Legal/HR Support Clerk

Objective & Relationships

CITY OF JANESVILLE DIVERSITY STATEMENT:
The residents of Janesville choose this community not just as a place to live but as a place to realize life’s opportunities. We strive to sustain a community culture where differences are recognized, understood, and appreciated. As such, the City of Janesville recognizes the importance of developing an environment where diversity is not merely accepted but embraced and celebrated. As public servants, we believe everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. To this end, we will diligently recruit and retain the most talented employees in an environment that fosters maximizing one’s potential. Therefore, we encourage individuals from all backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to consider employment with the City of Janesville to serve the residents of “Wisconsin’s Park Place.”

OBJECTIVE:
Under the general direction of the City Attorney, this position provides a broad range of paraprofessional, administrative, and office support services to both the City Attorney’s Office and the Human Resources Office. The role requires handling sensitive and confidential information with the highest level of professionalism and ethical conduct, while consistently demonstrating strong initiative, sound judgment, and the ability to work independently in a fast-paced, service-focused environment.

RELATIONSHIPS:
Reports to: City Attorney. Also receives direction from the Human Resources Director.

Supervises: Has no regular supervisory duties.

Has regular work contact with City elected and appointed officials, Department, Division, and Office Heads, City employees and retirees, court administrators, vendors, outside agencies, and the general public.

Essential Duties

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. This list is illustrative only and is not a comprehensive listing of all functions and duties performed by the incumbent. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Serves as office receptionist; receives, screens, and processes telephone calls and walk-in inquiries; takes messages or forwards calls accordingly; ascertains nature of business and provides applicable information; responds to emails; schedules meetings and appointments; keeps City Attorney and Human Resources staff informed of relevant relating to the offices.
• Prepares, types, and/or transcribes a wide variety of materials including letters, correspondence, memorandums, voicemails, policies, tables, graphs and charts, deeds, leases, contracts, reports, schedules, and notices from rough copy to final draft.
• Prepares and processes documents related to adult and juvenile traffic and ordinance prosecutions, worthless check complaints, truancy subpoenas, and other prosecution documents and forms; maintains associated records, files, and statistical data.
• Maintains confidential personnel information (e.g., personal data, medical information, compensation, benefits, performance evaluations, attendance records, and employment separation materials) in compliance with legal requirements and City policies.
• Assists Attorneys in preparing and maintaining a court document filing system; files documents with the courts following attorney review and approval.
• Provides general office support, including data entry, proofreading, document management, updating databases and logs, processing forms, copying, scanning, faxing, shredding, and sorting and distributing incoming and outgoing mail.
• Assists with new employees onboarding by preparing City photo and identification badges.
• Calendars court hearings, notices, deadlines, and appointments; assists with case management activities.
• Assists with recruitment processes as directed.
• Responds to a variety of employee and retiree inquiries, including benefits and FMLA paperwork.
• Conducts researches on cases, legal issues, and personnel matters; serves as a notary public.
• Prepares and distributes new employee welcome messages and related HR communications.
• Maintains the Law Library, including pocket parts, updates, and periodicals.
• Prepares periodic reports and documentation; assists with annual budget preparation for both offices.
• Assists in administering employee recognition programs.
• Coordinates scheduling, food ordering, and setup for training seminars, meetings, and related events.
• Serves as a representative on the City’s Administrative Safety Team; adheres to all City safety policies and procedures.
• Follows all safety regulations, policies, and procedures; reports all unsafe conditions and acts to supervisor; reports all accidents to the supervisor immediately whenever possible; follows recognized safe work practices.
• Performs other special projects and other job duties as assigned or required during regular and non-business hours.
• All employees may be assigned by the City Manager or their designee to perform duties and assume responsibilities that are outside the scope of their work duties when the City Manager has declared a City disaster, or the City Emergency Operations Center has been initiated.

Minimum Position Requirements/Qualifications

MINIMUM EDUCATION AND PRIOR EXPERIENCE
The requirements listed below are necessary to perform the essential duties of the position.

• A High School diploma or equivalent is required.
• A minimum of one year of office support, administrative, or legal experience is required.
• Access to personal or public transportation for job-related duties.

• An associate degree, technical diploma, or professional certificate from an accredited college or university in paralegal/legal studies, human resource management, business management, or related field is preferred.
• Experience in providing administrative support in a legal or human resources setting is preferred.

• Thorough knowledge of modern administrative or office support methods, procedures, and practices.
• Thorough knowledge of records management practices and techniques.
• Working knowledge of legal procedures, court proceedings, and legal terminology.
• Working knowledge of principles, practices, and administrative procedures used in human resources administration.

• Organizational and time management skills to prioritize duties and accomplish a high volume of work product while adapting to constant changes in priority.
• Exceptional communication skills, both verbally and in writing, paired with a strong customer service background, and effective interpersonal skills.
• Collaboration skills to effectively work with others to achieve common goals through communication, teamwork, and problem-solving.
• Strong typing and data entry skills.
• Project management skills to guide, manage, and direct projects in alignment with the City’s strategic plan.
• Critical thinking skills to effectively analyze situations, define problems, evaluate and recommend alternative solutions, and solve complex administrative issues in a timely manner.
• Accurate record-keeping, attention to details, and data-reporting skills.
• Research skills, conduct research, including gathering data, analyzing information, and preparing reports.
• Intermediate level of technical proficiency skills, including computer applications and software such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, and Granicus.
• Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft applications, including Excel, Word, Outlook, and Publisher, and Adobe Acrobat.

• Ability to compose routine correspondences and reports independently or from brief in a clear, concise, logical, and effective manner, utilizing proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and tone.
• Ability to receive, screen, address, and/or refer visitors and incoming telephone calls in an efficient, courteous, and professional manner.
• Ability to efficiently prioritize, schedule, and organize work.
• Ability to effectively communicate in verbal and written form and ability to explain problems and administrative procedures.
• Ability to perform basic mathematical calculations, including the ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals, and to compute percentages.
• Ability to perform duties with considerable judgment, resourcefulness, and initiative under limited direct supervision and within the boundaries of responsibility.
• Ability to schedule and organize workload, maintain required records, prepare reports, and handle multiple tasks at one time effectively and efficiently.
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment with fluid priorities and multiple, sometimes competing, work assignments.
• Ability to maintain composure and calmly deal with stressful situations, difficult people, and at times, challenging situations.
• Ability to learn and apply new technology in order to achieve high-quality work outcomes.
• Ability to comply with all safety policies, practices, and procedures, and report all unsafe activities or conditions to supervisor.

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with City elected and appointed officials, Department, Division, and Office Heads, City employees and retirees, court administrators, vendors, and the general public.
• Exhibit exceptional professionalism, tact, and decorum in all areas of work duties.
• Possess a strong ethics base built upon integrity, honesty, initiative, and respect; maintain strict confidentiality.
• Interact positively with a diverse group of individuals and work effectively both as part of a team and independently.
• Embrace and actively promote an inclusive and equitable work environment.
• Conduct all business and working relationships in an accurate, fair, equitable, and highly ethical manner.
• Work with the public in a fair and consistent manner, maintaining objectivity and excluding personal bias while performing job duties
• Reliable, timely, and proactive in the completion of duties, meeting deadlines and responding to inquiries.
• Work with others in a positive and supportive manner to solve problems, generate ideas, and accomplish Office and City goals.

Supplemental Information

EQUIPMENT, INSTRUMENTS, AND MACHINES:
Machinery and equipment including personal computer, printer, fax machine, scanner, copier, telephone, 10-key calculator, typewriter, other industry specific software, and other standardized or specialized office equipment.

PHYSICAL FACTORS:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee regularly works in an office environment. An individual in this position is frequently involved in sedentary work, which requires sitting for the majority of the time. This position occasionally walks, stands, stoops, kneels, crouches, crawls and exerts up to 25 pounds of force by lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, or otherwise moving objects. The employee is frequently required to see/observe, talk/speak and listen/hear; use their hands to handle, feel or operate objects and equipment; repetitive arm, wrist, hand and eye movements are included. There is frequent twisting, reaching, wrist turning and grasping. The employee may be required to climb or balance.

Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. Hand-eye coordination is necessary to operate computers and various pieces of equipment. Employee is required to use cognitive ability to reason, analyze and verbalize thoughts and ideas. Requires the ability to recognize and identify similarities or differences between characteristics of colors, shapes and sounds associated with job-related objects, materials or tasks.

The employee will spend the majority of the working day inside speaking with other employees or members of the public. The working conditions in the office are comfortable. The noise level is generally quiet to moderately noisy.

The regular working hours of this position are 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday. Regular and punctual attendance is an expectation of the position.

For purposes of drug and alcohol testing, this position is not classified as safety sensitive.

DISCLAIMER:
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, tasks and skills required of personnel so classified. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical component of the position, or is responsive to the needs of the City of Janesville.

The job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and employee and is subject to change by the employer as the needs of the employer and requirements of the job change.

The City of Janesville, Wisconsin, is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer.