Administrative Support Associate III - Permits & Inspections Front Desk

Administrative Support Associate III

Permits & Inspections is seeking a dedicated and detail-oriented Administrative Support Associate III to join our team. This front-facing role is essential in providing excellent customer service to up to 20 customers per day, with customer interactions taking anywhere from 15-minutes to an hour each. This position is the first point of contact with customers and sets the tone for high-quality service throughout the Permits and Inspections process. This position helps to ensure safe and effective building construction and renovation throughout our community, keeping our residents and visitors safe.

This position assists with the processing of Building, Septic, and Well Applications. This role is the connection of all development services collaboration and ensures that our customers projects are completed effectively and efficiently. Responsibilities include helping customers with inquiries, uploading documents, answering phone calls, handling end-of-day financial balancing, and delivering daily reports.

The ideal candidate is interested in building and permitting practices, highly organized, works well both independently and collaboratively, and demonstrates strong attention to detail. We deal with a great number of customers who have never navigated the permitting practice before, in addition to seasoned contractors and builders. This employee must be able to work well with all kinds of customers, especially when explaining complicated or technical permitting information.

This is a full-time, in-office position, Monday through Friday, from 8 : 00 AM to 5 : 00 PM. The position works out of our building at 35 Woodfin Street, Asheville NC 28801 in a centrally located office that also houses several other Buncombe County Departments. We provide free parking to our employees in our parking deck behind the building, located at 164 College Street, Asheville.

Purpose of the position :

The purpose of this position is to provide administrative support to ensure efficient operations of a program, or department.

Minimum Education, Training and / or Experience (required at time of hire) : High School diploma or equivalent and four (4) years of customer service / office experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Essential Functions of the position :

• Perform a variety of general clerical and office administrative work to support efficient program or department operations; including but not limited to answering of phones, greeting, and assisting walk-in customers, distribution of mail, and general data entry tasks.
• Provide internal and external customer service via phone, email, and in person; respond to inquiries about program services, take message and / or refer inquiries to the most appropriate parties when necessary.
• Coordinate and support department / program meetings and events, such as invitation / distribution, registration, agenda development, dissemination, and minute-taking duties; set up conference rooms; notify participants; prepare and / or assemble meeting materials including multimedia equipment.
• Maintain and order office supplies, as assigned and when needed.
• Coordinate the preparation, editing, and distribution of correspondence, reports, and documents, such as fax and referral monitoring, data entry; accreditation document processing; policy dissemination and tracking; document management.
• Perform accurate and timely data entry; post or file client data as required.
• May assist in sending out billings and other mass mailings; Process departmental invoices, billing, purchase orders and AFPs.
• Perform basic research and compile documents needed for various reports and management-level documents.
• May accept payments for fees, fines, goods, or services as required by the department; may balance cash drawers or registers, and prepare required cash reports.
• Assist with special projects and duties as requested.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities :

In order to uphold internal pay parity and equity, salaries are non-negotiable for new and current Buncombe County employees. All new employees are paid according to their years of relevant education and experience above minimum requirements for the position and employees have the opportunity to obtain pay increases via cost of living increases and promotions.

Buncombe County Government realizes the importance of a diverse professional workforce and the need to foster a responsive and innovative organizational culture, one that fully engages all of our employees, honoring and building on each employee's unique experiences, opinions, and perspective.

It is the policy of Buncombe County to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all persons regardless of race, natural hair or hairstyles, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, marital or familial status, pregnancy, veteran status, religious belief or non-belief, age, or disability or any other legally protected class under federal or NC State law. EEO practices and employment decisions regarding recruitment, hiring, assignment, promotion and compensation shall not be based on any of these protected classes. In addition, the County expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment or discrimination.