News from EMWD

Eastern Municipal Water District first public utility to receive silver CAPE award

Perris, CA (December 26, 2005)— Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) has received the distinguished silver-level California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) award after a competitive, rigorous application process. EMWD is the first public utility to ever win the silver-level award. California Council for Excellence (CCE), which administers CAPE, announced the award recipients on December 13, making this the second CAPE award for EMWD. A bronze-level award was awarded to EMWD for their first application in 2003.

Other award recipients included Boeing’s Air Force Systems of Long Beach; Sharp Healthcare of San Diego; Verizon Wholesale Markets Group of Downey, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme division.

CCE is a non-profit foundation dedicated to helping California’s private companies and public sector agencies achieve world-class results. CCE assesses and recognizes organization excellence through the CAPE program based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.

The Baldrige Award was established in 1987 and was named after Malcolm Baldrige, who served as Secretary of Commerce from 1981 until his death in 1987. Baldrige’s contributions of efficiency and effectiveness in government inspired the creation of the Malcolm Baldrige program. The Baldrige program emphasizes visionary leadership, customer-driven excellence, organizational and personal learning, valuing employees as partners, agility, and focus on the future.

Some of EMWD’s strengths and outstanding practices noted by the CAPE board of examiners were: emphasis on ethical behavior; proactive approach to tracking current legislation, securing grants, and influencing congressional decision making. Other strengths noted include: a well deployed strategic planning process; proactive customer relations processes; fact-based decision making; a strong focus on public and employee safety; sound fiscal management practices, and work processes enabling EMWD to accommodate the rapid regional growth.

According to Anthony J. Pack, EMWD General Manager, “The award application requires a 50-page assessment in response to 190 questions and is validated by an intensive site visit by CAPE examiners. The only reason we submit an assessment is to obtain an independent, knowledgeable assessment of our progress, and a feedback report that identifies the areas that we need to improve.

“The CAPE administrator pointed out that our site visit (involving 160 employees this October) dramatically improved our score. This supports what the EMWD board of directors and I already know: Our employees make the difference. Since our CAPE score is based on validated business results, we could not have achieved this recognition without our employees’ commitment to excellence.”

The CAPE application process is a “journey to excellence,” according to Pack. The CAPE award is a significant accomplishment for EMWD. However, continuous improvement is required in order to achieve the best possible service to customers. In 2005, EMWD administered an employee satisfaction and residential water customer satisfaction survey. From those results and the 2003 CAPE assessment, EMWD learned where the organizational strengths and weaknesses lie. From this feedback, EMWD was able to address opportunities for improvement and expects to resubmit a CAPE application again in 2007.

EMWD will be formally recognized for their achievement at a special luncheon honoring CAPE award recipients at the 12th Annual CAPE ceremony to be held in Irvine April 7.

# # #

EMWD is the freshwater, wastewater service and recycled water provider to a 555-square mile area from Moreno Valley southward along the I-215 corridor to Temecula and eastward to Hemet and San Jacinto. Approximately 550,000 people live and work in this area. In addition to its own water customers, EMWD supplements water to eight local water agencies and municipalities that have their own water departments. EMWD operates four water reclamation facilities and treats some 40 million gallons of wastewater daily. More information can be found at EMWD’s web site www.emwd.org.