Administrative Support

An Overview 

The Alexandria Department of Code Administration works in concert with other City agencies and our customers (residents, tenants, business owners, building owners, architects, engineers, builders, contractors, and developers) as part of the safe building team. Our objective is to assist customers to achieve compliance with the Virginia’s Uniform Statewide Building and Maintenance Codes (USBC), and the City Code nuisance and development provisions. This is accomplished through permit processing, plan review, timely and consistent inspections, and education regarding the requirements of the referenced codes. The department contains five divisions: the Permit Center, Property Maintenance Inspections, New Construction Inspections, Plan Review Services, and Administrative Services. Learn about our values, commitment, and goals. 

A Code Administrative Support V handles staff assistance functions involving both analytical and routine administrative responsibilities. The position reports to the Assistant Director and has responsibility for an array of department functions which require daily interaction with all departmental Directors, other administrative staff, Code staff and Senior Management. 

What You Should Bring 

The ideal candidate should have strong judgment and decision-making skills to effectively carry out operational procedures and functions within the department it further requires personal responsibility for the effect of such decisions on operations. Just as important, there is a series of analytical work that is required to facilitate achievement of the department’s overall responsibilities.  Also required in this position are the use of persuasion and tact in interfacing with multiple departments, City staff including senior management, and the Community.

The Opportunity – Examples of Work

• Maintains records used in the administrative management activities of the organization being served, originates all pertinent documentation, and prepares necessary reports required by various City and State Departments and Offices;
• Receives visitors and telephone calls, ascertains nature of call or business of visitors and determines appropriate action, refers important or high ranking visitors to supervisor, takes messages, makes appointments, answers questions, resolves complaints, and explains procedures for obtaining City services in accordance with established policy and procedure;
• Receives incoming mail and controls routing of items among the supervisor's subordinates for appropriate action, reviews responses prepared by supervisor's subordinates for accuracy in format, grammatical content, adequacy in factual information and compliance with established policies, and assembles background information on the completed staff work and/or notifies the supervisor of pending delays;
• Maintains working relationships on behalf of the supervisor by responding effectively to requests by his/her associates, and provides requested information or data;
• Reads incoming correspondence, routes work items to appropriate staff members, takes proper action or prepares answers, and signs routine correspondence of a nontechnical nature;
• Maintains files, records and logs showing status of various matters, maintains accountability of file materials, searches for, assembles and summarizes information from files, and insures that all documents are properly signed;
• Provides advice and guidance to clerical workers within the organizational segment concerning procedural aspects of processing and expediting the work, redistributes workloads to accommodate peak periods, and explains nontechnical policies and establishes priorities on various administrative matters;
• Keeps the supervisor's calendar and schedules appointments and meetings, reminds him/her of appointments and briefs him/her on matters to be considered, reschedules appointments if necessary informing the participants of alternate arrangements;
• Prepares letters and memoranda from the supervisor to subordinates and/or others, relaying policies, instructions and information on routine matters, or special action on specific matters;
• Gathers technical material for use in reports, news releases, speeches, independently corrects and edits those items, and makes arrangements for presentations;
• Assembles, collates, distributes and provides instructions on docket items in accordance with City policy and procedure;
• Takes and transcribes highly technical material including words and phrases commonly used in fields such as law, public safety, engineering, public health or medicine, translates dictation into technical reports or docket items, writes summaries of work conferences and follows up on commitments made to insure that schedules and deadlines are met;
• Types own correspondence and reports and also those of the supervisor;
• Supports the Director's activities schedule with authority to commit his/her time, screens calls and visitors answering most questions without referring to the Director and refers other calls not requiring personal attention of the Director to an appropriate subordinate for special handling, may tactfully postpone immediate discussion on sensitive matters, obtain background information and present available facts to Director when informing him/her of the pending call;
• Writes, edits, prepares correspondence for the Director and other supervisory staff as requested;
• Types own correspondence and reports and those of an urgent or confidential nature for the Director;
• Establishes and maintains a tracking system on matters presented to the Director for official action, determines how such correspondence should be handled and follows up to insure timely action;
• Provides liaison between the Director and subordinate members of the staff, facilitates open and continuous communication among others with whom the Director has working relationships, devises and installs procedures and practices that insure the efficacy of actions taken on administrative management matters;
• Reads publications, regulations and memoranda that pertain to the programs and activities of the Department and refers those of significance or interest to the Director or subordinate staff members;
• Ensures that requests for action or information which would normally receive the Director's attention are referred to appropriate division heads or staff members who can fulfill such requests, monitors results and decides whether important matters should be brought to the Director's attention;
• Makes all necessary arrangements for travel, arranging schedule of visits, making transportation and hotel reservations, notifying jurisdictions and officials to be visited, keeps in touch with the Director while away from the office, writes follow-up letters and submits travel reports for reimbursement of expenses;
• Enters inspections into system;
• Posts charges for inspections and mails statements;
• Posts payments;
• Prepares deposits;
• Prepares and mails certificates;
• Updates addresses and other information as necessary;
  Schedules inspections;
• Writes up and enters complaints into system;
• Prepares agenda; Reserves conference room;
• Takes minutes;
  Prepares meeting summary;
• Distributes summary to staff;
• Sorts mail, stamps, distributes;
• Orders supplies, inventories office supplies, prepares orders, distributes received orders;
• Prepares letters for mailing and distribution;
• Makes office and staff copies of all outgoing correspondences and other requested items;
• Maintains monthly correspondence files for incoming and outgoing correspondences;
• Prepares, sends and tracks certified mailings;
• Maintains master documents, templates and staff directories;
• Reserves conference rooms for training, sends out invitations to participants or distributes registration forms, registers and tracks participants;
• Performs related work as required.

Minimum: High School or GED; at least two years of responsible clerical experience, including some experience in office management activities that involved provision of basic secretarial services such as typing, stenography, filing, reception or preparing reports and correspondence at a level equivalent to Administrative Support III; and completion of high-school level courses in general studies, including English; or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and ability.Preferred: Two Year College Degree; Four years experience and/or knowledge of office management practices and procedures, including good knowledge of word processing; ability to take and/or transcribe diction; ability to verbally communicate courteously and effectively with many different members of the general public; ability to follow complex oral and written directions; ability to maintain complex clerical records and prepare reports from such records; ability to make decisions in accordance with laws, ordinances, regulations and established procedures; ability to plan and coordinate moderately complex work projects requiring assistance of others.This Administrative Support IV position is covered by the Administrative and Technical Collective Bargaining Agreement with AFSCME.

This class specification provides a generalized representation of positions in this class. It is not intended to reflect essential functions pursuant to ADA, nor is it intended to list every specific function and task of this class title. A job class may also have a medical standard associated with specific physical or mental requirements that must be met.