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WEEKLY BRIEFS - City of Arvada internal news Dec. 18, 2023 Home Energy Audit Watch this video to get a glimpse of what it’s like to get a visit from the Xcel Home Energy Squad! A home energy audit is the perfect first step to take in beginning your home energy efficiency journey. The Home Energy Squad is a team of energy experts that help you identify ways to save energy with a personalized home assessment. Plus, they do things like swap out traditional light bulbs for LEDs, install a smart thermostat, weather-strip a drafty door, and install high-efficiency showerheads and faucet aerators. To learn more about the City’s Energy Action Plan, and how you can begin your residential energy efficiency journey, visit ArvadaCO.gov/Energy. Everyone Zoom on Thursday, Dec. 14 More than 300 COA team members joined us for the Everyone Zoom on Thursday, Dec. 14. If you were unable to attend or would like to review the information, you may view the link to the slide deck. We wish a safe and happy holiday season to our entire City of Arvada team. Thank you for the work you do for our city and community! Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Announcement of Employees and Team of the Year Over the last 12 months the Employee Committee received 53 nominations for employees who exemplified the City's core values, and 13 teams were nominated for their commitment to dreaming big and delivering. The City of Arvada is run by extraordinary people, and it's exciting that so many of us want to recognize each other. So it is an honor to finally announce the 2023 Employees of the Year and Team of the Year! These employees will be highlighted in the February/March 2024 edition of the Arvada Report. If you see them around, make sure to congratulate them! Employees of the Year Employee of the Year for Innovation: Carina Bueno, Winner of Q2 Employee of the Year for Opportunity: Kevin Luy, Winner of Q4 Employee of the Year for Passion: Myles Heivilin, Winner of Q1 Team of the Year: The Snow Removal Team The Snow Removal Team is composed of over 150 City team members from Streets, Water Operations, Wastewater, Water Treatment Plant, Parks, Traffic, Facilities, and Fleet. Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Below are some impressive stats from the team for the 2022-2023 snow season: ● 51,107 miles of road plowed ● 3,300 tons of road salt ● 2400+ miles of trail plowed ● 10,000+ hours of staff time ● 96 Parks maintained per storm ● Hand shoveling at Arvada Center, 3 Police Substations, Ralston House, Community Table, Indiana Shops, Streets Shops, Chamber House, House, Majestic View Nature Center, City Hall and surrounding buildings, and many more throughout the City. This year, the $500.00 that the Team of the Year is awarded will be donated to Colorado Fallen Hero Foundation. Congratulations to our Employees and Team of the Year! If you would like to learn more about employee and team recognition at the City, visit Inside Arvada. Employee Survey results Thank you, City team, for participating in the recent employee survey. We received a response rate of 86% across the organization! That means 610 of you took time to share your perspectives with Leadership. This shows us that you trust us to do something with your input. Department Directors have been engaged in looking at the survey results through individual meetings with HR and group discussions with the entire Leadership Team. The next steps in the process of responding to survey results are: ● Complete one-on-one Director meetings by Jan. 15. ● In the first quarter of 2024, Directors and Managers will seek input from their teams on potential actions to take in order to support workplace experience. They will develop goals for 2024 to be shared with the Organizational Development (OD) team. ● After goals are determined, these actions will be incorporated into managers’ Trakstar and used during Leadership Team Strategic Planning. Your feedback is important to us because our ultimate goal is to improve this great organization and make it the best possible work environment for all. We plan to communicate results to all employees in the coming months. This will include addressing focus areas and celebrating our successes. We’re very excited to start putting your thoughts into action to better our organization. Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- 2024 Payroll updates 2024 Annual Limits: 457 Deferred Compensation Plan and Roth (Combined Contributions) Annual Maximum- $23,000.00 Age 50+ Catch-up- $7,500.00 Health Savings Account (HSA) Annual Maximum (Single)- $4,150.00 (E+1/E+C/Family)- $8,300.00 Age 55+ Catch-up- $1,000.00 Employer Contributions Single- $38.47 (bi-weekly) E+1/E+C/Family- $76.93 (bi-weekly) Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Annual Maximum- $3,200.00 2024 Observed Holidays: New Year’s Day Observed 01/01/24 Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday 01/15/24 Presidents’ Day 02/19/24 Memorial Day 05/27/24 Juneteenth 06/19/24 Independence Day 07/04/24 Labor Day 09/02/24 Thanksgiving Day 11/28/24 Day after Thanksgiving 11/29/24 Christmas Day 12/25/24 The 2024 Payroll Calendar is posted on Inside Arvada. Reminder- All 2024 remaining Holiday, Floating Holiday, and Wellness Leave hours have to be used by 12/27/24 or they will be forfeited. All other leave balances (vacation, comp time and sick) carry over year to year. W-2s will be mailed out to employees by 01/31/24. You can review the information on this page on Inside Arvada. Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Extended Care Leave (ECL) and Flex Spending Accounts updates The Extended Care Leave (ECL) Benefit webpage is on Inside Arvada. This page includes the Q&A Document, a recorded video, and other resources. Please reach out to [EMAIL REDACTED] with any questions about this topic. If you have Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical and Daycare), the City has changed Administrators for all Flexible Spending Accounts and COBRA. Alerus services will end Dec. 31, 2023 and Thrivepass services will begin Jan 1, 2024. Please reach out to Benefits Specialist Leesha Neuhold at [EMAIL REDACTED] if you have any questions. Network Logon Credential Password Minimum Length Increase New minimum character length for passwords goes into effect on Jan. 3 at 9 a.m. On Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 9 a.m., the IT Department will be increasing the minimum character length for our network logon credential passwords. The new minimum character length will be 16 characters. The original change date of Nov. 1 had to be pushed back. We are making this change because our current standards are out of date with modern security thresholds and must be adjusted to provide adequate security protection. The new standards will be enforced the next time your account has reached the 90 day password age limit. With this change, please take the opportunity to ensure that you are using a password that is unique to your Arvada account - a password that has not been used anywhere else on the internet. Password reuse is a leading cause of cybersecurity incidents for organizations. We also encourage you to employ a rather than a Password. A is a sentence-like string of words that is longer than a traditional password, which is easy to remember and difficult to crack. Best practices that users can incorporate when creating strong include the following: ● Use an easy to remember but uncommon group of three to eight words. ● Use capital letters or capitalize certain words. ● Add punctuation and special characters that make sense to you but no one else. ● Use unusual or abbreviated spellings of words. ● Make some letters into numbers. ● Spaces are allowed and count as special characters Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Below are examples of that meet our complexity standards (do not use these): ● Purpleturkeybanana#7 ● ● $2FidgetywhiteSquirrel ● Red@ndyellowthencame2b ● V00dooIcandowh@tudoEZ To protect your password, do not share it with anyone, even us. We won’t ever ask you for your password and don’t need it to provide assistance. If we reset your password, we will have you immediately change it so you are the only one who knows it. Your IT Service Desk Team can be reached at: Website: Email: [EMAIL REDACTED] Phone: [PHONE REDACTED] x.4357 Employee status changes We invite you to view this spreadsheet to see employee status changes. Employees may demonstrate interest in similar job opportunities in the future by contacting Human Resources at [EMAIL REDACTED] or [PHONE REDACTED], or your supervisor to obtain additional information. Here’s how to view City of Arvada job postings All City of Arvada job opportunities are posted on our job link. Arvada University Update Register in advance on the Arvada University Learning Calendar. Contact Liza Nolder ([EMAIL REDACTED]) with questions. Session/topic Date Registration details Type of Training Host Delegation Skills Jan. 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Register on Inside Arvada Virtual Employment Matters Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Trakstar New User Training Jan. 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Register on Inside Arvada In Person PD Training Room Jeff Monzingo and Scott Jarvis Project Management Training Jan. 25 from 1 to 5 p.m. Register on Inside Arvada Virtual City of Arvada Internal Project Management Team Conflict Tools: Empowering Others Jan. 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Register on Inside Arvada Virtual Employment Matters Employee Committee Corner About the Employee Committee Employee Committee representatives meet in order to plan and coordinate events as well as collect departmental updates to bring back to their respective teams. Check out the links below to see who your representative is, view the upcoming list of potential City events and browse Employee Committee meeting minutes: ● Find My Rep! ● 2023 Events Schedule* *Please note: this is a working document and all events are subject to change. ● Meeting Minutes - November Please contact your Employee Committee at [EMAIL REDACTED] if you have questions. Infrastructure A year in review Each year our City teams work diligently to provide core services to our community. While impossible to capture every impact, much of this work is on our roads, signs, traffic signals, facilities, fleet, water, sewer, and storm systems. We’ve captured a snapshot of some of the infrastructure work system efforts in 2023 on this Year in Review web page and page 8 of the most recent Arvada Report. Thank you for all that you do! Water treatment and water quality team members are pictured on the right. Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Community and Economic Development Building Team members Nathan Romero and Chris Papp recognized for achievements Congratulations to Nathan Romero, Assistant Building Official, for passing the Certified Building Official set of exam modules. This is a major accomplishment within the building safety industry. To obtain the distinction, the candidate must pass three separate exam modules consisting of legal aspects, management, and building codes/standards. Once a candidate starts the exam process, they have 18 months to complete all three modules. There are numerous code books to study from, 15 in total, and a ton of study to prepare for the exam process. Congratulations to Nathan for successfully passing the exam! Nathan is pictured on the left. Congratulations to Chris Papp, Plans Examiner I, on the publication of his article titled “The Art of the Interconnection, Safely Paralleling Power Sources for Beginners” in IAEI Magazine. IAEI is the International Association of Electrical Inspectors, an organization committed to public safety from electrical hazards by providing expert, unbiased leadership in electrical code and standards development. Chris’s article dives into the different interconnection methods, based specifically on clarifying article 750 of the International Electrical Code. Additionally, over the past two years, Chris has been a regular instructor for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the IEC (Independent Electrical Contractors), teaching the IEC apprenticeship program. Congratulations to Chris! Chris is pictured on the right. Vibrant Community & Neighborhoods Work System Majestic View Nature Center Director wins award Congratulations to Majestic View Nature Center Director Anna Hoover for receiving the 2023 Colorado Monarch Ambassador Award! Through her work at the Nature Center, Anna was recognized for her commitment to sharing the wonders of monarchs and inviting others to join the conservation cause. This honor is awarded by a network of monarch conservationists along the front range in partnership with the Monarch Joint Venture to support the declining population of the Eastern Monarch Butterfly. Email your news to ---PAGE BREAK--- Holiday Closures The Nature Center will be closed from Dec. 22, 2023 at 1 p.m. through Jan. 1, 2024 and will reopen at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2. The surrounding park will remain open and we encourage you to visit and explore the park to complete our winter scavenger hunt. You can pick up a game sheet at the Nature Center or by visiting our website. Friends of Majestic View non-profit is official Over the past year, a group of dedicated volunteers has worked to create a new non-profit organization to raise funds for the Nature Center. This organization, the Friends of Majestic View, has just been approved as an official 501(c)(3), meaning they can now accept tax-deductible donations! If you are looking for a great way to support the Nature Center, consider donating by the end of the year for your 2023 taxes. Email your news to