Emergency Management Specialist

About the role

Supports the administrative, technical, and preparedness activities of the City’s Emergency Management Program under general supervision of the Assistant Emergency Manager. This position is responsible for supporting activities through all phases of emergency management; keeping current on emergency management policies, laws, and practices; and assisting in maintaining emergency preparedness plans and associated products. This position enhances and delivers public education programs and performs a variety of technical tasks relative to assigned areas of responsibility.

Responsibilities

• Supports the development, implementation, monitoring, and modification of emergency preparedness plans such as the city’s Emergency Management Plan and annexes, Continuity of Operations Plan, Hazard Mitigation Plan, and Disaster Recovery Plan.
• Provides administrative and technical support to the Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC) in the continued development and maintenance of the City’s Emergency Management program, including processing invoices, p-card reconciliation, and department purchasing.
• Serves as the emergency management Duty Officer on a rotational basis and monitors, evaluates, and recommends emergency preparedness-related actions and precautions related to severe weather and other hazards or threats.
• Prepares and delivers public education presentations designed to enhance awareness and foster personal preparedness among the citizens of McKinney, civic and other local organizations, business, and industry.
• Assists in the facilitation and coordination of training and exercises involving various City departments, local, state, and federal partners, and multiple external organizations.
• Maintains a current set of all response plans in various formats for reference and utilization during emergency situations.
• Coordinates the updating of the Emergency Management webpage as needed.
• Supports incidents involving multiple departments and agencies and functions within the Emergency Operations Center or specified location during emergency and non-emergency incidents, including but not limited to major emergencies, disasters, training exercises, and special events.
• Represents Emergency Management at various meetings, special events, trainings, conferences, and seminars as requested.
• Assists in the coordination and delivery of the McKinney CERT program.
• Complies with all written City and departmental policies and procedures.
• Works in a team environment; contributes as a team member and treats co-workers and customers with respect.
• Builds professional relationships with internal staff and customers.
• Balances multiple priorities while exhibiting flexibility and adaptability in a consistently changing environment.
• Drives to other City facilities and locations for meetings, etc.
• May represent the City of McKinney at local, state, regional, and federal emergency management meetings, conferences, seminars, and trainings.
• Provides support and logistical functions during extended emergency incidents as requested.
• Assists co-workers and city employees with special projects as needed.
• Performs other duties as assigned or directed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Emergency Management, Public Administration, or a related field and a minimum of one (1) year of experience working in a municipal, county, regional, or state emergency management position.
• Must pass a drug screen and background check.
• Must have a Class C Texas Driver’s License or the ability to obtain one within thirty (30) days of employment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience in plan writing.
• Meeting facilitation and public speaking experience.
• Previous experience using WebEOC or equivalent incident management software.
• IS 100, 200, 700, and 800 certifications.

Skills

• Ability to embrace and embody the City’s core values of Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence (R.I.S.E.).
• Ability to communicate effectively with peers, supervisors, subordinates, and people to whom service is provided.
• Ability to produce desired work outcomes, including quality, quantity, and timeliness.
• Ability to plan and organize work, time, and resources.
• Skill to gather, organize, analyze, and utilize a variety of data and information in an unbiased manner.
• Knowledge of the phases of Emergency Management – mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery; concept of an all-hazards whole community approach to Emergency Management; familiarity with local, state, and federal laws; understanding of the National Incident Management System, Incident Command System, and Multi-Agency Coordination System; knowledge of various plans relating to Emergency Management.
• Skill to operate, maneuver, and/or control the actions of equipment, machinery, tools, and/or materials used in performing essential functions.
• Skill to utilize a variety of audio-visual training aids and computer applications.
• Skill to utilize a wide variety of advisory and/or design data and information.
• Skill to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; calculate decimals and percentages; utilize principles of fractions; and interpret graphs and charts.
• Skill to apply principles of rational systems; interpret instructions furnished in written, oral, diagrammatic, or schedule form; and exercise independent judgment to adopt or modify methods and standards to meet variations in assigned objectives.
• Skill to write various planning documents, update City publications, and compose articles.
• Ability to provide guidance, assistance, and/or interpretation to others regarding the application of procedures and standards to specific situations and the ability to accept direction from a supervisor or manager.
• Skill to perform simple movements requiring moderate coordination, such as those required to operate office equipment or computer equipment.
• Skill to operate a variety of computer hardware and software such as personal computers, scanners, modems, printers, word processing, relational databases, spreadsheets, and GIS software; requires the ability to extract, analyze, and correlate data obtained from computer programs.
• Ability to communicate in a clear and concise oral and written manner.
• Ability to exercise judgment, decisiveness, and creativity in situations involving a variety of generally pre-defined duties which are often characterized by frequent change.
• Ability to apply the principles of rational decision-making and analyze situations quickly in an objective manner.

Physical Demands

• Tasks require the ability to exert very moderate physical effort, typically involving some combination of climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, and crawling.
• May involve lifting, carrying, pushing/pulling of moderately heavy items weighing 20-50 pounds and/or the operation of an automobile or light equipment.
• Some tasks require visual, depth, odor, color, sound perception, and oral communications ability.

Work Environment

• Tasks may risk exposure to extreme heat/cold, extreme weather conditions, strong odors, smoke, and/or toxic chemicals.