Career Opportunity

Director of Communications - Office of the Assessor-Recorder (9252)

Recruitment: RTF0124368-01106781

Published: July 29, 2022

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal.

About:

Specific information regarding this recruitment process are listed below:
• Application Opening: Friday, July 22, 2022
• Application Deadline: Friday, August 5, 2022 at 11:59 PM
• Compensation Range: $107,302.00-$143,780.00 Annually
• Recruitment ID: PEX-9252-124369; RTF0124368

The Office of the Assessor-Recorder is responsible for carrying out property tax-related functions governed by the State Constitution and State and local laws. Our core responsibilities include locating all taxable property in the City and County of San Francisco, identifying ownership, establishing a taxable value, and applying all legal exemptions. Property broadly includes both real property and personal property owned by businesses. The Office of the Assessor-Recorder is also responsible for recording documents and maintaining those public records. Over 400 different types of documents are recorded annually, including deeds of trust, reconveyances, liens, and public marriage licenses. The Office is also responsible for collecting any transfer tax due upon a change in property ownership. The Office of the Assessor-Recorder strives to conduct our work with the core principals of professionalism and integrity. 

What We Do

Heightened activity in the real estate and business markets means increased demand for the work of our office. Every year, property tax revenue remains the largest single source of funding for the City’s General Fund revenue, representing over $2.4 Billion in Fiscal Year 2020-21. This revenue funds crucial services like public safety, education, neighborhood improvements, and health and family support services. This past year, the dedicated work of the Assessor-Recorder staff to close the property tax roll represented a cumulative value of over $328 Billion and generating over $3.7 Billion dollars in local revenues. This is due in part to strong growth in the real estate market, additional construction across San Francisco, and our office’s efforts in increasing efficiency. In recent years, we have taken significant steps toward modernizing our operations, including kicking off a multi-organization effort aimed at modernizing City-wide Property Assessment & Taxation Systems (Project SMART). Project SMART (System for Managing Assessments, Records and Transactions) is a multi-year project to replace our legacy property assessment system that manages the City’s $328 Billion in assessed property value. The new system will handle all aspects of assessment functions and will be able to integrate with other City systems, specifically the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector and the City Controller's Office.

Role description

The Office of the Assessor-Recorder is seeking a talented Director of Communications to join our Public Affairs team and support the office’s strategy to raise public awareness of the role of the Office of the Assessor-Recorder through engagement and communications activities. The Public Affairs team is committed to connecting diverse communities, particularly those historically underserved and under resourced, to programs that support their economic security and mobility, whether as homeowners or an individual planning for their futures. In fiscal year 2021-2022, the Public Affairs team participated in over 169 events engaging with over 11,000 community members. The position will be responsible for leading external communications and messaging of the Office of the Assessor-Recorder, expanding coverage in traditional, ethnic and community, and social media, and strengthening community outreach and touchpoints.

Expected essential duties for this position may include:

1. Planning, implementing, and managing strategic, goal-oriented communications processes between Office of the Assessor Recorder and our various stakeholders.
2. Ensuring the Office’s message is consistent and engaging both internally and externally.
3. Preparing and editing effective messages and talking points for targeted audience and create presentations, press releases, and content for all channels (e.g., print, electronic, social media, web, mobile, etc.) to promote the department’s values, mission, services, and products. Projects may include, but not limited to, the development of the following:
   • Annual report, infographic reports, and video content for website and social media outlets.
   • Monthly newsletter.
   • Website content updates.
   • Coordinate and schedule media coverage (radio, television, print, etc.) and pitching stories
   • Op-eds and coordinate advertisement placements at various media outlets
4. Supporting the development of brand material for internal, external, and marketing initiatives.
5. Expanding reach to target audience, including women, immigrant populations, younger populations.
6. Discovering interesting data and project milestones for storytelling
7. Responding to and supporting the development of media inquiries
8. Organizing media roundtables/briefings and develop press releases and public service announcements
9. Monitoring coverage, data, and maintain press contact list
10. Representing Assessor at events or press conferences, especially with the ethnic press.
11. Developing and implementing social media strategy
12. Providing curation, quality control, and feedback to members of Public Affairs Team on social media messaging
13. Cultivating opportunities for the Assessor to speak to the community on city resources, city budget, department nuts and bolts.
14. Providing staff support for the Assessor at events as needed.

How to qualify

These minimum qualifications establish the education, training, experience, special skills and/or license(s) which are required for employment in the classification. Please note, additional qualifications (i.e., special conditions) may apply to a particular position and will be stated on the exam/job announcement.

Education:
Possession of a Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university in Journalism, Communications, Public Administration, Business, or a related field.

Experience:
Three (3) years of professional experience working in the field of internal communications, public affairs, public information, or public relations unit. Experience must include one (1) year of professional experience in social media, digital engagement or web content management.

License and Certification:

Substitution:
Additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree on a year-for-year basis (up to a maximum of two (2) years). Thirty (30) semester units or forty-five (45) quarter units equal one (1) year.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Top: social media, proactive, editing, communication skills.
• Effective communications skills including writing, speaking and active listening.
• Experience designing and implementing communications plans and initiatives with a track record of success
• Current with industry developments and ability to stay ahead
• Excellent organizational abilities, and ability to meet deadlines
• Think creatively to come up with new ideas and solutions to support the team’s efforts.
• Be analytical and strategic, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of communications and outreach.
• Multitasker with ability to manage multiple tasks with varying deadlines at the same time
• Tech fluency. Use and run modern gadgets and software to develop communication messages
• Teamwork. Ability work well with people at many levels and across divisions and agencies.
• Schedule flexibility to staff events on weekends and weeknights.
• Additional language skills a plus.

Verification:
Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at http://sfdhr.org/index.aspx?page=456

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

Selection Procedures:

Applications will be screened and evaluated for qualifying experience. Additional screening mechanisms may be implemented in order to determine candidate’s qualifications. Only qualified candidates whose experience best meets the needs of the position will be selected to continue on to additional steps in the selection process, which may include an interview. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement. Qualified applicants with disabilities requiring reasonable accommodation in the selection process must contact the Agency by phone at (415) 554-6000 or, if hearing impaired at (415) 554-6015 (TTY).

What else should I know?

APPOINTMENT TYPE: Permanent Exempt from Civil Service. This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive civil service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer.

This position is able to work with a hybrid work schedule. Schedule flexibility to staff events on weekends and weeknights.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/CityAndCountyOfSanFrancisco1/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “I’m Interested” button and follow instructions on the screen

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

CONTACT: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the Human Resources Analyst, Kimberly Gibney, by email at kimberly.gibney@sfgov.org.

CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT:  All City and County of San Francisco employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Someone is fully vaccinated when 14 days have passed since they received the final dose of a two-shot vaccine or a dose of a one-shot vaccine. Any new hire must present proof of full vaccination status to be appointed. Any new hire who will be routinely assigned or occasionally enter High-Risk Settings, must provide proof of having received a COVID-19 booster vaccine by March 1, 2022, or once eligible.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.