Sauk County Administrative Coordinator Executive Recruitment

Administrative Coordinator

The Position Overview

Sauk County is seeking an experienced, progressive, collaborative professional with strong communication skills. The following education, experience, management, and leadership criteria have been identified by Sauk County as the knowledge, skills and abilities for candidates to possess and demonstrate.

Sauk County has enjoyed long-term stability in their top leadership position with the former Administrative Coordinator serving for more than nine years, and leaving the position for a county Administrator’s position in a significantly larger Wisconsin county.   

The work involves serving as the County’s chief administrative officer and coordinating the administration for the County’s legislated governmental activities.   The position further coordinates the County annual budget process, County Board of Supervisors meetings, department head supervision, operations for County board committees – commissions – departments and agencies, County policy analysis and recommendations, represents the County in intergovernmental contracts, recommends and monitors long-term capital improvement projects, manage the County’s state and federal grant process, serves as the County’s point-of-contact for the media and civic groups, serves as the general County compliance officer, and represents the County Board as directed.   The position is performed under the general supervision of the County Board of Supervisors.  

The recommendation for appointment of a new Administrative Coordinator comes from the County’s Executive and Legislative Committee, with confirmation by the Board of Supervisors.

The Candidate Qualifications Criteria

Education: Candidates must have completed a Master’s degree in business or public administration, management, government finance, economics, accounting, investment or related field from a regionally accredited institution.  Advanced executive level training such as the ICMA Credentialed Manager program is preferred.   A Bachelor’s degree in business or public administration, management, government finance, economics, accounting, investment or related field from a regionally accredited institution will be considered in conjunction with a combination of relevant work experience.

Experience: A minimum of three to five years of progressively responsible management experience as a Chief Executive/Administrator or Deputy Chief Executive/Administrator in a high performing, comparably sized, growing community, business or non-profit organization with a wide range of duties in operation and management is required.  Past experience of the individual must show high levels of performance in areas that include finance and budget, human resources, economic development and maintaining positive lines of communication at all levels.  County management experience is preferred, but not required.

The Skills and Past Performance Benchmarks

Administrative Ability: Must have demonstrated a high level of ability in ensuring administrative practices is well-organized and up to date in a changing community or organization.  Must be able to analyze systems and provide recommendations with an eye to the future to develop efficient and highly responsive operations for a variety of diverse functions to ensure that they are operating efficiently.  Must possess the ability to manage firmly, but fairly, and have the ability to make difficult recommendations and decisions in a timely fashion.

County Board-Committees-Staff Relations:  Demonstrated ability as a strong relationship builder with solid skills in working with groups such as the Board of Supervisors while managing the County’s relationships with its citizens and maintaining and growing relationships with the County’s Constitutional Officers.  Understands the position’s role and relationship with the Board of Supervisors in managing the daily operations of the County.  Ability, interest and willingness to take time to work with the Board, Constitutional Officers, staff, citizens and various advisory bodies to ensure that they are well informed and understand complex and technical issues.  Should be willing to provide an acceptable level of detail and adequately inform the Board on a regular basis to assure open communication, cooperation and transparency.  Clear and concise written and oral communications with all audiences are essential.  Must be willing to challenge the Board and staff with new ideas and be able to accept constructive criticism and to implement needed changes.  The successful candidate must be able to present all sides of an issue that affect the County to all parties in a clear, concise and unbiased manner.  The individual should be able to participate in development of sound County policies and directives, interpret the County’s policies and carry out the intentions and directions of the Board of Supervisors with energy and enthusiasm.

Budget and Finance: Should have significant experience in successfully managing an operating and capital budget of comparable size and complexity while achieving results in a business-like, conservative manner.  Must have a broad view of activities and events external to the County which could impact the County and its future financial condition.  Must understand the various methods of maximizing resources, financing options and ensuring a wise use of limited public resources while demonstrating the need for and value of long range financial planning.  A clear understanding of how emerging technologies play an important role and the requirement to have a detailed technology investment plan.

Human Resource Management: Should possess solid, high quality skills in managing all forms of relationships and a bright and engaged workforce; providing leadership to department heads but relying on the expertise of staff to carry out assigned functions. Provides the “big picture” to staff while not micro-managing processes.  Must demonstrate a personality that can communicate the Board’s goals, needs and directives to employees in a manner which allows for significant “buy-in.”  Must be engaged with and able to lead and motivate County employees under his/her direction to a continuing level of high performance and demonstrate fairness in dealing with staff.

Community Relations: Must be actively engaged and visible in the community and have the ability to understand the diverse and changing needs of various community groups and private sector entities in Sauk County. Candidate should be able to present a confident image of County government to the community at large.

Intergovernmental Relations: Familiarity with governmental structure and the ability to maintain and expand existing relationships with other local governments, regional organizations, the Sauk County schools and state and federal agencies.  Ability to monitor and understand emerging trends in economic development and state-federal politics that may impact County’s strategic positions and objectives.

The Ideal Candidate Qualities

Utter integrity: ensuring ethical, honest, and personable interactions.
A commitment to public service and representative democracy.
Strong financial management skills with a depth of analytical and problem solving skills.
Deft ability to communicate clearly and effectively.
Strategic, visionary outlook with an ability to remain focused to the details of day-to-day operations.
A commitment to customer service, continuous improvement, and excellence.
Diplomatic and decisive leadership, combining intelligence and common sense with vision, initiative and courage.
A commitment to “best practice” programming and research driven decision making.
A positive, “can-do” attitude that infuses energy into subordinates.
Comfort with and understands the role of technology in effective and efficient service delivery.
Ability to work effectively in a diverse, inclusive and frequently changing environment.
The skills to promote effective team building and consensus on established vision goals and objectives.

The Position Goals and Objectives

As part of the 2016 budget process goals and objectives were established for the Administrative Coordinator.   The new Administrative Coordinator should expect to work with the Board in evaluating and prioritizing these goals and objectives during the first year of employment.

To review the current goals and objectives please visit the search consultant’s website at:  http://www.moffett-associates.com/current-positions.html.

The Compensation Package

This exempt position has an annual salary range is $93,766 to $150,051, commensurate with experience. The County provides the following employer sponsored fringe benefits:

Holiday leave
Executive leave
Sick leave
Vacation leave
Health and life insurance
Wisconsin retirement system
Wisconsin deferred compensation program
Section 125 flexible spending account
Mileage reimbursement and/or a fleet vehicle available for business travel
Relocation package is negotiable

The County makes the following employee discretionary fringe benefits available:

Dental insurance
Vision insurance
Short term disability insurance
Critical illness insurance
Accident insurance
Identity theft insurance