CUC honors employees during Public Service Recognition Week

Staff representatives of each Commonwealth Utilities Corp. division were recognized yesterday during the first day of Public Service Recognition Week, with CUC executive director Gary Camacho extending his appreciation “to all our staff and all the folks that work in the public services sector.”

“I think it’s important that what they do is recognized in all areas. …And I think everybody’s doing a great job [and] I truly appreciate everything that they have done in the past, do currently, and will do in the future. …At the end of the day, it’s their voice that we need to hear. It’s their efforts that we need to appreciate,” he added.

The CUC representatives who were honored yesterday were Jubal Slayer, technical manager for oil; Anthony Dela Cruz, from Power Generation; Bernard Keremius, from the Water Division; Luke Changar, from the Water And Wastewater Division, Carol Chargalauf, from Human Resources; Kevin Tudela, customer service representative; Alvin King, resident manager of CUC Rota; and Evelyn B. Manglona, resident manager of CUC Tinian.

Slayer

Jubal Slayer is the new technical manager for oil and has been with CUC for a month now. He works at Power Plant 1 but is responsible for oil in Power Plants 1, 2, and 4. His division currently has three staff. Slayer says his main duties “are overseeing testing of groundwater berms and making sure drainage is appropriate, incineration of any oil or oily rag type of issues for Power Plants 1, 2, and 4, and point of contact for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Stipulated Order No. 2.” “CUC is certainly committed to working with the EPA, and getting both Stipulated Orders 1 and 2 finished and sorted out,” Slayer added. “We are certainly committed to the environment. And also we want to provide excellent customer service and care and services to the people.”

Changar

Luke Changar is from the Water and Wastewater Division and has been with CUC for 14 years. There are about 20-plus staff for the division. Changar said “for our wastewater side, we have two sections, we have the collection system and then we have the treatment. For the collection systems, they are the one in charge of…[collecting] waste, and it convoys from lift stations to lift stations, all the way to the treatment plant facility. Then that’s where we do the processing treatment.” As a reminder to the public, Changar reminds people not to dispose of cooking oil in sinks or in restrooms as it clogs up sewer lines and drainage. 

Tudela

Kevin Tudela is a customer service representative and has been with CUC for four years. Currently, there are four customer service representatives. “We have the first contact with the customer. When [people] are thinking of applying for power, we’re the first person that they see when they come in,” Tudela said. “It’s an interesting job. We have all types of people coming in with all different types of inquiries that we have to know the answer to. …It demands a lot of knowledge to work down there. …That’s where the day starts in CUC—customer service.”

Anthony Dela Cruz is from the Power Generation Operations. He has been with CUC for 23 years. There are about 60 staff in the division. Dela Cruz said that they are “the unsung heroes, tucked away” in the heat and that they are there to “provide reliable power 24 hours.” Dela Cruz said the division’s staff are the “unsung heroes.” “Pretty much they’re tucked away, they’re working with limited resources, and obsolete parts and we’re giving it our best to prevent problems.”

Keremius

Bernard Keremius is from the Water Division and has been with CUC for 18 years. There are about 42 staff in the division. Keremius said that he oversees the day-to-day running of water at CUC and “we provide the services from when it starts pumping water into the tank, going to the power lines and going to the consumers’ tap. In our section, we have people…who take care of all the wells. We’ve got people repairing leaks, we’ve got people out there who are providing new meter installations. …We also have a chlorination crew that are there to make sure that adequate chlorine is provided to our customers to be able to deliver safe drinking water to our customers.”

Chargalauf

Carol Chargalauf is a human resources generalist who has been with CUC for eight months. Chargalauf is focused on recruitment for CUC. “Whenever we have an opening, we try to fill those vacancies. I see the struggle of the Water Division, with Water and Wastewater, and Power, and I get the phone calls on what’s the status of this JVA. …I think my job is probably the most boring of everybody because their jobs are the critical jobs. But, at the same time, I need to do my job to make sure that they are fully staffed to make sure that they can accomplish their missions and their goals.”

King

Alvin King, who is the resident manager of Rota CUC, has been with CUC for over two years and is in charge of the Power and Water divisions on Rota. CUC Rota currently has 38 staff members. King said that with the recent pandemic, “we went through a lot of cost-cutting measures, but we managed to pull through. We’ve also made improvements on operations with the staff availability. Also, with the lockdown, our staff still managed to provide services to the community. King said he would like to “give thanks to the community…for their payments and congratulations to the staff for doing their best during the pandemic.”

Manglona

Evelyn B. Manglona, who is resident manager of Tinian CUC, has been with CUC for 11 years and is responsible for power, water, and wastewater systems on Tinian. Manglona said, “We work as a team to provide service.” Manglona also “thanked the CUC staff on Saipan and Tinian for their dedication, the management team for their continued support of Tinian, the board of directors, and especially the whole team.”

CUC has lined up a full week of events from Monday, May 2, until Friday, May 6, as part of the celebration of Public Service Recognition Week.

Part of the week’s culminating activity is the “PSRW Ceremony & Employee of the Year Awards and Lunch,” which will recognize employees who have served 10 years or more as well as the department’s Employees of the Year, the divisions’ Employees of the Year and the Overall CUC Employee of the Year.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres designated last month the week of May 2-6, 2022, as Public Service Recognition Week to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of all the hardworking and deserving public employees of the CNMI government.