State of Connecticut Executive Branch

In the Department of Agriculture this class is accountable for coordinating and facilitating statewide farmland preservation programs.

Receives executive direction from an Agriculture Bureau Director or other employee of higher grade.

Supervises Property Agents and other staff as assigned.

• Schedules, assigns, oversees and reviews work of staff; 
• Provides staff training and assistance; 
• Conducts performance evaluations; 
• Determines priorities and plans unit work; 
• Establishes and maintains unit procedures; 
• Develops or makes recommendations on development of policies and standards; 
• Acts as liaison with other operating units, agencies and outside officials regarding unit policies and procedures; 
• Prepares reports and correspondence; 
• Performs application evaluation, appraisal, negotiations, survey, and purchase of development rights to farmland; 
• Reports on the status of program to the media, the Commissioner, the Farmland Preservation Advisory Board, the Legislature and the public; 
• Assists municipalities and other state agencies' activities by reviewing plans for projects and recommending opposition or support for projects to protect farmland; 
• Gathers information and prepares Request for Proposal (RFP) materials for United States Department of Agriculture to secure cooperative funds for conservations easements; 
• Prepares paperwork and assures allocation of funds to recipients resulting from farmland preservation programs (state, federal or private sources); 
• Oversees the enforcement of development rights restrictions and regulations and works with the Attorney General to correct violations; 
• Acts as agency liaison to municipal and federal farmland protection agencies; 
• Prepares budgets, letters, and reports; 
• Testifies as expert witness in court; 
• Develops programs for farmland preservation (e.g., programs to encourage municipal farmland preservation or to counterbalance federal legislation affecting agriculture); 
• Coordinates and supervises the agency's property management activities including boundary surveying and maintenance of legal documents, agreements, and maps; 
• Drafts deeds and supervises work assignments under contract to surveyors, appraisers, and attorneys; 
• Coordinates lease program for farm use of State-owned vacant land; 
• Writes regulations and lease forms to implement programs; 
• Coordinates Farm Waste Management Program; 
• Implements program to lessen agricultural damage due to flooding; 
• Performs related duties as required.

• Considerable knowledge of
  • relevant state and federal laws, statutes and regulations; 
  • farming operations and soil characteristics; 
• Knowledge of
  • and ability to apply management principles and techniques; 
  • procedures used in title searching in preparing deeds and related documents; 
  • the effect of deed and tract restrictions and income and estate taxes on property; 
• Considerable
  • interpersonal skills; 
  • oral and written communication skills; 
• Ability to utilize computer software; 
• Supervisory ability.

Eight (8) years of experience in program development and administration involving property acquisitions, land surveys, title searches, and real estate appraisals.

One (1) year of the General Experience must have been in farmland conservation or environmental preservation.

College training in agriculture, natural resources planning, soils science, or other closely related field may be substituted for the General Experience on the basis of fifteen (15) semester hours equalling one-half (1/2) year of experience to a maximum of four (4) years for a Bachelor's degree.

This replaces the existing specification for the class of Agriculture Farmland Preservation Supervisor (35 Hour) in Salary Group EE 28 approved effective February 27, 2013. (Revised to modernize format and add Acknowledgement section. Reviewed for content.) Final No. 23-281