Staff Reports - East Bay Municipal Utility District

and encourage them to take state exams to obtain mandatory certifications for operator
jobs. In addition, Tri-Valley Regional Occupation Program (TVROP) and Los Medanos
College offer wastewater treatment and processing operator training. Applicant data from
the 2012 Wastewater Plant Operator Trainee exam included questions to identify
applicants who had taken wastewater or water treatment training. Staff is currently
analyzing this data to determine if this training was a factor in candidate success.
Prior to the 2012 Wastewater Plant Operator Trainee exam, staff conducted outreach
which included Solano and Los Medanos colleges and TVROP, and with assistance from
Local 444, presented information sessions at the District’s administration building. Over
1600 applications were accepted. African American applicants were 42% of total
accepted applicants, and this applicant rate far exceeded labor market availability (11%).
Female applicants were 14% of the total accepted applicants and this applicant rate
slightly exceeded labor market availability (13%). Hispanics were 15% of the total
applicants and this slightly exceeded availability (14%).
The most competitive candidates from the 2012 WWPOT exam were more diverse than
previous exam administrations. There are three females, two Hispanics and one African
American in the top ten ranks of the WWPOT hiring list. Three hires have been made as
of March, and one of these hires was an Asian female.
2013 AA/EEO Action Plan to Address Workforce Underutilization
This Action Plan identifies workforce areas for which recruitment and staff development
strategies have been developed to reduce areas of workforce underutilization. Reducing
workforce underutilization is one means of measuring the District’s progress towards
achieving the goal of equal employment opportunity.
EBMUD’s 2013 Action Plan is focused on the following long-term outreach efforts to
decrease the skills gap and increase the pool of qualified candidates living in the
District’s service area for the job groups cited in the section above.
A. Plumber Candidate Development
The District anticipates hiring 20 Water Distribution Plumber trainees per year through
2018. These Plumber hires provide the greatest number of entry-level employment
opportunities out of all District projected hires. The District typically receives 1,000 –
2,000 applications for the Plumber I examination because the minimum qualifications
require no work experience and an eighth grade education. However, staff has prioritized
outreach efforts for these jobs because there is underutilization of females, Asians and
Hispanics.
To encourage residents in our service area to consider employment with EBMUD, the
District partnered with Laney Community College in Oakland to provide nine-week
Plumber Training Programs (Waterways) in 2010 and 2012 to prepare students for
Affirmative Action & Equal Employment Opportunity
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