Legislative Affairs Manager
(Public Information and Affairs Administrator)
This position is scheduled to receive salary range increases on the following dates:
Effective June 28, 2024 – 4.25% increase
Effective June 27, 2025 – 4.00% increase
Salary may be negotiable within the range listed above, based on position requirements and successful candidate's qualifications, subject to appropriate authorization.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
This recruitment will establish an open eligible list that will be used to fill current and future Public Information and Affairs Administrator positions. The eligible list established may also be used to fill position in similar and/or lower classifications thought the County of Orange.
DEADLINE TO APPLY
This recruitment will be open for a minimum of five (5) business days and will remain open until 11:59pm on Monday, April 1, 2024. Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply immediately.
COUNTY EXECUTIVE OFFICE
The County of Orange, County Executive Office implements policies of the Board of Supervisors, supports County departments, oversees the County's infrastructure and real estate assets, prepares the annual County budget, and assists the public. County Executive Officer Frank Kim is the highest-ranking appointed executive in the County and works with members of the Board of Supervisors and their staff, elected and appointed department heads and the County's 18,000 employees to oversee the provision of essential government services through 22 departments. The County Executive Office is organized into six divisions: County Operations, Finance, Human Resource Services, Information Technology, Real Estate and Government & Community Relations, which includes Legislative Affairs.
Office of Legislative Affairs
Reporting to the Director of Government & Community Relations, the County Executive Office of Legislative Affairs (CEO-LA) is responsible for protecting the County’s interests in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., serving as the primary representative between the Board of Supervisors, county departments, and the County’s state and federal elected officials and their staff. The Board adopts a Legislative Platform document in advance of each two-year legislative session, which includes legislative priorities, policy statements and bill proposals that benefit the County. Additionally, the Legislative Platform identifies resources and programs that need to be protected from potential reallocation or elimination.
CEO-LA uses the Legislative Platform to direct the County’s legislative advocacy strategies with its state and federal lobbyists to deliver positive outcomes on legislation that benefit the County, defeat legislation that hurts the County, and secure millions of state and federal grant funding to provide the critical services to our residents. These core functions are managed through the Legislative Affairs Program and the Grants Administration Program.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Reporting to the Legislative Affairs Director, the Legislative Affairs Manager plays a highly visible leadership role in the ongoing strategic alignment with the County Budget Office, the Deputy CEO and CEO-LA. This position co-manages the day-to-day responsibilities of the County’s legislative affairs program, with specific legislative and fiscal analysis for County Budget Programs III (Infrastructure & Environmental Services) and IV (General Government Services). The Legislative Affairs Manager maintains consistent communication with each of the county departments in Programs III and IV in a client-servicing role.
The primary duties include, but are not limited to:
- Researching and preparing bill analyses and recommended legislative actions for the Board of Supervisors via the Legislative Bulletin, a regular item on all Board of Supervisors meeting agendas.
- Tracking legislative bill activity of interest to the County and preparing a weekly status report to the Board and County Executive Office. This requires ongoing conversations with Legislative Affairs Director, County Executive Officer, the county’s lobbyists and trade associations, legislative staff and other stakeholders to determine which of the more than 3,000 legislative proposals have any potential county impact. This review normally reduces that number to approximately 300 bills of interest and subsequently following the progress of each.
- Coordinating with the County’s legislative advocates and trade associations to execute legislative advocacy strategies that achieve desired outcomes, including real-time monitoring of policy committee meetings and/or floor sessions.
- Assessing operational and fiscal impacts to County departments of proposed legislation or regulations.
- Developing proposed bill language with County Counsel for sponsored legislation.
- Drafting and developing the County’s bi-annual Legislative Platform document.
- Coordinating the ongoing training and development of County department legislative coordinators.
- Identifying and coordinating strategies for opportunities for the County to secure grant funding and/or pilot programs for key County priorities and initiatives.
- Coordinating with CEO Budget and county departments to develop and enact proposals for County-sponsored budget requests and grant funding opportunities at the federal and/or state levels.
- Communicating recommendations accurately and concisely (orally or in writing) on legislative budget proposals and funding opportunities that impact the County, consistent with County and Board priorities. Key audiences include:
- The Board of Supervisors and/or their Executive Aides.
- County Executive Officer and Executive Team.
- County department directors and program managers.
- County legislative delegation members and their staff.
- Staffing advocacy trips with members of the Board of Supervisors and/or county department staff and attending applicable trade association conferences or events.
- Responding timely to requests for information from Board offices, the County Executive Officer and Executive Team, and county departments.
- Developing internal planning documents to track progress and outcomes of department projects within required deadlines.
- Managing or assisting with high profile and/or sensitive department-wide assignments, as needed, and other duties as assigned to support the County’s legislative and grants programs.
DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS & CORE COMPETENCIES
In addition to the minimum qualifications (as defined in the class specification), the ideal candidate will possess a minimum of three (3) or more years of experience in the following areas:
- Working on legislation before the state government, either as a policy committee analyst, a legislative staff role to a member of the California Legislature, a California Department or Agency or equivalent, or a local government entity.
- Demonstrating understanding and applied experience of the state and/or federal legislative process and calendars.
- Demonstrating knowledge and understanding of California county governments, including the state budget funding process for critical/mandated programs.
- Analyzing regulatory and/or legislative policy proposals to assess operational and fiscal impacts.
- Writing and developing bill language and corresponding advocacy collateral including fact sheets, infographics and talking points for elected officials or high-level executives.
- Demonstrating strong political instincts and judgement when interacting with the Board of Supervisors and other elected officials and their staff.
The ideal candidate will also demonstrate extensive knowledge, skill, and functional expertise in the following core competencies:
Technical Knowledge l Experience
- Researching and analyzing state and federal legislation.
- Analyzing budget proposals for potential impacts to County programs and resources.
- Performing program, organizational, or administrative analysis, policy analysis, legislative analysis and other high-level work.
- Working directly with elected officials and their staff.
- Applying own expertise to add value to the organization.
- Applying functional knowledge/skill to solve problems and reach sound solutions.
- Providing high quality, technically sound recommendations.
- Identifying opportunities to partner with other stakeholders to advance the County’s objectives.
- Maintaining confidentiality and discretion when dealing with sensitive information and issues.
- Identifying and using resources to promptly and successfully complete projects and overcome challenges.
Leadership l Managerial Skills
- Leading confidently by taking personal responsibility for decisions and actions.
- Aligning organizational vision with County strategic goals and department business objectives.
- Building effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Demonstrating strong political savvy.
- Promoting flexibility by planning for the effects of organizational change.
- Initiating and displaying a willingness to change in order to obtain and sustain key business initiatives.
- Actively promoting teamwork by creating a culture and environment that supports individual and team empowerment.
- Demonstrating ability and commitment to leading employees to meet goals and objectives while identifying and cultivating their talents.
- Confronting conflict directly and objectively with a goal of resolution for all parties.
- Applying high ethical standards of behavior to work assignments, decision making and associations.
Relationship Building l Effective Communication Skills
- Writing multiple organizational documents such as legislative bulletins, communications, white papers and other high-level work with competing deadlines.
- Promoting open, candid information sharing across organizational boundaries.
- Building consensus among diverse groups for the purpose of meeting business objectives
- Presenting ideas and complex material clearly, concisely, logically and persuasively both orally and in writing.
- Communicating effectively with various levels of the organization.
- Ensuring timely, appropriate communication with internal and external stakeholders.
- Applying contemporary technical concepts and best practices to assignment.
- Readily and routinely sharing technical knowledge with others.
Planning | Organization
- Planning, prioritizing and managing time to effectively and consistently meet project deadlines.
- Anticipating necessary resources for project completion and integrating changes smoothly.
- Communicating any project delays well in advance and allocating sufficient time to strategize to minimize delay impacts.
- Exhibiting cost consciousness and conserving departmental and/or County resources.
Delegating work to project team members, establishing expectations, and monitoring activities.
Analytical Skills | Problem Solving
- Demonstrating initiative by identifying new opportunities, barriers that hinder success and unneeded bureaucracy.
- Making sound business decisions based on limited, complex, or contradicting information and relevant public service ethical principles.
- Integrating new ideas and contemporary approaches to problem solving.
- Gathering, analyzing, and applying information skillfully.
- Exhibiting innovation and creativity in identifying and resolving problems as they occur.
- Working effectively in group problem solving situations.
- Recognizing potential adverse consequences of actions and recommending alternative solutions.
- Incorporating educated risk management and mitigation strategies into planning.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Click here to learn more about the minimum qualifications and the physical, mental, environmental, and working conditions for the Public Information and Affairs Administrator.
NOTE: Foreign degrees require an evaluation of U.S. equivalency by an agency that is a member of the National Association of Credential Services (N.A.C.E.S.).
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Application Screening (Refer/Non-Refer)
Human Resource Services (HRS) will screen all applications and supplemental responses will be screened for the qualifications that are highly desirable and most needed to successfully perform the duties of this job. Only those applicants that meet the qualifications as listed in the bulletin will be referred to the next step.
Structured Oral Interview | SOI (Weighted 100%)
Candidates will be interviewed and rated by a panel of subject manner experts. Each candidate's rating will be based on responses to a series of structured questions designed to elicit the candidate's qualifications for the job.
Based on the Department's needs, the selection procedures listed above may be modified. All candidates will be notified of any changes in the selection procedure.
Eligible List
Once the assessment has been completed, HRS will establish an eligible list of candidates. Candidates placed on the eligible list may be referred to a selection interview to be considered for present and future vacancies.
Please note: The information you provide on your application and/or response to the supplemental questions may be used as a scoring device, so please be thorough and complete in your response. "See Resume" is not a qualifying response and will not be scored in lieu of the required information.
Veterans Employment PreferenceThe County is committed to providing a mechanism to give preferential consideration in the employment process to veterans and their eligible spouses and will provide eligible participants the opportunity to receive interviews in the selection process for employment and paid internship openings. Please click here to review the policy.
Please see below for important information regarding COVID-19 related requirements.
Effective April 3, 2023, it is strongly recommended that County employees working in health care settings and correctional facilities follow vaccination and booster guidelines provided by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Please click here to see the latest guidance for more details.
EMAIL NOTIFICATION:
Email is the primary form of notification during the recruitment process. Please ensure your correct email address is included in our application and use only one email account.
NOTE: User accounts are established for one person only and should not be shared with another person. Multiple applications with multiple users may jeopardize your status in the recruitment process for any positions for which you apply.
Candidates will be notified regarding their status as the recruitment proceeds via email through the GovernmentJobs.com site. Please check your email folders, including spam/junk folders, and/or accept emails ending with "governmentjobs.com" and "ocgov.com." If your email address should change, please update your profile at www.governmentjobs.com.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Click here for additional Frequently Asked Questions.
For specific information pertaining to this recruitment, please contact Katie Koreneff at (714) 834-3306 or Kathryn.Koreneff-Dale@ocgov.com. Orange County, as an equal employment opportunity employer,
encourages applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.