The City of Urbana is seeking a collaborative, resourceful, and passionate leader to join its high-performing management team as the Director of Community Development Services.
The City of Urbana is located in Champaign County in east central Illinois. It is home to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the preeminent research institutions in the world. With a richly diverse population, a Big Ten University, two regional medical centers, and a flourishing arts and entertainment scene, Urbana offers its residents and visitors a wide range of exciting and unique urban amenities in a small, charming, and friendly package.
The Community
Urbana was founded in 1833 and is the County Seat of Champaign County. Along with its neighboring municipality, the City of Champaign, Urbana is part of the Urbana-Champaign MSA consisting of over 310,000 people.
Urbana is known for its beautiful neighborhoods, excellent educational opportunities, high quality of life, recreational amenities, and responsive local government. It is a hub for shopping, dining, and recreation in east central Illinois. The community is also home to world-class healthcare provided by two major medical centers: Carle Foundation Hospital and OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center.
Major regional employers include the University of Illinois and several Fortune 500 companies such as Kraft/Heinz, FedEx, State Farm Insurance, Caterpillar, John Deere, Yahoo!, and Intel.
Urbana also enjoys a wonderful stock of historic commercial and residential buildings whose history and architecture illustrate the evolution of the community. The City of Urbana has a very active and robust historic preservation program demonstrating the community’s commitment to carefully safeguarding its rich cultural and architectural heritage while, at the same time, embracing innovative concepts in urban design that will help to shape Urbana’s future.
The Municipal Government
The City of Urbana is governed by a Mayor and a seven-member City Council, each elected by wards to four-year overlapping terms. The Mayor is elected at-large to a four-year term. The Mayor is a full-time position and functions as the City's Chief Executive Officer. The Mayor appoints the City Administrator and the department directors, including the Community Development Services Director. However, the City Administrator oversees the day-to-day activities of each operating department.
The City has an annual budget of $85 million and employs 260 full-time staff. The municipality provides a full complement of services to the residents via the following operating departments: Police, Fire, Public Works, Community Development, Human Resources & Finance, and an Executive Department that houses City Administration, Legal, Public Communications, Human Rights & Equity, and Information Technology.
Community Development Services Department
The Department has 17 employees and a general fund budget of $2.9 million, in addition to several special fund budgets such as TIF, grants, and public arts. Specific departmental functions include land-use planning, zoning administration, economic development, grant procurement and administration, building code compliance, and property maintenance code compliance. Additional activities include oversight of the City’s Arts and Culture Program and Urbana’s Market at the Square.
The Director of the Community Development Services Department is a member of the City’s executive management team and functions under the general direction of the Mayor and the supervision of the City Administrator. The major responsibilities of the Director include:
- Strategic Leadership
- Establishes the strategic direction for the department in alignment with the City’s strategic priorities.
- Build partnerships that foster better citizen services, eliminate barriers to achieving results, create and maintain alliances with key decision-makers, and take full advantage of available resources.
- Department Operations
- Manages, monitors, and evaluates all department service delivery methods and procedures and appropriately allocates required resources.
- Develops, recommends, and administers policies and procedures.
- Engages department managers to plan, direct, and coordinate departmental work plans.
- Serves as a technical advisor to the Mayor, City Council, City Administrator, citizen groups, individuals, contractors, developers, and residents on departmental matters.
- Assists in preparing new city ordinances and revising existing ordinances.
- Oversees all financial aspects of the department.
- Team Management
- Provides effective work direction to subordinate supervisors and employees.
- Facilitates group problem-solving, recognizing positive results, managing conflict, and negotiating satisfactory outcomes.
- Assess and monitor workload and, within City policy, establish appropriate service and staffing levels.
- Works with department staff to develop and retain highly competent, customer-service-oriented staff through selection, compensation, training, and day-to-day management practices.
- Community Engagement
- Maintains effective relationships with governmental officials, community leaders, city boards and commissions, residents, news media, and other key stakeholder
- Represents the City in negotiations with other agencies, community groups, and individuals on various issues pertaining to the full range of community development activities.
Required and Desirable Qualifications
The City will welcome applicants with any combination of education and experience that will provide them with the required knowledge and abilities to perform the duties of the Director of Community Development Services as outlined above. Applicants are generally expected to have a bachelor’s degree in urban planning, architecture, business administration, economic development, engineering, or some other related field. A master’s degree in urban / land use planning, public administration, or some other relevant field is desirable but not required. Applicants should also have at least five (5) years of work experience in community development, preferably as a director or assistant director. Other desirable areas of work experience include building safety, economic development, and urban planning.
The City considers the following skills, abilities, knowledge, and commitments to be essential for the new Community Development Services Director:
- Committed to identifying and meeting the needs of diverse and underserved populations within the community
- Ability to collaborate, relate, and communicate effectively to a broad range of people both inside the organization and in the community.
- Committed to staff development and involvement, with an intentional focus on developing future leaders for the department and the City.
- Exceptional aptitude to anticipate and solve problems, identify alternative courses of action, and to prepare, present, and defend proactive recommendations.
- Commitment to responsive and dedicated customer service.
- Excellent communication skills, including listening actively, presenting effectively, and creating written documents that are clear and concise.
- Demonstrated ability to apply a comprehensive understanding of community development services toward strategic goal setting, complex problem solving, and diverse service delivery.
- Thorough knowledge of municipal finance and budgeting as they apply to the operations and activities of the Community Development Services Department.
Compensation and How to Apply
The annual starting salary for the position is $116,000 to $154,000 DOQ/E. The City of Urbana provides its employees with a highly competitive package of fringe benefits. Relocation assistance may be negotiated with the successful candidate. Apply online at www.GovHRjobs.com with a resume, cover letter, and contact information for five professional references by October 25, 2024. Confidential inquiries may be directed to Mark Peterson, MGT Approved Independent Executive Recruiter, at (309) 825-5091.
The City of Urbana Welcomes Diversity!
We foster an environment that values and encourages mutual respect, inclusion of all people, and utilizing differences and similarities as an organizational asset. EOE.