Assistant Business Officers, functioning either as the principal assistant to a Business Officer or as the highest level business and fiscal officer at a Psychiatric, Children's Psychiatric or Developmental Center of the Department of Mental Hygiene, provide management direction and control of business administration, fiscal and support service activities. Under direction, they coordinate activities with clinical program supervisors to insure they are supportive of facility treatment objectives. Within this framework incumbents plan, organize, direct, and control the principal activities of all support departments (excluding the facility Personnel Office and at some centers the Security Force), oversee the preparation of the facility's annual other than personal service (OTPS) budget requests and the personnel service budget requests for support departments; oversee the expenditures of accounting for funds appropriated in the annual budget prepare and monitor facility contracts with other providers of support or clinical services and assist clinical program supervisors with the evaluation, utilization, leasing and control of program space on and off the facility "campus."
Assistant Business Officer serves as second in charge to a Business Officer or, in large facilities, may serve as a principal assistant to a Business Officer. Positions of Assistant Business Officer may perform any of the same activities as a Business Officer.
Critical to this class is the responsibility for effective management of services in support of treatment activities and objectives, for preparation and monitoring of annual facility budgets, for operation of the business office, and for direction of such activities as plant operation and maintenance, food service, laundry service, housekeeping and transportation.
Both of these titles exist primarily in the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health. Positions of Institution Steward in the Department of Correctional Services are also responsible for fiscal management and support services at their agencies' facilities. However, the size of such facilities and the scope and standardization of their activities distinguish this class from Business Officer and Assistant Business Officer.
Assistant Business Officers perform all of the activities and tasks listed on the Business Officer's standard, either as a principal assistant to a higher level Business Officer or as the second in command to a Business Officer. Because of the variations in size and complexity of some of the facilities, the Assistant Business Officer may perform only some of the typical activities listed below.
These activities are described in greater detail in the classification standard for Business Officer (Occ. Code 1905200). In addition, the framework in which these activities are performed is described above in the Distinguishing Characteristics and Classification Criteria Section.
The nature of an Assistant Business Officer's activities requires frequent verbal communication with support services supervisors, clinical chiefs, and the administrative Deputy Director or a higher level Business Officer along with central office personnel and community groups. Much of the verbal communication with the Deputy Director and clinical chiefs involves the identification of administrative and operational problems and the exploration of alternative solutions. The Assistant Business Officer's particular contribution to such conferences is an evaluation of the physical and fiscal resources available to meet operational and program needs.
Verbal communication with the agency main office and other State agencies involves the exchange of information regarding a particular request or expenditure and the providing of a rationale in support of such a transaction.
Assistant Business Officers are involved in the development of comprehensive service delivery systems for mental health, mental retardation and alcoholism programs. Their involvement typically occurs as each facility negotiates with county mental health agencies, voluntary hospitals and others regarding budget making, planning for and delivery of support services, and deployment of clinical programs in the community. The Assistant Business Officer may represent the facility independently or in conjunction with higher management, in discussions of service contracts, shared staffing agreements, preparation of unified services budget plans and similar matters.
Assistant Business Officers prepare narrative and tabular materials for the facility's annual budget request and for special projects requiring an analysis of the fiscal implications of a proposed program or course of action or a financial status of a particular program. In addition, periodic written reports on levels of expenditures are prepared with particular emphasis on identifying potential problems.
Typically incumbents of these positions are generally supervised by a Business Officer 1 or 2 who issue policy and program guidelines and review the work output of the Assistant Business Officer in terms of these guidelines. The Assistant Business Officer provides the Business Officer with frequent verbal and occasional written reports concerning activities and problems and refers unresolved disputes with clinical chiefs over the allocation of resource to the deputy for resolution.
In turn, the Assistant Business Officer supervises support services department heads. The supervisory tasks performed by an Assistant Business Officer are not generally over the day-to-day activities but involve identifying and setting priorities, the solving of operational and staffing problems and a review of pertinent reports for conformity to standards of efficiency, effectiveness, quantity and quality. It should be noted that in the smaller co-located facilities the support services are provided by another facility. In such cases there is no supervisory relationship between these support service supervisors and the Assistant Business Officer. However, the incumbent of a position in this class frequently makes visual inspections of work areas.
Further, to insure the continuing provision of these services in efficient and timely fashion, the Assistant Business Officer meets frequently with the administrative staff of the providing facility to discuss any problems which may arise, such as priority disputes.
One year of permanent service in a budgeting, account keeping, financial or support services position at Grade 18 or higher.
Revised: 9/00