Behind the Tap Spotlight: Procurement Inventory Specialist Michelle Palominos

Meet Procurement Inventory Specialist Michelle Palominos. Michelle works in our Warehouse and prepares quotes for inventoried supplies to ensure we have an adequate supply of standard stock items used by CCWA departments. These standard items include things like gloves, tires, pipe, traffic cones, vehicle filters and meters. She also orders items like vehicle seat cushions, and Gatorade to keep crews hydrated. In 2021, procurements totaled more than $8.9 million for the Warehouse and Garage.

Procurement Inventory Specialist Michelle Palominos

Michelle is responsible for maintaining fuel records, reports for fuel, and reordering fuel products. In the past 12 months, 212,000 gallons of fuel were purchased for CCWA vehicles and equipment. She creates monthly fuel adjustments and maintains fuel files/logs required by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

Michelle began her career at CCWA working in our Call Center before making the move to the Warehouse almost three years ago. She enjoys the teamwork, especially ‘the strong work environment in which we are willing to work for one another and as a team.’ She says they work together as a team around the challenges by identifying and understanding how to solve them. “We all share the same vision and dedication to the job,” she adds.

The pandemic has caused some challenges in her job. “Due to the current global health situation, materials are not available making lead time not guaranteed which causes backorders.” On the upside, the pandemic has allowed her to telework some days. When everything shut down the first part of the pandemic, Michelle had to adapt to working at home. She was able to find ways to improve the daily work process successfully for teleworking, which she still uses back in the office.

Michelle is proud to be part of the CCWA team. “I am a PROUD member of CCWA and its mission to provide Quality Water, Quality Services.” #waterprofessional