Community Development Analyst II

About our opportunity:
The City of Asheville is seeking qualified applicants for the position of Community Development Analyst II in the Community and Economic Development Department. The Community Development Division administers federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support affordable housing and services for low- to moderate-income individuals. This position supports the implementation of the City's HUD-funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) programs.

Purpose of Classification:
The purpose of this classification is to implement the ongoing work of the City's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG ) and HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) programs. Work involves planning, managing, monitoring, and evaluating the activities of many program sub-recipients as well as training sub-recipients and community partners on the expectations around federal funding to ensure that the projects are well-designed, adequately funded, have timely delivery, and maintain compliance with federal regulations and City requirements.

Distinguishing Characteristics:
This is the second level in the Community Development Analyst series and is distinguished from lower levels in this job family by five to seven years of experience and increasing degrees of scope, independence, responsibility, and decision-making.

Other things to know:
Work Schedule: M-F 8:30 am-5:00 pm

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

Serves as lead staff for CDBG and HOME programs:

Assists in developing annual and five-year Consolidated Plans for CDBG and HOME programs.

Performs analysis of applicant capacity, financing, and timeliness to ensure that CDBG programs can be successful under CDBG regulations.

Provides ongoing technical assistance to subrecipients, developers, and other partners to ensure projects that are timely, in compliance, and successful in their delivery and goals.

Develops and implements policies and procedures.

Designs program forms and templates and initiates process improvements.

Meets with prospective CDBG and HOME applicants to educate and inform them about the programs.

Assists them in understanding federal and local program requirements application scoring, relationship to City strategic goals, fund availability, policies and terms.

Serves as an Environmental Officer in compliance with 24 CFR Part 58; writing the project narrative, obtaining maps of the project area, soliciting comments from appropriate local, state and federal agencies, and facilitating responses to comments received on the environmental findings.

Exemplifies quality customer service, prepares and negotiates appropriate data-driven terms for grant agreements for assigned subrecipients, including detailed budget and scope of work.

Drafting agreement language annually, in partnership with other City departments, to maintain compliance with local, state, and federal legal requirements.

Develops annual monitoring plan to audit subrecipient performance and expenditures.

Performs on-site monitoring of sub-recipients and evaluates their performance; identifies weaknesses and provides technical assistance.

Works with funded organizations to ensure compliance with Davis Bacon and Related Acts. Contributes project reporting information to the Semi- Annual Labor and Wage Reporting. Sets goals for and evaluates performance for Section 3, MWBE compliance and other performance-based compliance requirements.

Assists in preparing the Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER).

Responds to requests for information from a variety of agencies and individuals.

Researches trends, best practices and other elements to guide policy, seeks research partners, recommends scopes of work and budgets, serves as City liaison to the research, and presents findings and recommendations.

Assists with public communication and notification, conducts community meetings with citizen groups concerning community development, and assists community members access CDBG and HOME funding.

Serves as a technical resource to other professional staff.

Prepares routine and special reports for City management.

Attends professional conferences and workshops to maintain broad knowledge of regulations and innovations in community development.

Maintains financial and programmatic records ensures completeness, accuracy, and compliance with funding requirements.

Reviews