5/7 UAEA Weekly Email + Healthcare Reminders

Hi all, 

I have a few minor updates and reminders this week. 

UAEA Elections: Nominations for the 2026 UAEA Elections can be submitted until tonight at midnight. There are 5 positions available for nominations, the President, Secretary, Communications Director, and 2 Citywide Representatives. Members can nominate either themselves or their fellow members to these positions - please see the attached documents for information about eligibility for each role and what each position does for UAEA. 

UAEA Elections are handled by the Elections Committee, an independent group of UAEA members who set schedules, determine eligibility, and verify results. This year the committee is composed of members Julie Reveles, Heather Armstrong, and Alima Dia. They have proposed the following schedule for our elections. 

Thursday, May 7th - Nominations due

Thursday, May 14th - Candidate Bios due

A candidate forum or forums will be held in May if there are multiple candidates vying for a role. The Committee will decide whether or not to hold forums if only one candidate is running in each category. 

Monday, June 1st - Voting (if multiple candidates vying for a role)

Monday, June 8th - Results announced

If you would like to submit a nomination, please fill out the linked nomination form. You can also download and fill out the attached form and return it to any member of the committee by the deadline. 

Tempe Tax Update: I attended the Council meeting on 4/30 to see if Council would vote to bring the .5% sales tax proposal to the Tempe ballot in November. They did not vote on that proposal and instead decided to modify the original proposal so that .1% of the funds will be allocated to early childhood education efforts in Tempe. This will change the amount allocated for public safety from 0.4% to 0.3% but keep the transit tax proposal at .1% as well. City Council will vote on the new language on 5/14 - I will try to be at that Council meeting as well and will update members with their decision. If you’d like more information on this proposal, check out the attached email. 

HR Open Enrollment Meeting: I listened to HR’s Open Enrollment Meeting from 4/23 and have a few notes to share. If you’d like to watch the meeting yourself, you can find it here - it is also only about 25 minutes. 

This year is passive enrollment - if you have no changes to make (coverage amounts, dependents, marital status, etc), you do not need to do anything. That said, it may be worth checking your account just to make sure you are aware of what you are paying for - you can do this between May 4th and May 22nd. When you login to your Peoplesoft Account you will see the “Benefits Open Enrollment” tab in the bottom right. Click on it to start the process. 

As mentioned a few weeks ago, insurance premium rates will be going up by about 8.1% due to increased coverage costs. That said, the City’s Mediflex contribution is going up 8.1% and the employee discount for obtaining the health insurance incentive will be going up to $29.20 per paycheck ($760/year). 

The City also briefly discussed the Health Advocate program, the replacement for Optavise. This group helps employees find doctors to perform certain services and can price compare doctor’s offices to find cheaper options. If you choose a cheaper option (which you are not obliged to do), they will reimburse you $500 or up to 20% of the cost of surgery for saving Tempe money on its insurance premiums. You can find more information about Health Advocate, including contact details, at this link. 

FSA Deadlines: Just as a reminder, employees have until June 30th, 2026 to make purchases with their Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). You can carry up to $680 from one plan year to another, but you will lose any additional funds in your account above that amount. Just to be clear, purchases made through June 30th, 2026, can be logged in the system until September 28th, 2026, but nothing made after June 30th will be eligible for reimbursement for the 2025-2026 Calendar year. 

To see your available funds, start by logging in at the Allegiance website. You should see something similar to the following dashboard. Click on the “Reimbursement Account” tab. 

Once you’ve clicked through, you should be on this webpage. 

If you scroll down about halfway, you’ll see the amount you have remaining in your FSA. If it’s below $680, you don’t need to do anything at this time. 

If you have funds remaining (or just want to see what you can spend FSA funds on), consider scheduling some last minute medical appointments or check out sites like fsastore.com, which contain hundreds of medical and health items that are automatically FSA-eligible. 

Employee of the Quarter Reminders:  Nominations for the Employee of the Quarter (Q3 2026) will be accepted until Monday, June 1st, 2026 (finalists will be announced in our July newsletter). If you would like to be considered (or would like to nominate a peer), please fill out the application (it takes 5 minutes) before the end of day on June 1st. If you would like a refresher on program rules, check out this blog post. One thing that’s important to the Executive Team is making sure we recognize employees from as many departments as possible - we have still not seen a lot of applicants from Water, Strategic Management, Financial Services, the Park Ranger team, the non-sworn side of PD, Sustainability, and a few other areas. While it’s not the only consideration, you have a better chance of recognition if your nomination is for someone in an area we haven’t acknowledged yet.

Member Highlights: UAEA would like to highlight more of our members in future newsletters and are looking to find a few people we can interview about their daily work and time with Tempe. We’d like to show off the variety of jobs that are done around Tempe, as well as inform Tempe about the skills needed to be successful in different areas. If you’d like to be highlighted in a future edition of our newsletter, please reach out to president@uaeatempe.com. 

Childcare Survey Updates: Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on the childcare survey we sent out. About 50% of respondents indicated a current or future need for childcare (with about 33% of respondents currently needing childcare). TSA and UAEA have shared some top-level results with HR and our City Manager, and will continue to discuss possible support strategies with them over the coming months. 

Benefits Fair Update: UAEA tabled at the Benefits Fair on Tuesday and had a lot of great conversations with our members (as well as a few new people signing up). I also spoke with some of the vendors about their offerings and wanted to highlight a few things that members may be interested in. Most of these can be found online at the Employee Network website - while it isn’t updated too frequently, I would urge members to check it at least once a year to see how their offerings change over time. 

Pita Jungle offers 30% off food and non-alcoholic drinks for people who show their Employee Network membership. Their sister restaurant, Feta Cowboy, a Mexican/Mediterranean build-your-own-bowl concept in South Tempe, offers 20% off discounts for members of the Employee Network as well. Venezia’s Pizza, which has a location on Mill and Southern Avenues, has a 15% off orders of $25 or more with the code EN1731 - this can be used for in-store, online, or phone orders. 

There are also a lot of discounted tickets for local attractions like the Hall of Flame, the Phoenix Zoo, Liberty Wildlife Rescue, Goldland/Sunsplash Waterpark, Medieval Times, and many other Zoos and Aquariums in Arizona. Discounts range from 20 to 50% off gate prices - usually you just need to order online in advance, through a vendor’s link. The Diamondbacks offer 40-50% off tickets for select games as well, but I believe there are limits on what seats can be purchased at that rate. 

Besides those, there is an assortment of offers for automotive repairs, home remodeling, hotels and resorts, and even international travel. I can make no promises that the rates here are the best or even that they’re competitive, but I think it’s worth taking a look before booking anything to see if there are deals. 

Crafts Contest: Our Quarter 2 Crafts competition is now open and will be accepting entries until Thursday, May 21st. This contest does not require you to create anything new - we simply want to see the best/most-interesting hand-made crafts that members or their children have made. Prizes will be awarded to the top crafts in each of three categories and additional prizes will be distributed if a certain number of people enter in each category. The board will also let members vote on their favorites if we receive more than a few entries. A full list of contest rules are available to review on our blog and members can enter pictures of their crafts at this link. 

Next Member Meeting: Our next membership meeting will be on Wednesday, May 20th, from 12-1PM at the JGM Water Treatment Plant. You can rsvp here until Thursday, May 14th, at 5PM. Please note that the parking for the JGM Plant is a little hard to find if you haven’t been there before. Please reference the attached photo or the instructions on our Events Page if you need directions. Please also note that this will take place on a Wednesday, not a Thursday as usual. 

Community Resources: UAEA is aware of rising fuel prices and how this is impacting members. We are having some internal city discussions about possible workplace changes, but also wanted to post some resources for members who may be struggling to make ends meet. This is a similar list to what we posted in November with a few new additions. Please feel to reach out if you have additional recommendations about local resources. 

AZ Food Bank Network: This link contains information about dozens of food banks and assistance sites across Arizona. You can search by the directory and the zipcodes they provide services for to find food banks in your areas. 

AZ Medical and Nutrition Assistance: This is an Arizona-State run program that can help connect people with Arizona State programs that provide assistance for people who need medical coverage, WIC support, or additional access to nutrition. I do not know all that the program entails. 

Maricopa County Utility Support: This is a Maricopa County program that can help people receive assistance paying for utilities. Some cities have unique offerings while others are covered under one umbrella program. 

AZ 211: This is a Arizona-State run help line that can help people connect with a variety of resources and support they may be unaware of in their area. 

Tempe Employee Relief Fund: This is a Tempe-run program (paid for by employee donations) that can provide support of up to $1,200 to assist Tempe employees with unplanned emergency bills (housing, mortgage, utilities, etc). 

Employee Assistance Program: If you have insurance through the City of Tempe, you can take advantage of the EAP, a group of resources which can provide free therapy, legal consultations, or classes on stress management. 

Cheap Recipe Guides: These are two free cookbooks designed for cooking high-nutrition and easy meals on a budget. Even if you’re not a fan of the recipes, there are some good tips on stocking a kitchen with affordable and long-lasting staples. 

Free Transit Pass: This contains information on how to obtain your free bus, streetcar, and lightrail pass as a Tempe employee. 

Thanks for a great week, everyone!