Vallejo receives 70 PIO job applications
The city of Vallejo is evaluating nearly six dozen applications for two public information officer positions, with a proposed starting date of early next year for both positions, the city’s director of human resources confirmed this week.
Heather Ruiz said the city received a total of 70 applications, with 31 applying to be the city’s next PIO as nine applied to serve in the newly created position of public information analyst with the Vallejo Police Department.
Ruiz said an additional 30 applicants applied for both positions.
“We are currently in the process of reviewing applications and will schedule interviews in December, with a candidate starting late January to early February,” she wrote in an email to the Times-Herald.
The city closed applications at the end of October after keeping the applications available for several weeks.
The PIO will serve as the city’s official spokesperson while both positions would be tasked with releasing information to the public, media, and the city organization.
The PIO would also develop and oversee the city’s media strategies, public affairs programs and marketing, while researching public opinion and emerging issues “in order to provide advice to city staff and elected/appointed officials about communications, news media, and community implications and alternatives for decisions, policies, and programs,” according to the joint job brochure. The police analyst is further tasked with collaborating with the various divisions and bureaus within the department “to coordinate and prepare presentations, briefings, talking points, and materials needed for key spokespeople within the police department,” the same job brochure states.
Vallejo’s previous PIO, Lyan Joy Pernala, left the position after about five months in May 2019. At the time, she stated the position wasn’t “the right role for me so I’m pursuing a different one.”
In addition to her PIO duties, Pernala also served as an analyst in the City Manager’s Office.
The communications & public information officer is set to make up to $127,525 yearly, while the Vallejo Police Department’s public information analyst can earn an annual salary up to $107,239.