Director of Parks and Recreation in Elk Grove, CA for Cosumnes Community Services District - Elk Grove, CA (2024)

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Internal Number: 2024-38

The Cosumnes Community Services District's Parks & Recreation Department is in search of an experienced Director of Recreation and Community Services. This pivotal role will provide forward-thinking leadership to the Recreation and Community Services Division staff, programs, and facilities, with a strategic and visionary approach that has a profound and lasting impact on the District and the wider Community.

The Cosumnes CSD Parks and Recreation Department is committed to delivering outstanding parks and recreation services to the vibrant and diverse Elk Grove community. Our mission is to maintain a connected and sustainable park, recreation, and trail system that offers all community members inclusive health, wellness, social interaction, and enjoyment opportunities.

The Recreation and Community Services Division plays a crucial role in the District. The Director will oversee all recreation activities, including managing our recreation facilities, aquatic centers, preschools, afterschool programs, summer camps, adaptive and inclusive recreation programs, special events, sports, aquatics, and volunteers. Their leadership will be key in ensuring these programs' success and our community members' satisfaction.

This position leads a team of full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees in providing essential resources to the Elk Grove Community and visitors. We are committed to facilitating recreation and cultural engagement, providing access to parks and nature trails, hosting a wide range of community programs, improving health and wellness, and creating welcoming public spaces for our diverse Community. In alignment with the District's unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Director applies senior-level professional management principles and practices that critically impact the Community.

The Priorities

• Collaborates with department leadership in implementing the Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Master Plan (Plan for Play), maintaining, and renewing our CAPRA Accreditation.
• Seeks funding opportunities and plans for the Community's needs to realize future projects.
• Oversees and leads the preparation and grand opening of the District's premier CORE Recreation Center, set to open in early 2025 for the residents of Elk Grove.
• Cultivates, collaborates, and engages relationships with community partners through exhibiting good stewardship of physical and financial resources (e.g., City of Elk Grove's Measure E funding) to maintain parks and enhance community programs (e.g., At-Promised Youth and afterschool recreational and enrichment programs).
• Engages staff in developing and maintaining focus on both the District's and Department's mission and vision through transformative leadership by establishing transparent goals and priorities for Recreation and Community Services that include committing to regularly assessing, monitoring, and managing divisional workload demand to ensure sufficient capacity exists, proper resource allocation, and promoting employee work-life balance and wellness.
• Develops, expands, and maintains positive long-term relationships built on trust and partnerships within the District, the City of Elk Grove, and the Elk Grove Unified School District.

The candidate we seek must possess the following leadership, skills, knowledge, and behaviors that create and foster teams striving to enhance a dynamic, innovative, and result-orientated workforce in Recreation and Community Services.

• Managing Vision and Purpose: Communicates the District's vision in alignment with Parks and Recreation's core purpose; talks beyond today; talks about possibilities; is optimistic; creates mileposts to rally support behind our District's vision and values; makes the vision sharable by everyone; can inspire and motivate others.
• Integrity and Trust:Doing the right thing in the right way through transparency and effective communications by adhering to the District's values firmly held with positive intent and a record of accomplishment of results.
• Strategic Agility:Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future-oriented; articulately paints credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategic plans.
• Innovation Management: Ability to bring creative ideas of others to the forefront; displays good judgment about which creative ideas and suggestions will work; has a sense about managing the creative process of others; can facilitate effective brainstorming; can project how potential ideas may play out in providing service to the Community.
• Building Effective Teams:Focuses on implementing practices for leading highly effective teams in unstable and often distributed environments. Builds and guides diverse teams that can navigate the impacts of external and internal forces. Forms, coaches, and leads teams that are resilient and responsive to complex work problems and challenges.
• Approachability:Is easy to approach and talk to; spends the extra effort to put others at ease while being warm, pleasant, and gracious; and is sensitive to others.

Position Summary
Under general direction, this position provides leadership and direction for assigned service areas; manages day-to-day operations of the Department, including working, directing, and integrating administration of recreation programs; Position plans, organizes, supervises, and implements programs, operations, and budgets for or within assigned management functions for the Department; Assignment requires effective working relationships with employees, department heads, businesses and personnel from other jurisdictions, public officials and the general public.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities
The following duties are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of a specific statement on duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position. Each individual in the classification does not necessarily perform all the duties listed. Employees may perform other related duties at an equivalent level as required.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT POLICIES/PRACTICES

• Assists in managing and contributes to the development and administration of the Department's annual budget; directs the forecast of additional funds needed for staffing, equipment, materials, and supplies; directs the monitoring of and approves expenditures; directs and implements adjustments as necessary; evaluate new revenue-generating and cost-saving initiatives.
• Governmental organizational structures.
• Negotiates contracts and agreements, including labor contracts and Collective Bargaining Agreements; determines District needs and requirements for contractual services.
• Prepares and administers contractual agreements for the District and evaluates contract renewals and changes; inspects and evaluates the work of the District's contractors.
• Assists in preparing and administrating bid packages and contracts for park and recreation development projects; coordinates work with other public agencies.
• Monitors laws, regulations, and technology changes that may affect District or divisional operations; implements policy and procedural changes as required.

SERVICE DELIVERY

• Management principles and methods of goal setting, program development, and administration.
• Continuously monitors and evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery methods and procedures; assesses and monitors workload, administrative and support systems, and internal reporting relationships; identifies opportunities for improvement; assists in directing the implementation of improvements.
• Oversees the selection process for consultants; prepares performance specifications; estimates budgets; oversees and coordinates consultant work; evaluates performance and work product; reviews progress payments.
• Conducts various departmental organizational and operational studies and investigations; recommends modifications to programs, policies, and procedures as appropriate.
• Manages the Department revenue generation program; analyzes the cost-effectiveness of programs, facility operations, and related contracts;
• Conducts various departmental organizational and operational studies and investigations; recommends modifications to programs, policies, and procedures as appropriate.
• Responds to emergency calls, mainly when public safety is an issue.
• Attends and participates in professional group meetings; stays abreast of new trends and innovations in the field of public services as they relate to the area of assignment.
• Performs various related essential duties as required.

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SUPERVISION AND MANAGEMENT

• Principles and practices of effective management and supervision.
• Supervises personnel, including training, assigning and reviewing work, planning, maintaining standards, coordinating activities, allocating personnel, acting on employee problems, recruiting and recommending or approving new employees or promotions/salary increases, and enacting discipline when appropriate.
• Conducts performance evaluations of assigned personnel at periodic intervals as required.
• Ensures all personnel are informed of CSD and Department policies and works through subordinate managers to ensure policy adherence.

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION

• Manages and participates in developing and implementing goals, objectives, policies, and priorities for assigned functions and programs reflective of the District's planning efforts.
• Recommends, within departmental policy, appropriate service and staffing levels; recommends and administers policies and procedures.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

• Regularly attends District Board and other public/community group meetings to answer questions; interprets and explains existing policies on behalf of the District; Presents reports to the Board and other legislative bodies.
• Serves as a liaison to other departments, elected officials, divisions, clients, residents, community groups, school districts, and private businesses; attends meetings, as necessary; negotiates and resolves significant and controversial issues.
• Provides courteous and professional service to all facility users, CSD personnel, and the public; ensures staff provides a high degree of service to both internal and external customers.
• Responds to citizen complaints that have not been resolved at a lower level within the Division and Department.

Any equivalent combination of training and experience that provides the required skills, knowledge, and abilities may be considered qualifying at the District's sole discretion. The education or experience requirements may be modified or waived at the sole discretion of the General Manager. At least one of the education or experience requirements must be met; however, both requirements cannot be modified or waived.

The Cosumnes Community Services District Board of Directors shall be notified of such modifications or waivers. A typical way to obtain knowledge, skills, and abilities:

Education and Training:

• A Bachelor's degree from a four-year accredited college or university in public or business administration or a closely related field.

Experience:

• Seven (7) years of full-time work, including in-depth experience in one or more areas of Parks and Recreation management.
• Experience with a local government agency, such as a special district or other agencies, is desirable.
• At least five (5) years of full-time work must have been in a management or supervisory capacity.

Knowledge of:

• Principles and techniques of organization, planning, management, and supervision, including training, performance evaluation, and discipline;
• Basic methods, terminology, principals, techniques, and materials used in the construction, maintenance, and repair of parks, landscaping, and associated facilities;
• Current methods, techniques, principles, and procedures used in the planning, organizing, scheduling, coordinating, and evaluating maintenance and repair projects and activities;
• Public recreation facility management operations and techniques;
• Principles of program and budget administration;
• Current methods, techniques, principles, and procedures used in good internal and external customer service;
• Principles of contract administration procedures, park design concepts, and park master planning;
• Pertinent Federal, State, and Local policies, codes, laws, and regulations affecting landscape construction;
• Computer database programs, desktop publishing, and word processing in currently used programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel;
• Basic methods, principles, and techniques of contract administration.

Ability to:

• Manage, plan, assign, review, and assess the work of diverse staff in the accomplishment of multiple projects;
• Collaborate with communities of color and people traditionally underrepresented in local decision-making; facilitate inclusive participation in programs and activities; communicate cross-culturally.
• Manage a multicultural workforce, promote an equitable workplace environment, and apply equitable program practices to diverse and complex District services.
• Use independent judgment to analyze problems that arise in the areas under supervision and implement solutions;
• Comprehend and prepare reports and forms such as accident and incident reports, inventory lists, budget documents, correspondence, attendance records, news releases, e-mails, policy manuals, timesheets, procedure manuals, and calendars.
• Identify and determine the nature of potential safety hazards and correct or institute corrective courses of action.
• Read, interpret, and apply information from blueprints or drawings related to construction documents, landscape plans, and specifications;
• Apply administrative and technical knowledge to assure contract compliance; follow proper inspection techniques to examine quality and materials; detect deviations from plans, regulations, and standard construction practices.
• Interpret, analyze, and advise District staff on industry-related laws, rules, regulations, ordinances, and policies.
• Present ideas effectively, verbally and in writing; prepare and make public presentations.
• Develop and implement effective techniques for facilitating and improving parks and recreation programs and services.
• Plan, organize, assign, and coordinate the activities of a professional, technical, and clerical staff; build a high-performance workforce.
• Exercise sound independent judgment with general policy guidelines.
• Exercise tact and diplomacy in dealing with sensitive, complex, and confidential issues, including personnel management.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with the Board of Directors, managers, labor organizations and their representatives, officials of other governmental agencies, community and business organizations, the media, employees, and the public.
• Understand the business needs of multiple customers and balance the fulfillment of those needs with consideration of broader organizational, business, legal, and community issues and requirements.
• Mobility: frequent use of keyboard; frequent sitting at a desk and in meetings for long periods; occasionally reaching and twisting to reach equipment surrounding desk; occasional walking, standing, bending, stooping, and squatting; occasional pushing, pulling, or lifting up to fifty (50) pounds;
• Vision: constant use of overall vision; frequent computer use; occasional color and depth vision;
• Dexterity: frequent repetitive motion; frequent writing; frequent grasping, holding, and reaching; frequent operation of office equipment, clerical and financial calculation instruments; occasional operation of equipment such as, but not limited to, irrigation controls, hand and power tools;
• Emotional/Psychological: Constant concentration and decision making; frequent ability to exercise sound judgment under stress; public contact; frequent to moderate working alone,
• Environmental Conditions: Constant work within an office environment.
• Driving: ability to use fine and gross motor coordination for driving a District vehicle.