Director Community Planning and Services

Director Community Planning and Services

Summary:
The Director of Community Planning and Services (DCPS) is a senior leader with progressive experience in policy development, program management, and budgeting. The Director works directly with a network of public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders who are deeply committed to the success of the region. The Director oversees the staffing and provides leadership on an extensive range of work activities in the areas of regional economic development, housing and homelessness, public health, human services and land use. The Director has extensive experience with strategic planning with proven success in building consensus among local and regional thought leaders on developing solutions to meet the region’s goals. The Director works closely with the COG Executive Director and reports to the COG Deputy Executive Director for Regional planning.

Duties / Responsibilities:

• Proven ability to work collaboratively and develop consensus among external leaders and within the internal teams.
• Advisor to the Executive Director and the COG Board of Directors on program areas within the Department, including but not limited to housing and homelessness, economic development, public health, planning, and human and family services.
• Working with partners in the public, private and nonprofit sectors throughout the region, develop a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) and having the region designated by the US Economic Development Administration (EDA) as an Economic Development District (EDD).
• Convene and coordinate state and local level efforts of Economic Development Agencies to advance the region’s economic goals and implement the CEDS initiatives
• Leverage ongoing DCPS activities to support the regional economic development strategy and generate opportunities for more federal funding and technical assistance to COG’s membership.
• Work with the region’s Housing Directors and other stakeholders to advance COG’s Housing Targets to increase the supply of strategically located affordable housing and address homelessness.
• Convene and support the Health Officials Committee, Human Services Policy Committee collaborate to advance the region’s public health and human service goals
• Facilitate and build consensus across all DCPS programs among elected officials, senior government staff, business leaders, and civic organizations to advance the mission and priorities of COG.
• Work with COG’s Transportation Planning department, to convene the Planning Directors Technical Advisory Committee in developing the region’s Cooperative Forecasts of population, employment, and household growth.
• Prepare and oversee the implementation of the annual work program and budget for the department.

Job Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in urban planning, public administration, public policy or related field
• Comprehensive knowledge of the principles and practices of regional planning, public administration and research and policy analysis
• Proven ability to help group of diverse senior officials reach consensus of matters of common interest.
• Proven problem solving and reasoning ability to evaluate local and regional issues and develop potential solutions
• Excellent verbal, written communication skills including presenting to large groups.
• A minimum of ten years of senior-level work experience in one or more of the following subject areas: economic development, housing, public health and substance abuse, human and family services, public safety, and community planning
• A minimum of 5 years of executive / senior management and supervisory experience in a similar organization
• Preferred experience working with elected and/or senior elected officials
• Strong program and fiscal management experience including analytical abilities
• Demonstrated experience in Word Processing (Microsoft Word), Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) and Presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint) software
• Experience analyzing and applying demographic and economic data at the local and regional level
• Knowledge and familiarity with data visualization tools, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and their application is desirable

Supervisory responsibilities:

This position does include supervisory responsibilities:

• Direct supervision of Department managers
• Broad technical and administrative supervisory responsibilities for professional and support staff
• Supervisory responsibilities shall be administered in accordance with COG personnel policies and practices and relevant federal, state and local laws