Administration and Management
What you must know
This domain tests whether you can run a planning office. Budgeting: operating versus capital budgets, and formats - line-item, program, performance-based, zero-based - plus fund accounting, enterprise funds for utilities, and the difference between a balanced budget and a structurally balanced one. Personnel: merit-based hiring, position classification, performance evaluation, and progressive discipline. Procurement: when to use a request for proposals (scope and approach are open) versus a request for qualifications (selecting a firm on credentials) versus an invitation to bid (price-driven, well-specified work). Contracts, grants administration (matching funds, reporting, federal procurement and uniform guidance), and records retention and public-records responses. Project management: scope, schedule, budget, work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, critical path, and risk registers. Also development review administration: staff reports, development review committees, hearing body procedures, findings, and minutes.
Traps
Confusing capital and operating costs, or treating grant awards as revenue with no obligations attached. Confusing an RFP with an RFQ. Ignoring that planning commissions and boards of adjustment have distinct jurisdictions and quasi-judicial duties. Failing to document - if it is not in the record, it did not happen.
Rule of thumb
Every recommendation should carry three elements: a finding tied to adopted policy, a condition that can be monitored, and an identified funding or staffing source. Staff reports written this way survive appeals.