Community and Economic Development Director

Job Title

Under limited supervision, directs the housing, economic, and community development functions of the City of Palm Bay. Responsible for the supervision and oversight of the Economic Development Division, to include recruitment and attraction of new businesses and the retention and expansion of existing businesses and industries in Palm Bay. Manages and implements economic development initiatives designed to attract industry, create quality jobs, and increase private capital investment in the city. Responsible for overseeing the administration of Business Tax Receipts, passports, and lien searches. Responsible for the supervision and oversight of the Housing & Community Development Division, to include all state and federal housing grant programs, such as SHIP, CDBG, HOME and NSP. Coordinates with department directors and management team to develop and implement long-range goals, strategies and plans of the City of Palm Bay. Responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with legislative bodies, key stakeholders, and resource partners to facilitate community and economic development and promote the City's public policy goals. Reports to the City Manager or designee.

Supervises the City's Economic Development and Housing & Community Development Divisions. Provides leadership needed to facilitate community and economic development, to include business attraction and retention efforts, job creation, and private capital investment as well as assistance to businesses related to site location, obtaining business tax receipts, and navigating the zoning and permitting processes. Responsible for ensuring that state and federal housing and community development grant funds and programs are administered, monitored, and compliant with applicable state and federal laws. Leads staff in achieving milestones and benchmarks set by City Council, City Manager, and adopted strategic plans. Maintains a strong working relationship with City departments, key resource partners and stakeholders to establish and implement the City's community and economic development goals and policies. Has lead responsibility for promoting positive awareness of the city and its programs and accomplishments, including public communication and outreach via website, social and print media. Develops and maintains relationships with state, federal, regional and local agencies and elected officials to advocate for and facilitate the implementation of community and economic development efforts of the City. Initiates, establishes, and seeks funding to support new programs to meet emerging community and economic development needs. The individual in this position is the legislative coordinator of the Department. In coordination with the City Manager's Office and the City's lobbyist, solicits, prepares and / or proposes legislation, identifies affected interests for or against prospective legislation, tracks and researches newly introduced laws and the potential impact as it relates to community and economic development. Promotes retention and expansion of industry and commerce within the city; develops and maintains a cooperative working relationship with existing businesses; identifies existing business retention and expansion needs, conducts research and business surveys to identify business impediments and utilizes available resources to address those issues. Evaluates economic, statistical, and demographic data to analyze best means to attract, retain, or expand businesses and / or industries to facilitate economic growth within the city limits of Palm Bay. Identifies and recruits likely business prospects, responds to new business and site selection inquiries, maintains an inventory of available sites / buildings and markets suitable sites to such business prospects nationwide. Maintains strong familiarity with local, state and federal economic development incentives in order to recruit and assist potential economic development clients. Responsible for providing high quality, responsive customer service to both internal and external customers of the department. Expected to promote interdepartmental collaboration, build employee morale, and foster a workplace culture of integrity.

Monitors internal controls for fraud, errors, and omissions within the department.

Performs other related work as required.