The NTPUD celebrated its 2021 annual employee awards on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Thank you to all of the NTPUD employees for their incredible dedication and continued service to our North Shore communities.
Congratulations to the following 2021 NTPUD Employee Award Winners!
2021 Employee of the Year – Leslie Tocher – General Ledger Accountant
The Employee of the Year shows dedication to the job, loyalty, perseverance, attitude, customer service, safety, and self-improvement. He/She is supportive of coworkers, innovative, task-oriented, demonstrates initiative, a problem solver, communicates ideas, and represents the spirit of the North Tahoe Public Utility District.
This year’s NTPUD Employee of the Year is Leslie Tocher. As a General Ledger Account for the District, Leslie’s work ethic demonstrates her dedication and loyalty to her job. She always has a great attitude and is committed to customer service and self-improvement, recently attaining her Payroll Professional Certification. Leslie displays the true spirit of the North Tahoe PUD daily in her interactions with her coworkers and vendors. She consistently takes the customer service approach with all her internal customers, going above and beyond at every opportunity. She takes the initiative and is a problem solver, supporting internal customers and coworkers with innovative ideas and solutions.
Leslie has been a steady hand in the NTPUD Accounting Department while the District has worked to fill a vacancy on the team and she has been essential in ensuring the District’s critical transactions, payments, and efforts continued uninterrupted.
2021 General Manager’s Award – Josh Ramey – Parks & Facilities Maintenance Lead
The General Manager’s Award is given annually to an employee that performs his/her duties promptly and with attention to detail, represents the unsung employee who does not seek notoriety, shows extraordinary care for their work and the community, is unselfish, a self-starter, enjoys their work, and often goes unrecognized in the performance of their duties.
This year’s General Manager award was presented to Josh Ramey for his dedication and humble leadership during one of the most challenging years our organization and our community has seen. Throughout 2021, Josh was always there, putting in the time to do everything with his well-known care and ingenuity, despite all the ups and downs presented by the pandemic and the dramatic increase in use of our recreation facilities.
Following his supervisor’s retirement, Josh stepped up to lead the District’s Parks crew, providing stability to the team and working with the District’s management team to provide critical input and insights on Recreation and Parks planning and rental issues and facility maintenance and management. He led the team through another year of COVID restrictions and changing cleaning and sanitizing requirements at our facilities. He covered hours when team members got sick and without complaint or judgement, he worked hard to keep the Regional Park clean and presentable on our busiest days.
Josh is a true steward of the Recreation and Parks experience the District offers. He is an unsung champion of hard work and dedication in everything he does. He takes personal pride in keeping our facilities top-notch and he takes the extra time each day to engage with residents and visitors who regularly use our facilities.
2021 Safety Award – Michael Harper – Water Quality Control Technician
The NTPUD Safety Award recognizes the individual who has no injuries, accidents, adheres to all safety procedures and policies, attends all tail gates and safety trainings, notifies the District of potential safety issues, coaches other employees on safety practices, reports all incidents/accidents promptly, and creates a cooperative and safe work environment for the District and Community.
This year’s Safety Award was presented to Michael Harper. As a Water Quality Technician for the District, Michael completes most of his work alone and off-site in a vehicle. Working alone requires him to be vigilant of his own safety and situationally aware of the completion of his tasks. When you have your head down in a meter box, you need to know your surroundings and what could happen when your back is turned. When he is driving the District’s service area, doing the monthly meter reads and the leak sensors tests, he needs to be aware of the traffic situation and pedestrians while also being able to monitor the meters being read.
Michael never misses his monthly vehicle inspection, and, on top of that, he regularly does the inspections on other trucks in the NTPUD fleet. Michael is constantly keeping an eye out for any safety issues at District’s Base facility and out in the field. Michael’s regular seat for our safety meeting is in the front row, and he is always ready with a quick response during our training sessions.
Thank you and congratulations to Michael Harper on being selected the District’s 2021 Safety Award Winner.