County of Alameda

DESCRIPTION

Under the general direction of the Fire Department administration or the Fire Prevention Bureau, Fire Department Secretary positions have responsibility for performing a wide variety of difficult clerical and secretarial work and for relieving administrators of administrative details.


DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

Incumbents of these positions perform difficult clerical and secretarial work for Fire Department administration, the Fire Prevention Bureau and the Fire Commission. Positions at the II level work under the direction of the Fire Chief. Positions at the I level work under the direction of a Deputy Chief or division head.

EXAMPLES OF DUTIES

NOTE: The following are the duties performed by employees in this classification. However, employees may perform other related duties at an equivalent level. Each individual in the classification does not necessarily perform all duties listed.

1. Prepares from brief instructions, or composes correspondence from the Fire Department administration. Correspondence may be in the form of letters, memos, reports, official documents or notices to the public.

2. May take dictation from an administrator; prepares correspondence and documents from stenographic notes, typed copy, rough drafts, oral instructions, memos, transcripts of minutes and reports, and Commission agenda and minutes; edits drafts for composition and grammatical structure.

3. Maintains departmental and personnel files and records, general as well as confidential.

4. Assists in the preparation of the payroll in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding; maintains and controls overtime, emergency call back, holiday pay, incentive pay records; prepares overtime reports.

5. Assists in the preparation of the departmental budget; maintains account ledgers, cash balance, income and expenditures; balances budget with monthly Auditor's printouts; prepares budget reports.

6. Acts as liaison with various county departments regarding budgets, finances and confidential Fire Department business; represents the department in meetings and dealings with the public.

7. May arrange schedules of appointments for one or more administrators, exercising considerable discretion in committing the administrator's time or referring caller to another appropriate source of information or service; sets up meetings, makes room arrangements, and contacts other participants.

8. Handles confidential information regarding personnel and policy matters; based on a thorough knowledge of departmental policies, takes responsibility for releasing information to authorized parties; screens phone calls, often personally handling those originally intended for an administrator; compiles a variety of narrative and statistical reports.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

The equivalent of three years of full-time experience in clerical work that requires a typing proficiency of not less than 40 wpm.

NOTE: The Civil Service Commission may modify the above Minimum Qualifications in the announcement of an examination.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

NOTE: The level and scope of the following knowledge and abilities are related to duties listed under the “Examples of Duties” section of this specification.

Knowledge of:

• Modern office practices and procedures, including business correspondence, record-keeping systems and standard office equipment operations, including automated systems.
• Special knowledge of managing and coordinating secretarial aspects of a moderate-sized fire department.

Ability to:

• Perform difficult clerical work involving independent judgment and requiring accuracy and speed.
• Make clear and comprehensive reports and keep difficult records.
• Understand, interpret, and apply laws, rules and written directions to specific situations.
• Effectively meet the public in situations requiring tact and poise.
• Identify and correct errors in English usage and grammar and arithmetic calculations in a variety of documents.
• Evaluate demands on an administrator's time and arrange schedules accordingly.
• Use good judgment in assigning priorities to workload, and working with officials and members of the general public in routine, emergency and emotional situations.

CLASS SPEC HISTORY

BG:sw/lm
Retyped: 2/96
Old document: 1300H.WPF
New document: Jobspecs/8156-8154
ys/9/01

BENEFITS

*** For benefit information, please refer to the recruitment brochure.