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Safety/Security Sensitive: Yes
SUMMARY Represents the City of Bentonville in all legal matters before state and federal courts and to advise the Mayor and City Council on legal issues. Advising City officials and employees concerning legal rights, privileges, and obligations by performing the following duties. Reviews, drafts, and edits any legal documents or pleadings as necessary. Provides leadership and strategy guidance to high level departments within the City. Supervises all employees in the City's Legal Department.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Reporting relationships, work assignments, and work schedules may be subject to change in order to meet City needs or operational requirements. Attendance at work and the ability to get along with the public, supervisors, and co-workers are essential elements of this position. Other duties may be assigned.
Gathers evidence in civil, criminal, and other cases to formulate defense or to initiate legal action or prosecution. This function is performed daily,
Defend the City and all of it agencies in any lawsuits filed in State or Federal Court. This function is performed monthly.
Initiate and prosecute eminent domain complaints for land acquisition for the City. This action is performed semi-annually.
Supervise the prosecution of misdemeanor criminal and traffic cases, as required, in Bentonville District Court. This function is performed daily.
Advise City Boards and Commissions and attend all meetings of the City Council, Planning Commission, Utility Board, and other Boards and Commissions as necessary. This function is performed weekly.
Ensure that the City is compliant with all federal and state laws regarding employment, discrimination, and civil rights; while reviewing HR issues for the City. This function is performed daily.
Advise and review Policy and Training standards for all City Departments. This function is performed annually.
Review all contracts for any City Department, Agency, Board, or Commission. This function is performed weekly.
Draft and review Ordinances and Resolutions for the City Council's consideration. This function is performed weekly.
Review, update, and improve the City's Code of Ordinances, identifying shortcomings in the City's current Code and policies to determine any compliance shortcomings. This function is performed monthly.
Monitor proposed state law changes and interact with the Arkansas Municipal Leage to identify potential legislation adverse to the City's interests. This function is performed semi-annually.
Assist in the negotiation and resolution of conflicts with local businesses, citizens, and developers regarding zoning, land use, or other conflicts. This function is performed weekly.
Conduct and supervise civil litigation including trial, depositions, and motions practice. This function is performed monthly.
Supervise and direct the Purchasing division to advie City Departments in complying with state law regarding bidding requirements for City projects and in the purchase and sale of real and personal property. This function is performed daily.
Directly supervise the activities of the employees of the Legal Department in coordination with other Staff Attorneys. This function is performed daily.
Put together and maintain department budget. This function is performed annually.
Manage and ensure compliance with all FOIA requests directed to any City department. This function is performed weekly.
Confers with colleagues with specialty in area of lawsuit to establish and verify basis for legal proceedings. This function is performed monthly.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES Directly supervises a Paralegal, Administrative Assistant, and Purchasing Compliance Manager. Indirectly supervises two Purchasing Compliance Specialists. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.
QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE Juris Doctorate (REQUIRED) and Ten (10) years related experience and/or training; and FIVE (5) years related management experience, or an equivalent combination of advanced education and experience.
LANGUAGE SKILLS Ability to read, analyze, and interpret the most complex documents. Ability to respond effectively to the most sensitive inquiries or complaints. Ability to write speeches, arguments, and articles for publication that conform to prescribed style and format. Ability to make effective and persuasive speeches and presentations on controversial or complex topics to top management, public groups, and/or boards of directors. Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and policy/procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public. Ability to read, analyze, and understand common scientific and technical journals, financial reports, and legal documents. Ability to respond to complex or difficult inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community; including the ability to read, analyze, and understand the most complex documents and the ability to respond effectively to the most sensitive inquiries or complaints.
MATHEMATICAL SKILLS Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, area, circumference, and volume. Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables. Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems. Ability to deal with nonverbal symbolism (formulas, scientific equations, graphs, musical notes, etc.,) in its most difficult phases. Ability to deal with a variety of abstract and concrete variables.
CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS
Admission to the Arkansas Bar
Admission to U.S. District Court
J.D. Degree from an Accredited Law School
Attorney’s License
PREFERRED CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS
ACIC Certification.
Bilingual.
SOFTWARE SKILLS REQUIRED
Computer training in Microsoft Office.
Basic: Human Resources Systems, Payroll Systems.
Intermediate: Database, Spreadsheet, Word Processing/Typing.
Intermediate: 10-key, Accounting, Contact Management, Presentation/PowerPoint, Spreadsheet/Excel.
INITIATIVE AND INGENUITY:
SUPERVISION RECEIVED Self directed to achieve company/organization goals. Reports to the Mayor and City Council.
PLANNING Considerable responsibility with regard to general assignments in planning time, method, manner, and/or sequence of performance of own work, in addition, the organization and delegation of work operations for a division of employees engaged in widely diversified activities.
DECISION MAKING Performs work operations which permit frequent opportunity for decision-making of major importance which would have considerable effect on the final attainment of multiple major activities and the organization’s projects of a large organization component and the organization’s clientele.
MENTAL DEMAND Comprehensive and very intense mental demand. Comprehensive and continual involvement with multiples divisions, departments, and organizations. Strategic and operation management functions which relate to both the short-term and long-term time periods. Operations requiring sustained directed thinking to analyze, solve, or plan highly variable, administrative, professional, or technical tasks involving complex problems or mechanisms.
ANALYTICAL ABILITY / PROBLEM SOLVING Minimal oversight. General oversight. Activities covered by general organizational philosophy and objectives. Solving problems in novel, non-recurring or swiftly changing situations in which the approach is not fully defined. Guidance by the organization’s Mayor or City Council.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR WORK OF OTHERS Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance, rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems. Content of work supervised of a technical nature and varies in complexity.
Supervises a group (7-10) of employees, usually of lower classifications. Assigns and checks work, assists and instructs as required and performs same work as some of those supervised, or closely related work a portion of the time. Content of the work supervised is of a technical nature and presents numerous situations to which policies and precedents must be interpreted and applied.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR FUNDS, PROPERTY, AND EQUIPMENT Regularly responsible for funds, building premises, inventory, or other property owned, controlled, or leased by the organization and, in addition, may have temporary custody and responsibility of patron property, which through carelessness, error, loss, theft, misappropriation, or similar action would result in very important monetary losses to the organization. The total value for the above would range from $10,000,000.00 to $50,000,000.00. Almost continuous care and attention is required when handling this property in order to prevent loss.
ACCURACY Probable errors would normally not be detected in succeeding operations and would definitely have serious effects in relationships with patrons and/or with the operations of other segments of the organization. Frequent possibilities of error would exist at all times, since the above-mentioned areas are inherent in the job.
ACCOUNTABILITY:
FREEDOM TO ACT Oversight. High level of freedom to complete the duties of the position and guided by broad policy with oversight by president, elected official, etc.
ANNUAL MONETARY IMPACT The amount of annual dollars generated based on the job's essential duties/responsibilities. Examples would include direct dollar generation, departmental budget, proper handling of organization funds, expense control, savings from new techniques or reduction in manpower.
Large. Job creates a monetary impact for the organization from $10mm to $50mm.
IMPACT ON END RESULTS Major impact. Job has a considerable impact on the organization's end results. A high level of accountability to generate, manage, and/or control funds within a department and/or total organization.
PUBLIC CONTACT Extensive contacts with various diversified sectors of the public environment; wherein, the contacts are of extreme importance and failure to exercise proper judgment can lead to substantial losses to the organization.
EMPLOYEE CONTACT Establishes company culture by setting tone of interactions and communication with senior level internal officials and employees throughout the organization.
USE OF MACHINES, EQUIPMENT AND/OR COMPUTERS Occasional use of highly complex machines and equipment; specialized or advanced software programs.
WORKING CONDITIONS Disagreeable working conditions. Exposed to several of the elements in degree 2, which are present continuously enough to make the conditions disagreeable. May involve heavy travel and/or work is in the evening during the night hours.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS The following work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS 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 functions of this job, the employee is continuously required to talk or hear; regularly required to sit, reach with hands and arms; frequently required to walk, use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and occasionally required to stand, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds; regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision; and color vision.
High diversity, low physical. Work activities which allow for considerable amount of diversity as an incumbent performs a variety of tasks. Such tasks might be performed from a given work area, or the individual may move about physically in performing a variety of duties.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:
Lexis Nexis and Westlaw legal research procedures.
Ability to perform legal research using reference materials generally available within a law library and/or electronic resources.
Knowledge of the policies and procedures relating to municipal government.
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret legal reports, and documents. Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from citizens, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community.
Regular and professional contacts with victims, witnesses, defendants, citizens, outside representatives, various law
enforcement agencies, attorneys, judges, and merchants.
Ability to utilize both internal and external resources to obtain information and data necessary to carry out routine assignments and special projects. Must be able to effectively defuse potentially volatile situations.
Must have ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with management and staff and to promote a positive rapport with citizens of the City of Bentonville.
Ability to interpret and apply local, county, state, and federal codes and laws.
Exceptional ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing.
Ability to organize and prioritize workload.
Ability to use and knowledge of modern office equipment, including MS Word software.
Perform related duties and responsibilities as assigned.
HEALTH BENEFITS
The City of Bentonville is proud to offer a comprehensive benefits package to eligible, full-time employees who work 30 hours per week. This year's benefits package can be viewed here:
https://www.bentonvillear.com/DocumentCenter/View/15032/City-of-Bentonville-2024-Benefits-Guide
We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
- $101,837 - $112,020/year
