Residence Requirements:

RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS:  CANDIDATES MUST HAVE BEEN LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY FOR AT LEAST ONE MONTH IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE OF THE WRITTEN TEST AND MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY AT THE TIME OF APPOINTMENT.  At present there is one vacancy at the Department of Real Property Tax Services.

Examples of Duties:

A GIS Technician-Real Property Tax Service acts as a technical specialist responsible for working with professional staff in the production of geographic information systems work, traditional cartographic functions, and related graphic work;
Assists in performing traditional cartographic functions as needed;
Assists in the review of deed and map parcel descriptions to determine whether changes are necessary in tax maps and office records, including the resulting maintenance of digital tax maps, GIS, RPS records and files;
Assists in the plotting and mapping of changes in tax map property lines from deeds, wills, court petitions, foreclosures, highway appropriations, surveys and subdivision maps filed in county record offices, including plotting corresponding parcel boundary revisions, using both ARCVIEW/ARCINFO and GIS (geographic information systems);
May assist in preparation and maintenance of GIS spatial and attribute data as related to real property assessment RPS and tax map files;
May assist in the backup, storage, maintenance and monitoring of GIS data;
Provides GIS support to other county departments, assessors and the public by extracting information from the database to produce maps and other materials denoting information such as taxation tables, property boundaries, etc.;
Performs GIS database development and basic programming functions associated with the central GIS database;
Uses GIS software to add information to the database as a result of new information or the transferal of hard copy data;
Performs database address updates and compares RPS database with 911 access database, updated mailing and location addresses on RPS when necessary and updates 911 access database for tax map changes;
Assists in resolving issues regarding missing or incorrect parcel address assignment. 

Qualifications:

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:  Candidates must meet one of the following requirements on or before the date of the written test: 

A) Graduation from a regionally accredited or New York State registered college or university with an Bachelor's degree in Geographic Information Systems, Geography, Engineering Science, Computer Information Systems or directly related field and one year of experience in work involving title searching, drafting or surveying which shall have involved mapping out of property lines, or *experience working with geographic information systems (GIS); OR

B) Possession of a high school diploma or possession of an equivalency degree AND five year of full-time *experience in the areas defined in (A); OR

C) An equivalent combination of training and *experience as defined by (A) and (B) above.

Notes:

NOTES 1. Satisfactory completion of study in a New York State registered or regionally accredited college or university with a Master's degree in Geographic Information Systems, Geography, Engineering Science, Computer Information Systems or directly related field may be substituted for the above experience on a year-for-year basis. 2.  Verifiable part-time and/or volunteer experience will be pro-rated toward meeting full-time experience requirements. 3. Your degree and/or college credit must have been awarded by a regionally accredited college or university or one recognized by the New York State Education Department as following acceptable educational practices.  A grade of "D" or better is necessary for a course to be credited as successfully completed.  If your degree and/or college credit was awarded by an educational institution outside of the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency.  You can write to this Department for a list of acceptable companies providing this service; you must pay the required evaluation fee.

The New York State Department of Civil Service has not prepared a test guide for this examination. However,candidates may find information in the publication "How to take a written test" helpful in preparing for this test. This publication is available on line at: www.cs.ny.gov/testing/localtestguides.cfm

Subjects of Examination:

Subjects of examination: A written test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas:

1. Understanding and interpreting maps, aerial photography, survey data and other source material used in map construction

These questions test for the ability to read, analyze and perform computations based on cartographic drawings, site plans, survey notes and mapping-related written presentations, and for knowledge of the terminology and principles involved in reading and working with aerial photographs, including scale conversion and focal point computations.

2. Collection, analysis and presentation of data, including basic statistics

These questions test for knowledge of the proper procedures and methods used to gather, evaluate, organize and present various types of technical data and information, and the fundamental concepts, terminology and computations involved in statistical analysis for cartographic and land use planning studies.

3. Computer-assisted mapping, including geographic information system (GIS) applications

These questions test for knowledge of the concepts, terminology, and proper procedures to use when creating and revising maps and site plans utilizing GIS and computerized mapping software.

4. Principles of data bases for microcomputers

These questions test for a basic background in the design and use of databases on microcomputers. They cover such topics as database terminology and concepts, analyzing a database project, planning the database, organizing the data, designing data entry forms, accessing and manipulating the data, generating reports, and performing backups.

5. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), including data conversion, plotting, database construction, interactive editing and labeling

These questions test for knowledge of GIS design features, global positioning systems, and the concepts, terminology and proper procedures to use when creating, producing and revising various types of maps and site plans using GIS and computerized mapping software.

NOTICE TO CANDIDATES:  Unless otherwise noted, candidates are permitted to use quiet, hand held, solar or battery powered calculators.  Devices with typewriter keyboards, "Spell Checkers", “Personal Digital Assistants", "Address Books", "Language Translators", "Dictionaries", or any similar devices are prohibited.  You may not bring books or other reference materials.

**IMPORTANT APPLICATION FEE - READ CAREFULLY**

A $20.00 filing fee is required for this exam. The required fee must accompany your application. Send or bring check or money order made payable to Erie County Personnel Department and write the examination number(s) on your check or money order. Do not send or bring cash, as the County cannot be responsible for cash payment. As no refund will be made, you are urged to compare your qualifications carefully with the requirements for admission and file only for those examinations for which you are clearly qualified.