Currents Newsletter

Dear Members,

On behalf of our Board of Directors, Supervisory Committee, Management, and Staff, it gives me great pleasure to present this year’s CEO message and share the amazing successes that the Credit Union has experienced in 2022.

My name is Mike Tufegdzich and I am the new CEO of Water and Power Community Credit Union. I have been in my current leadership position since July. However, I have been proudly working for Water and Power Community Credit Union and serving our members for the past 29 years. During that time, my guiding light has always been putting our members and employees first. As the new CEO, my vision will be to continue this focus; ensuring that our employees have a great place to work and our members have a great place to bank and realize their financial dreams.

To accomplish this we must:

• Ensure that our employees are given the tools and training they need to succeed in their roles.
• Improve our operational efficiencies in every process by applying the newest technologies and removing all obstacles that get in the way of service to our members.
• Develop flexibility to change our service rules from a “no” to a “why not” culture when members have unique service requests.
• Continue to partner with companies that can provide our members with products and services that give us the economies of scale to compete effectively in the market place.
• Provide our members a voice to objectively evaluate our service delivery based on their financial needs.

Since July, those have been our guiding principles and a framework for our success. We reimagined our entire strategic planning process to focus on the most impactful projects aimed at creating enhanced workflows, operational efficiencies, and technology. Additionally, we have developed a comprehensive member survey system to make sure you can objectively evaluate our service levels on a regular basis. Please look for these surveys in 2023.

The following are some of our accomplishments this year:

• Enhanced our Virtual branch
• Expanded Contact Center hours to include Saturdays
• Attained a historic Loan to Share Ratio of over 70%
• Increased Net Income to over $6 million
• Brought our Net Worth to a historic high of 7.99%
• Implemented a new digital service delivery channel to personalize remote service
• Updated and enhanced our Online and Mobile Banking user experience
• Reestablished our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) commitment to our members and staff
• Actively participated in community outreach activities that includes a $27,500 grant to our partnership with LACI
• Maintained support and outreach with LADWP by visiting yards and attending safety and employee orientations

We also had to make some tough decisions for the benefit of the entire membership. The most impactful of these decisions was the closing of the Sun Valley office due to changing branch usage trends and issues related to our lease. While the Sun Valley branch will be closing, our other valley branch in the Northridge/Granada Hills community will get increased staffing and expanded hours to include Saturdays.

As you can see, we have been focused on ensuring that WPCCU will be the credit union of choice for our LADWP members, their families, and all the communities we serve. Based on our success this year, we are very optimistic for our future.

In closing, I want to thank you for your support and loyalty during these challenging times and wish you a healthy, safe, and prosperous 2023. If you have any questions or need more information, please feel free to reach out to me.

Member feedback is always appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mike Tufegdzich
President/CEO