City of Tampa

This is responsible, professional work in researching, developing, analyzing and monitoring grant programs and preparing grant applications for City of Tampa Departments and in line with the City’s strategic objectives in a centralized budget and financial planning office.

An employee in this class is responsible for a variety of tasks associated with locating, developing, and submitting grants and analysis post-award for various departmental programs. This is skilled professional-level work. Tasks are of more than average difficulty and include conferring, communicating, and managing relationships with administrators, management, and other personnel affected by the proposed program. Employee will establish grant scopes, objectives, budgets, and implementation schedules. Employee may be required to inform or advise less experienced personnel of grants management processes and procedures.

Under direction, employees must exercise considerable initiative and independent judgment in the selection of methods and the performance of assigned tasks, in communicating with funding agency representatives to obtain background and technical data and conducting follow-up review and analysis to determine whether the City’s needs and the grant goals and requirement are compatible. Work is reviewed through conferences, oral and written reports, documents submitted, and results obtained.

Researches, identifies, reviews, and analyzes potential grant and other funding sources for department projects from state and federal agencies, non-profit groups and other sources; disseminates information on grant opportunities to supervisor and other managerial staff; meets with various personnel to discuss priorities and the possibility of securing grant funds to meet particular needs and to inform them of the process involved in obtaining funds; conducts follow-up review and analysis to determine if the department’s needs and the grant requirements and goals coincide.

Maintains strong working relationships with staff from assigned departments in order to serve as a key point-of-contact to the grants team, facilitate searches for funding that match departmental priorities and needs, maintain awareness of current department programs and capabilities, and to obtain needed information in a timely fashion. Maintains contact with Accountants and Fiscal Analysts to facilitate smooth post-award implementation and reporting processes.

Works with department management and operational staff members and with representatives of other city departments to establish the scope, objectives, budgets, and expenditure reports for the grant; Writes grant proposals consistent with requirements of the funding agency.

Responsible for developing and submitting grant applications to potential funders with minimal oversight and assistance from Supervisor.

Establishes contact and maintains relationships with relevant community organizations and external stakeholders to develop partnership opportunities for grant projects; Serves as a key point-of-contact to community organizations in the assigned grant topic areas and represents the City of Tampa Grants Division in meetings with community organizations.

Provides consultation, guidance, and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.

Assists with preparation of annual, quarterly, and monthly budget reports, plans, and projections for all grant related appropriations; coordinates with the Accounting Office in management of grants; Assists with reconciling the City’s General Ledger, the PPM Ledger, and various Federal and States grants management systems; Assists the Accounting Office in the preparation and review of the City’s Annual Single Audit and the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards and State Financial Assistance.

Conducts research and pursues learning opportunities relevant to assigned departments and grant topic areas to familiarize oneself with relevant key concepts, standards, and best practices to facilitate discussion with assigned departments and write well-informed grants while requiring minimal subject-matter assistance.

Reviews agenda items relevant to grant activity; coordinates the acceptance process of local, state, and federal grants and cooperative agreements for the department, including reviewing and occasionally drafting City Council resolutions for contracts and awards involving grants; Provides information for background and narrative of agenda items and/or confirms revenue and expense accounts for the fiscal impact section; ensures that applications and awards are processed through the applicable City of Tampa grants point of contact such as accounting, budget, and appropriate departments.

Leads grant kickoff meetings to ensure grant implementation team is aware of reporting, procurement, and financial grant requirements. Participates in quarterly grants meeting and holds other grant meetings as necessary to maintain consistent and frequent dialogue with assigned departments and establish strong relationships.

Independently plans, designs, and conducts non-grant related research as requested; analyzes research data and recommends policies, procedures, and other courses of action as a result of the analysis; conducts statistical and other qualitative analyses and verifies the accuracy and consistency of selected data; prepares reports.

Assists others in monitoring grant activities to assure compliance with various grantor requirements; provides post-award administrative support such as requests for budget revisions and grant extensions from the grantor agencies; interprets directives, policies and procedures, contracts, cooperative agreements, federal and state guidelines, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars and Florida Statutes as they pertain to grant funding and audits; prepares or assists grant projects managers in compiling and reviewing progress reports and determining eligibility of expenses for grant reimbursements.

Reviews status of accounts to determine rate of expenditure/availability of funds; identifies problem areas and provides various options to resolve the problem(s).

Assists the emergency consultant in the coordination of documents related to submitting reimbursement requests for stormwater events, national security events, emergency events and/or pandemic related costs; monitors the emergency consultant’s progress and ensures milestones are met for events; Reviews emergency consultant’s deliverables for final approval and submits to various agencies.

Performs other duties as requested.

Working knowledge of: Methods, procedures, management, and analysis of grants oversight in a municipal organization; the City's strategic outcomes and where and how to apply for grant funding to support these outcomes; the process to apply for competitive grants from various donor entities; the process to access formula/entitlement grants provided by the Federal government; grant submittal requirements of various granting agencies.

Knowledge of: Grants and government funding resources; data sources necessary for developing grant proposals (Census Bureau, etc.); computers and various software programs specifically Office365 (Teams, Word, Excel, Sharepoint, OneDrive, PowerBI); Federal and state grants management.

Ability to: take grant ideas from personnel and translate into format required by grant agencies; read, comprehend, interpret, and apply grant regulations and proposal guidelines; plan, develop and coordinate grant programs; conduct research and analytical activities to draw sound judgments; work both independently and as a member of a team; manage and prioritize projects effectively to meet proposal and reporting deadlines; establish and maintain effective working relationships with city employees (especially assigned departments), the general public, and with representatives of other governmental and endowment-related agencies; prepare and present oral and written reports.

Graduation from an accredited college or university with a bachelor’s degree in planning, public or business administration, finance, social sciences, or any other field related to writing or administration, three (3) years of experience in researching, developing or administering grant or endowment-funded projects or programs or budgetary/finance experience, one (1) year of experience in the preparation, drafting, and submission of grant applications, and three (3) years of establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships within and outside an organization; demonstrated success in securing grant awards.

Employees may be required to work rotating shifts, including nights, weekends, holidays and overtime as needed. During periods when the Mayor issues an emergency declaration for the City of Tampa, all employees may be required to work in preparation, response or recovery activities related to the stated emergency.