King County operations, including Superior Court, District Court, Department of Judicial Administration, Elections, Department of Assessments and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, will open at regular hours today, Tuesday, Feb. 7, unless advised otherwise by your leadership.

Icy road conditions and freezing temperatures may impact your commute this morning. Please let safety be your guide when making commute decisions. Where allowed, employees may be able to telecommute or take a day of accrued vacation or comp time instead of reporting to their normal work location today. Check with your supervisor for more information. First responders and other Level 1 staff are expected to report to their work location as usual.

HR Policies: When an agency remains open, but conditions prevent you from reporting to work on time, notify your supervisor as soon as possible. You may request leave, subject to approval by your supervisor. If you have no leave accrued, your supervisor may approve leave without pay to cover absences. Sick leave may not be used. Refer to HR Bulletin 2011-0009 County Operations During Emergency Situations and Inclement Weather

Commute: Some Metro Transit bus routes in Southwest King County are operating on snow routes, so please check Metro’s snow alerts page for travel updates and use extra caution. You can also sign up for Metro Transit Alerts (text, email, tweets via @kcmetrobus).

Check your email, www.kcemployees.com, the Employee Hotline (206-205-8600) or your agency’s hotline for regular updates (see below for agency-specific details).`

School closures: Some schools districts will open late or not at all today. When schools are closed and King County operations remain open, employees are expected to report to work as usual, or follow applicable personnel policies.

Stay Informed: During an emergency make sure you’re getting the latest King County information on how you are affected, at work and at home:

• Call the Employee Hotline—206-205-8600 (save it in your phone now!).
• Check your King County email.
• Go to www.kcemployees.com.
• Contact your supervisor.
• Follow King County on Twitter—@kcemployees, @kcnews, and @kcmetrobus.
• Check your agency website or Intranet (if applicable), and monitor local media channels.
• Visit the Emergency News page at www.kcemergency.com for regional impacts.

Superior Court employees: Information will be provided on the Superior Court website, or by calling the following hotlines for recorded updates on the status of work locations.

• Seattle courthouse/NJB employees: 206-205-6747
• MRJC courthouse employees: 206-205-6746
• Youth Services Center employees: 206-205-6747

District Court employees: Call the employee Information emergency telephone line at 206-296-6820 for recorded information, or check the District Court website for updates on operational status. Sheriff’s Office employees: All operations that are staffed on a 24-hour basis, or staffed by commissioned detectives or deputies, are considered essential, and employees scheduled to report to work in these operations are required to report to work despite emergency conditions or closure of other county operations. Refer to the King County Sheriff’s Office Inclement Weather Policy.

Productivity: If you have a Telecommuting Agreement and plan to telecommute, make sure that you check your VPN access ahead of time, and report any issues to the KCIT Service Center (HelpTicket@kingcounty.gov or 206-263-4357). Please remember that many work functions can be accomplished remotely without logging into the King County Network. You don’t need remote network access for email (https://owa.kingcounty.gov), online meetings and messaging (Skype for Business, formerly Lync), access to PeopleSoft, or to work on shared documents (SharePoint). All of these services are accessible from the Internet; simply connect to the web address (URL) from your location and log in.

Goat Hill Garage: If you park at the Goat Hill Garage or work at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle, snow or ice could lead to the closure of roads in the vicinity. The City of Seattle has provided these alternative driving routes of the area (see two-page map of routes):Route to I-5 or I-90

Leaving Goat Hill Garage if Jefferson Street exit is closed:

Alternate route to I-90

Reminder KCInform: King County has just launched a new employee emergency notification system called KCInform to help reach employees with important information in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.  On Jan. 31, you should have received an email from noreply@codered.com inviting you to register your personal contact information into KCInform. You can learn more about KCInform on this Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

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