Review and Compliance Supervisor – Archaeologist Nevada SHPO (Carson City, NV)

Review and Compliance Supervisor - Archaeologist Nevada SHPO (Carson City, NV)

Salary: $63,308.16 - $94,335.84 per year

Link to Position Description:   https://nvapps.state.nv.us/NEATS/Recruiting/ViewAnnouncement.aep?recruitmentId=45693

This position is based in Carson City which is surrounded by the beautiful Sierra Mountains.  The state capital is located twenty-five minutes from stunning Lake Tahoe which offers world class skiing as well as hiking, biking, and various other outdoor activities and cultural events.  Northern Nevada averages over 320 days of sunshine each year.

If you are motivated and interested in a position that will advance historic preservation in Nevada, this is the job for you.

About the position: This position is in Carson City and will serve as the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office's (SHPO) Review and Compliance Program Supervisor. The incumbent will supervise archaeologists and architectural historians in the program (four employees total) by assigning and reviewing work and setting priorities. The incumbent will manage the Review and Compliance Program on behalf of the Administrator which includes: negotiation, preparation, and revision of legally binding agreements with federal agencies; preparation of documents for National Park Service audits; assignment of governmental and applicant submissions to the appropriate staff reviewer; concurrence with federal agency determinations of significance and project related effects; coordination with staff, the public, Native American tribes and other governmental agencies to ensure prompt and efficient reviews of proposed projects under federal regulations and state statutes; and review and preparation of technical papers for professional conferences and the education of the public on preservation and compliance issues. The incumbent will assist the Administrator to prepare elements of the State's preservation plan including incorporating new data on historic and archaeological sites into the plan.

About us:
The SHPO’s mission includes the encouragement of the preservation, documentation, and use of cultural resources. The SHPO educates the public about the importance of Nevada’s cultural heritage so that Nevada’s historic and archaeological properties are preserved, interpreted, and reused for their economic, education, and intrinsic values and for future generations to appreciate. The Nevada SHPO was established in 1977 and has been housed since 2011 within the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The NSHPO is affiliated with three state boards /commissions: the Board of Museums and History, the Commission for Cultural Centers and Historic Preservation (CCCHP), and the Comstock Historic District Commission (CHDC). 

The SHPO has thirteen employees in three offices around the state.  The Review and Compliance program is in Carson City.  With a small number of employees, staff have the opportunity to explore a variety of program areas and are encouraged to pursue additional educational opportunities or professional development when balanced with existing duties. 

https://shpo.nv.gov

About Nevada:
Nevada sits at the center of a unique geography, split between the Great Basin in the north and the Colorado River basin in the south. The Great Basin is a large ecological and topographic area spanning most of Utah, Nevada, and portions of Idaho, Oregon, and California. It is most commonly defined by the fact that its rivers do not outlet to the sea. Water, primarily from mountain snowmelt, has been one of the critical factors in defining human settlement in the state's pre-contact and historic periods. The northern two-thirds of Nevada are defined by steep mountains intermixed with sloping valleys and (usually) dry lakebeds. The southern third of the state takes on the geography of the Mojave Desert. The biotic environment of the state is equally varied, ranging from alpine forests along the Sierra Nevada near Reno, to rock scree and tundra in the Snake Mountains and Great Basin National Park, to the Joshua trees and creosote bushes of the Mojave Desert outside Las Vegas. Nevada is also the country’s third most seismically active state behind California and Alaska.

Seismic activity and aridity are common to all areas of the state, with drought and fire increasing as climate change trends continue. As of 2017, Nevada boasted nearly three million people, over two million of whom were concentrated in Clark County. Three-quarters of the state’s other 800,000 residents are clustered in the Reno-Tahoe area and benefit from the water supply and outdoor recreation opportunities afforded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With few exceptions (e.g., Elko) the remaining 200,000 Nevadans are spread across numerous rural communities of 10,000 people or less.

The concentration of state residents in two urban centers has created an administrative and political divide between Las Vegas, Reno-Tahoe, and the rest of Nevada. This is further reinforced by the fact that over eighty percent of the state’s landmass is managed by the federal government, most of which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. Some counties have over ninety percent of their land mass in federal management, making relationships between state and local governments and federal administrators critical to success. Nevada’s economic base relies significantly on mining and tourism, although agriculture remains a critical sector in many communities. Since the Second World War, a growing array of defense bases and industries, energy development, and light manufacturing have spurred growth in new areas as well as redevelopment in old areas. This has led to some economic diversification but has also brought land disputes as competing interests (mining, ranching, tourism, and ecology) place pressure on federal land managers to balance needs. Tourism saw its first serious development in 1931, with the legalization of gambling. Today, tourism accounts for approximately $63.7 billion (2017) and employs about 460,000.5 Due to a reliance on the somewhat volatile industries of tourism and mining, Nevada often suffers from longer and deeper economic swings than states with more diversified economies. For example, after the financial crisis of 2008, the nation as a whole saw unemployment peak at 10% in late 2009; and dropping to 3.7% in by late 2018. In contrast, Nevada’s unemployment rate peaked in late 2010 at 13.7% and was still higher than the national rate in late 2018 at 4.5%. An equally important economic factor is Nevada’s low tax environment, which is generally good for business but challenging for local governments seeking to provide public services. Compounding these dynamics is the predominance of untaxable federal land in all jurisdictions. Due in part to this economic volatility, Nevada’s population and economic focus has shifted significantly over time.

Its native people have remained connected to their lands despite forced removal to reservations and are represented by the Numu, Nuwuvi, Newe, Washoe, and Goshute. The non-native population remained extremely small into the late1850s; however, large numbers of overland travelers moved through Nevada following trails like the Old Spanish, Oregon, and California Emigrant. After the first waves of Euro-American settlement in the 1860s, the state retained a high percentage of foreign-born residents compared to the nation, with just under half of Nevada’s new residents being foreign-born during the 1860s and 1870s. Immigration in the twentieth century brought new residents from Italy and Eastern Europe. In 1940, Nevada was a relatively small, rural, post-mining state with 110,247 residents; but with wartime investment and postwar development, that increased to 160,083 in 1950. This post-war era also saw increasing numbers of African Americans moving to the southern part of the state for employment in the defense related industries. Since the 1950s, immigration from other states and other nations resulted in Nevada standing as the fastest growing state in the union, with the population moving from 285,278 people in 1960 to 488,738 in 1970. This growth has continued into the present, with the state’s population jumping from 1,201,833 in 1990 to its current population of nearly three million as of 2017. Even in 2018, the Census Bureau announced that Nevada remained one of the fastest growing states in the union. This has created significant development pressure in the two urban centers, Reno and Las Vegas, with the later now the 30th most populous metropolitan area in the country. With this growth comes increasing diversity. As of 2017, the state’s demographic makeup included a population that was 49.1% white, 28.8% Latino, 9.8% African American, 9.6% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1.7% Native American.

Salary Information:

State government positions typically start at the bottom of the salary range. However, due to the State's new hiring policies, SHPO has the ability to accelerate the starting salary to the top of the range based on experience and education. 

Includes

Retirement, Health and Insurance Benefits. For more information about state employment, visit the following:

Division of Human Resource Management: http://hr.nv.gov

Public Employees Retirement System: http://www.nvpers.org

Public Employees Benefits Program: http://pebp.state.nv.us

More Benefits Information: http://nvjobs.nv.gov/Applicants/EB