Senior Administrative Assistant

Senior Administrative Assistant

Butte County is seeking a highly organized and proactive Senior Administrative Assistant to provide operational support to the Director of Behavioral Health and Assistant Directors. In this advanced journey-level role, you will act as a central hub for department leadership, managing complex calendars, coordinating meeting arrangements, and ensuring the seamless flow of internal documentation requiring executive signature. As a key member of the administrative team, you will attend meetings to record minutes, research and compile data for special projects, and play a vital role in ensuring smooth daily operations of the department. The ideal candidate possesses the discretion and independent judgment necessary to handle sensitive, confidential information.

Note: A training and experience evaluation may be utilized to determine an applicant's ranking among qualified candidates. Based upon information provided in this application including responses to supplemental questions, an applicant's education, training and experience (full-time equivalent) may be evaluated. Applicants should provide thoughtful and thorough responses to supplemental questions as they play an important role in this recruitment process. All qualifying work experience that is described or included in responses to supplemental questions MUST also be included and detailed in the "Work Experience" section of this application. "See Resume" is not an acceptable response for any supplemental question.

FLSA: Non-Exempt

Definition: Under direction, oversees and leads administrative and clerical office support functions, including setting priorities and directing the work of assigned staff on a project or day-to-day basis; performs a variety of administrative and secretarial support duties of considerable complexity, requiring thorough knowledge of assigned department, its procedures, and operational details; provides administrative support to assigned department head; performs administrative projects in support of department management; and performs related duties as assigned.

Supervision Received and Exercised: Receives direction from the Department Head or designee. Exercises technical and functional direction over and provides training to lower-level staff.

Class Characteristics: This is the advanced journey-level in the administrative assistant series responsible for regularly working on tasks which are varied and complex, requiring considerable discretion and independent judgment. Incumbents at this level possess a comprehensive, authoritative understanding of department functions and operations, and provide administrative support to a department head in the completion of their duties, in addition to providing direction to staff related to office workflow and processes. Positions in the classification rely on experience and judgement to perform assigned duties. Assignments are given with general guidelines and incumbents are responsible for establishing objectives, timelines, and methods to deliver services. Work is typically reviewed upon completion for soundness, appropriateness, and conformity to policy and requirements. This class is distinguished from the Administrative Technician in that the latter performs technical and/or programmatic support duties requiring an advanced level of knowledge related to the department to which assigned, and the technical aspects of the services provided, operations, processes, procedures, programs, and regulatory requirements.

Essential Job Functions

Examples of Typical Job Functions

• Provides lead direction, training, and work review to assigned administrative and office support staff; organizes and assigns work, sets priorities, and follows up to ensure coordination and completion of assigned work; assists in the evaluation, development, and implementation of work procedures and methods; assists staff in identifying and resolving difficult and complex client and office issues.
• Performs a wide variety of complex, responsible, and confidential secretarial and administrative duties in support of assigned department head.
• Performs administrative projects for department management; researches and compiles background data; maintains records and files regarding department administrative activities.
• Participates and assists in the administration of a department budget; compiles annual budget requests and recommended expenditure requests for designated accounts; monitors budget, contracts, and expenditures; collects, compiles, and analyzes data and information.
• Independently composes, formats, tracks, and prints a variety of documents, department and staff reports, correspondence, memoranda, requests for proposals, agreements, contracts, specifications, grant applications, manuals, charts, spreadsheets, and other documents and materials.
• Edits, revises, and proofreads materials for accuracy, completeness, compliance with department and County policies, as well as for format, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Maintains department head's calendar and makes meeting arrangements; schedules meetings between the department head and County staff, management, elected officials, and external groups or organizations; arranges for necessary set-up of equipment and materials at meetings.
• Researches, compiles, and summarizes data from various sources and prepares a variety of reports according to established procedures and practices.
• Coordinates and performs various duties associated with payroll, risk management, and human resources administration, which may include establishing and maintaining confidential employee records, reviewing and processing employee time records, processing department payroll, and processing recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development, leave management, workers' compensation, and related transactions and paperwork.
• Coordinates and performs various fiscal support work for assigned department, such as monitoring budgets, grants, and fund/account balances; processing accounts payable/receivable; generating purchase orders; assigning account codes and processing reimbursements, payment vouchers, check requests, and invoices in accordance with department and County policies and procedures; prepares bank deposits.
• Serves as recording secretary and provides staff support for assigned committees/commissions including preparing, posting, and distributing public hearing notices, agendas, and informational packets, preparing staff reports, coordinating meeting logistics and room set-up, attending meetings, taking and transcribing minutes, and processing action items.
• Serves as the point of contact for assigned department and department head; receives, processes, and responds to public records requests, complaints, and other requests for information; researches and organizes information; coordinates resolution to problems and issues.
• Explains, interprets, and applies federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations, and department and County policies and procedures relevant to assigned area of responsibility.
• Prepares and processes reports, forms, records, applications, and supporting documentation related to assigned area of responsibility; verifies and reviews reports, forms, records, and applications for completeness and conformance with established regulations and procedures.
• Prepares and coordinates travel and training requests; confirms travel arrangements for conferences and business trips; tracks training attendance and completion; compiles expense reports and prepares staff reports.
• Serves as administrator for assigned department information systems and databases, including setting up and generating reports, updating and maintaining access rights to users and user groups, and participating in business process and system updates.
• Directs the organization and maintenance of accurate and detailed databases, electronic and physical files, and records; verifies accuracy of information, researches discrepancies, and records information; ensures compliance with established records retention schedules including archiving, scanning, and destructing files.
• Performs related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

Knowledge of:

• Principles of providing functional direction and training.
• Modern office practices, equipment, and communication tools used for business functions and program, project, and task coordination, including computers and software programs relevant to work performed.
• Operations, services, programs, policies, procedures, and processes of the department to which the position is assigned.
• Administrative principles, methods, and procedures related to accounting, budget, payroll, and/or personnel transactions.
• Business correspondence writing and the standard format for reports, correspondence, agendas, and related documents.
• Methods of preparing and processing various records, reports, forms, and other documents specific to assigned department, division, or program.
• Basic principles and techniques of research, data collection, and report preparation.
• Applicable state, federal, and local laws, regulations, codes, and ordinances and County policies and procedures applicable to department, division, and/or programs to which assigned.
• Business arithmetic and basic statistical techniques.
• Principles and practices of recordkeeping.
• Principles and techniques for working with groups and fostering effective team interaction to ensure teamwork is conducted smoothly.
• Techniques for providing a high level of customer service by effectively dealing with the public, vendors, contractors, and County staff.
• The structure and content of the English language, including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Ability To:

• Plan, organize, and coordinate the work of assigned staff.
• Effectively provide staff leadership and work direction.
• Perform wide variety of complex, responsible, and confidential secretarial and administrative duties, requiring the use of independent judgment and discretion, with accuracy and speed.
• Review situations accurately and determine and/or direct appropriate course of action using judgment according to established policies and procedures.
• Independently compose clear and concise reports, correspondence, procedures, and other written materials.
• Prepare and process various records, reports, forms, and other documents specific to assigned department, division, or program.
• Maintain confidentiality of information received.
• Research, gather