction: Requires the ability to provide guidance, assistance and/or interpretation to others, such as gardening work crews and the public, on how to apply policies, procedures and standards to specific situations.
- Equipment, Machinery, Tools and Materials Use: Requires the ability to operate, calibrate, tune and synchronize, and perform complex rapid adjustment on equipment, machinery and tools such as vans, trucks, tractors, tillers, sprayers, and/or related materials used in performing essential functions.
- Verbal Aptitude: Requires the ability to utilize a wide variety of reference and descriptive data and information such as city policy and procedures, vehicle maintenance reports, product safety data sheets, correspondence and general operating manuals.
- Mathematical Aptitude: Requires the ability to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and to calculate areas.
- Functional Reasoning: Requires the ability to apply principles of influence systems such as, leading and coordinating. Ability to exercise independent judgment to apply facts and principles for developing approaches and techniques to problem resolution.
- Situational Reasoning: Requires the ability to exercise the judgment, decisiveness and creativity in situations involving a variety of generally pre-defined duties that may be subject to frequent change.
- Environmental Factors: Tasks may risk exposure to adverse environmental conditions, such as dirt, dust, pollen, odors, wetness, humidity, rain, fumes, temperature and noise extremes, machinery, vibrations, traffic hazards, animals/wildlife, or toxic/poisonous agents.
- Physical Requirements: Requires the ability to regularly perform moderately physically demanding work, typically involving some combination of lifting, pushing, or pulling moderately heavy objects and materials, twenty (20) to fifty (50) pounds. Requires the ability to stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, balance, bend, and climb in order to perform gardening duties.
- Sensory Requirements: Ability to recognize and identify harmonious or contrasting combinations, as well as recognize individual characteristics of colors, shapes, and textures associated with job-related objects, materials such as coordinating color for beds.
Qualifications
An Associate's degree in Horticulture or a directly related field; OR two years of experience in gardening or landscaping; OR an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
License: Must possess and maintain a valid driver's license while employed by the City of St. Louis. Must possess a valid driver's license at the time of filing application and be able to present it upon request. Please note the type of license, number, class and expiration date on the Employment Application. Only qualified applicants who provide proof of a valid driver’s license will be considered for this position.
Scoring Components and Their Weights
Experience and Training: 100%
May be Subject to:
Background Investigation: Pass/Fail
Medical Examination: Pass/Fail
Documentation of Academic Credentials must be Submitted Upon Request
When completing the Employment History and the Educational/Training History sections of the Employment Application, please be as thorough as possible when describing your education, training and experience relating to this position. Applicants will only receive credit for their experience, training and education as shown on the application. Resumes will not be accepted as a substitute to a fully completed application. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Veterans Preference Points
To be eligible for veteran's preference points, the applicant must submit a copy of their DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty with the Employment Application or upon request. The Director of Personnel may, in their discretion, accept alternate documentation.
City Residence Preference Points
City residents who pass an examination for a position in the classified service and do not receive any other preference will receive a five (5) point preference on a scale of 100 points on the exam. An additional one (1) point shall be added to the passing score of City residents who receive any other preference on a scale of 100 points. City residents must have resided in the City for at least one (1) year at the time of filing their application to be eligible for the preference points.
Accommodations
If assistance with the job application is necessary based on a physical impairment, mental impairment, or otherwise, they should reach out to the Office on the Disabled with contact information. This office will not disclose any information that an applicant or employee has a disability or has discussed possible accommodations without the applicant's or employee's prior consent.
