Johnson County Planning & Development Services presented proposed revisions to two front-office job descriptions Aug. 27 that would replace an office manager and an office assistant with two uniform positions titled Office Support Specialist 1 and Office Support Specialist 2.

Nate Mueller, assistant director for BDS, told supervisors the department lost its office manager in July and used the vacancy as an opportunity to redesign front-desk roles so two employees would have largely overlapping responsibilities for coverage and cross-training. The proposal would create two parallel job descriptions with a tiered promotion pathway: the Specialist 2 would require higher baseline education, time in position, and permit‑technician credentials (International Code Council permit tech credential) to provide internal advancement.

Why it matters: staff said the change would reduce reliance on a single person for specialized knowledge—such as nuanced permitting processes—and make personnel transitions and workload sharing smoother as the county implements new enterprise systems including Workday and a new permitting platform.

What’s next: supervisors thanked staff for the reclassification work and placed the job descriptions for formal consideration at the next meeting.

Speakers quoted in this article are those on the record in the meeting.