Should Dori Monson apply for this City of Seattle job?

A listener suggested I apply for this City of Seattle job.

Do you want to know why your taxes are so high? Do you want to know why I say we could significantly cut the City of Seattle budget — and the state budget, and every county budget — by getting rid of all the nonsense jobs? You could cut a third of our city government’s workforce and no one would notice a thing (except those who have nonsense jobs).

This particular City of Seattle job title is “Deputy Director of People, Culture, and Community” for Seattle Public Utilities, and it pays between $130,000 and $215,000 per year. Wow, $215,000 is pretty good for just being the deputy director.

Could someone please help me interpret this job posting so that I know what I am applying for? I think it’s English, but I’m having trouble translating government-speak.

Dori: You’re paying for SDOT runner-up’s brand-new $195K/year job

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is recruiting for a transformational operational leader committed to equity, people and service to help us align our people, culture and community services and programs with the City’s and SPU’s commitment to equity, empowerment and to providing efficient and forward-looking utility services. The Deputy Director of People, Culture and Community leads people strategy including external customer/community and employee experience ranging from communications, community engagement, contact center response, organizational development, and workforce development, advancing SPU culture and City values.

I can’t believe that paragraph was just two sentences. Here is a bit more about the work I would be doing.

Community Affairs supports the Utility’s communication and community engagement work by helping build deeper understanding of SPU’s contribution to the community. The work of the division crosses all four lines of business and is positioned to shape public perception of SPU, as well as its internal work culture. The division manages internal and external communications and serves as both content creator and aggregators of information to inform, involve and advance SPU’s mission, goals and relationships.

They write it like that on purpose, because nobody understands what it means. That way, the unsuspecting taxpayer can look at it and think, “Huh, okay, I guess that’s worth $215,000 a year.”

That’s your tax dollars at work right there.

So should I apply for this city gig? And can you help me figure out what those paragraphs mean so I know what to say on my application? Let me know in the comments.

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