DEPARTMENT SAFETY OFFICER

Full Job Description

Water.

Every day, Long Beach Utilities treats 32 million gallons of drinking water at the Long Beach Groundwater Treatment Plant (GWTP) and distributes this water after blending with imported water, to 90,000 households and businesses throughout the City of Long Beach.

The GWTP also hosts a California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation as a Certified Water Quality Laboratory, which performs 60,000 to 70,000 water quality testing to ensure the high quality of the drinking water.

Gas. As a municipal utility, Long Beach Utilities’ natural gas rates and policies are established by the Board of Utilities Commission, consisting of five residents of Long Beach.

The City Charter requires Long Beach rates to be comparable to the rates charged by surrounding gas utilities for similar types of service.

In the region, the Southern California Gas Company is the only other natural gas utility providing similar service and serves as the market benchmark.

The City of Long Beach natural gas service territory includes the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, and sections of surrounding communities including Lakewood, Bellflower, Compton, Seal Beach, Paramount, and Los Alamitos.

Sewer. Long Beach Utilities owns, operates and maintains over 700 miles of sanitary sewer lines, safely collecting and delivering over 40 million gallons of wastewater per day to the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County for treatment.

Requirements

• The Safety Officer ensures workplace safety and compliance with California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) standards and regulations.

• The management position provides occupational safety training to employees and works closely with managers to ensure Cal/OSHA compliance.

• The Safety Officer develops and implements safety programs and procedures for the department as necessary, performs department hazard assessments to properly identify and evaluate job hazards, and identifies and coordinates department safety training needs and develops cost-effective strategies for implementation.

• In a leadership capacity, coordinates Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) reviews and updates with the workgroup manager, as necessary.

• Analyzes department incident data and trends, reports findings, and makes recommendations to address these trends.

• Organizes department occupational safety meetings, monitors Safety meetings and training effectiveness, and represents the department and participates in Citywide safety meetings and functions.

• Responds to serious employee incidents and is on-call for other occupational safety related emergencies.

• Communicates orally and in writing with staff on key areas concerning occupational safety, including federal and state legislation, which may affect safety requirements and programs, and acts as the department's liaison with Cal/OSHA, Department of Transportation (DOT), and other regulatory agencies.

• Maintains department Cal/OSHA record keeping, promotes safety among management staff and employees through various means, including coordination of safety meetings, training updates, safety tips, and site visits.

• Establishes Cal/OSHA required occupational safety training programs for water treatment and distribution employees, sewer employees, and natural gas distribution employees; and coordinates with workgroup managers to schedule training on regular intervals.

• Develops and conducts relevant water, gas and sewer occupational safety training classes in-house, or coordinates training classes with external vendors.

• Recommends corrective actions for program improvements and works with the Citywide Safety Officer to ensure compliance with Citywide Safety Programs and Policies.

• Interfaces with the Utilities Department’s Personnel Division and ensures a coordinated response to employee injuries and incident reporting.

• Updates department occupational safety policies to remain in compliance with Cal/OSHA and conduct employee trainings as policies and programs change.

• Supports Department Managers with Occupational Safety investigations, documentation, and compliance.

• Acts as a liaison with regulatory agency representatives such as Cal/OSHA, Fed/OSHA as it pertains to Department issues.

• Communicates with other personnel, vendors, contractors, other City Departments, customers, and outside organizations to coordinate activities, facilitate projects, and tasks, resolve issues and conflicts and exchange information.

• Assists in the development and preparation of the annual occupational safety budget; controls and authorizes expenditures under established limitations.

• Attends and conducts a variety of meetings.

• Interacts, advises, and provides responses to inquiries from water, sewer, gas and warehouse managers and supervisors.

• Provides consultation to administrators and department staff.

• Principles of budgeting, accounting, financial record keeping and reporting.

• Keeps the Senior Director of Administration and other staff informed regularly on the status of open issues.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university is required; however, candidates may substitute experience offering specific and substantial preparation for the duties of the position for the required education on a year for year basis.

• Three (3) years of progressively responsible experience working with safety operations and overseeing safety programs.
• One (1) year of full-time experience working in a supervisory or lead capacity.

• Coursework in occupational safety.
• A certification issued by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, such as Associate Safety Professional (ASP), Certified Safety Professional (CSP), or Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST).
• 5 years of progressively responsible experience in developing or managing a utilities, industrial or commercial manufacturing safety program in California.

• Knowledge of the laws and regulations concerning Cal/OSHA and occupational safety programs, policies and requirements, including general industry and construction safety standards, applicable environmental regulations, and a working knowledge of the principles and methods of safety, training, incident investigation, hazard identification and correction, and the prevention of employee injury/illness.

• Understanding of Cal/OSHA procedures and practices.

• Basic understanding of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)

• Principles of business letter writing and report preparation.

• Modern office procedures, methods, and equipment including computers and both networked and cloud-based software systems

• Principles of supervision, training, and performance evaluation.

• Pertinent federal, California, and local laws, codes, and regulations.

• Ability to conduct employee group training

• Business writing

• State and federal occupational safety rules and regulations.

• Knowledge of safety programs for water, gas and sewer field operations, including warehousing.

• Ability to connect, coordinate and add value to occupational safety and workplace culture.

• Interpersonal skills using tact, patience, and courtesy.

• Ability to connect with and train employees on new processes and procedures.

• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with managers and employees, at all levels of the organization including City and department management, public officials, and employees.

• Communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing.

• Excellent writing including grammar and document formatting.

Additional Information

This recruitment will close at 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Sunday April 5th. To be considered, please submit an online application, including a cover letter, resume, and proof of education in PDF format.

Applications that fail to include all necessary documents will be considered incomplete and will not be taken into consideration.

EQUITY AND INCLUSIONThe City of Long Beach is committed to creating a workplace where every employee is valued for who they are.

Having our workforce reflect the diversity of our community at various levels of the organization is a continuous goal embraced by our departments, management staff, and policymakers.

To support efforts of fairness and diversity, City Leadership is committed to incorporating equity and inclusion into our work by supporting staff and community partners.

We are committed to promoting transparency by publishing updated demographic information for employees, including workforce diversity data and pay by race and gender.

The City of Long Beach will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act.

You are not required to disclose your criminal history or participate in a background check until you receive a conditional job offer.

If the City of Long Beach has concerns about a conviction that is directly related to the job after making a conditional job offer and conducting a background check, you will have the opportunity to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide evidence to mitigate concerns, or challenge the accuracy of the background report.

Find out more about the Fair Chance Act by visiting https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/fair-chance-act

The City of Long Beach intends to provide reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

If special accommodation is desired, or if you would like to request this information in an alternative format, please call (562) 570-7008.

In support of the City's Language Access Policy, bilingual skills (Spanish, Khmer, and/or Tagalog) are desirable for positions interacting with the public.