FAQs about UMPAPA
What does UMPAPA stand for?
Utilities Management and Professional Association of Palo Alto. The 48 members of UMPAPA are managers, supervisors and analytical staff for the City of Palo Alto Utilities Department (CPAU). The Department designs, constructs, and maintains the distribution systems for each of the City of Palo Alto’s respective Enterprise Funds for electricity, natural gas, water wastewater, and fiber optic (telecommunication) utility services.
Do UMPAPA members pay into their pensions?
UMPAPA members pay 8% of their salaries towards their pensions today. After decades of service, the average member has significantly financed their pension.
Do UMPAPA members receive social security benefits?
The majority of UMPAPA members will receive either reduced or no Social Security retirement benefits. Those which will receive Social Security payments (having a minimum of 10 years in the private sector before entering the CalPERS system) will, by federal law, have their Social Security retirement payments reduced by specific percentages because of their existing CalPERS pension.
Is UMPAPA part of a national labor union?
No. UMPAPA is an association operated and managed solely by its local, active-employee members. The dues are kept local and there are no outside influences, which is the way the members originally envisioned and ultimately designed the association upon creation. Total control of the dues funding is from within.
Describe the UMPAPA Contract Negotiating Team.
The team consists of Utilities staff responsible for either making or recommending construction, purchasing, maintenance, or joint power agency decisions having multi-million dollar impacts to the Utilities Capital Budgets, Operating Budgets and financial Reserves for each of the Enterprise Funds.
How do UMPAPA benefits differ from other City employees?
In general, all City employee benefits are very similar, such as healthcare and pension. UMPAPA is not interested in deviating from that mean, although it has degraded to levels below the private utility industry in recent years. UMPAPA strives to receive market wages, just like the other City employees receive compared to their ‘city’ marketplaces. Our marketplace is made up of other utilities, whose function is to perform similar job duties.
Why did UMPAPA originally form?
Years of unmet, total “market-based” compensation from the City of Palo Alto for equivalent utilities management jobs have resulted in attrition and challenges in recruiting qualified workers to manage the City’s utility services. In 2009, a group of concerned and responsible managers petitioned to form the association, following allowance per state law. The association was legally recognized and granted formation through arbitration in 2011. The goal is, and always has been, to attract and retain the necessary quality talent required of these positions to effectively run the five utilities; thus lending to the vibrancy of the City and community of rate-payers.
How is the City of Palo Alto Utilities affected?
The City of Palo Alto Utilities has a much higher attrition rate than our sister utilities. Salaries are not competitive with other municipal or investor-owned utilities. Pensions combined with salary are not enough to attract and retain new talent. The City has blocked Utilities Management wage adjustments within existing ranges for years, while approving wage adjustments for all other City department managers during the same time period, asserting that there is 'no agreement' with UMPAPA. UMPAPA members reject this unfair and unethical treatment from the City, trusting that the rule of law will prevail and that the City’s upper management and Council will becomes responsive to doing the right thing here for the City, the community and for the employees.
Is UMPAPA influenced by political parties?
No, apart from any influential inclinations of its individual members. There are no formal political affiliations or partnerships with agencies, nor political campaign contributions.
What are the typical industry experience levels of UMPAPA members?
A Batchelors of Science degree, with 7 years of progressively responsible utility management/technical experience, in addition to professional licensures and specialty certifications.
About UMPAPA
UMPAPA is a labor association dedicated to the protection of our members and continued delivery of quality utility services for the City of Palo Alto. We are motivated by the need to attract and retain a qualified workforce to ensure the safety and reliability of our utility services, employees and community members. The association currently includes 48 members.
Brief History of UMPAPA
Managers for the City of Palo Alto Utilities formed this employee association in an effort to participate in negotiations with city management. The group originally filed a petition with the city in 2009 seeking to create their own bargaining unit, stating that the Utilities group “functions as a utilities business unit separate and distinct from other city business. The management and execution of the successful delivery of water, gas, wastewater, electric, and telecommunications products is very different from the normal City of Palo Alto government business of providing information, planning, permits, protection and recreational outlets.”