Reminder: Leave donation programs revised
King County recently replaced the employee donated leave programs with two similar programs that better comply with IRS tax requirements: The Employee-to-Employee Medical Leave Donation Program allows you to donate your accrued leave directly to another employee. The Emergency Medical Leave Fund makes permanent the emergency leave fund started during the pandemic and allows you to donate accrued leave and request donations from a central fund.
Donating leave
Employee-to-Employee Medical Donated Leave Program: You can donate leave to another comprehensive leave-eligible employee as follows: Any amount of your accrued vacation time and up to 25 hours of your sick leave per year, as long as you have 100 hours or more of sick leave remaining.
Emergency Medical Leave Fund: You can donate up to 80 hours of accrued vacation and 25 hours of accrued sick leave each calendar year. Donations go to a leave bank and will be distributed to recipients with a qualifying reason.
Receiving leave
- Donated leave must be used for a qualifying FMLA/KCFML reason, such as a serious health condition for yourself or an eligible family member, or to bond with a new child. These family and medical reasons are specified under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the King County Family and Medical Leave (KCFML) benefit.
- Requests for hours from the Emergency Medical Leave Fund go through the Department of Human Resources and are capped at 80 hours annually (prorated to reflect the employee’s normal work week) and are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
- You can only use donated leave after you have exhausted all of your own accrued leaves.
- Donated time must first be used for a prolonged absence (three or more consecutive days) and then can be used intermittently.
- Donations from the Emergency Medical Leave Fund must be used within 60 calendar days or the donated hours will be returned to the fund.
- If an employee had remaining donated leave hours from the previous employee-to-employee leave donation program, unused balances were transferred to a new Employee-to-Employee Medical Donated Leave bank effective Jan. 7, 2023.
More information
- Note: These changes were previously communicated to all employees in November and December of last year.
- More details can be found in the FAQ.
- New program forms and procedures are posted on the Taking leave
- If you have questions about the new donated leave programs, contact the Benefits Team 206-684-1556 or KC Benefits.
Share this:
Bus fleet update: Manufacturer replacement parts allow repairs to continue
Crossposted from Metro Matters
With guidance and replacement parts supplied by bus manufacturer New Flyer, King County Metro has repaired and restored dozens of buses that were sidelined in December when a steering issue was identified. We appreciate the patience and support of riders as we focus on addressing this safety issue. Read more.
Share this:
Leesa Manion sworn in as King County prosecuting attorney
Crossposted from The Seattle Times
Prosecuting violent crimes and sexual assaults, providing culturally responsive victim services, and intervening in the lives of young people, especially those most at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of gun violence, are among the priorities incoming King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion touched on before taking her oath of office Monday, Jan. 9, 2023.
She called her swearing-in ceremony before a packed courtroom in the King County Courthouse “a celebration,” saying that being the first woman and the first person of color to hold the office was the honor of her life.
Manion, 53, was recognized by the Korean Prosecutors Association, whose executive director, Jerry Baik, flew to Seattle from Los Angeles to attend the ceremony and present Manion with a plaque honoring her as the country’s first Korean American woman to be elected prosecuting attorney. Read more.
View her swearing in ceremony below, from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Facebook page.
Share this:
King County partnering with community-based organizations to create a 40,000-square-foot food hub, better connecting local farmers to hunger relief organizations
King County is partnering with Food Lifeline to convert their 40,000-square-foot warehouse into the new South Seattle Community Food hub, providing much-needed shared space for storing, packing, and distributing fresh produce and goods to people and families experiencing hunger.
Read more in the official press release.
Share this:
Employee Assistance Program
There are many mental health resources at your fingertips as a King County employee, including the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAP is a confidential counseling service for work-related issues. EAP can help with:
- Workplace stress
- Counseling and coaching for work-related issues
- Conflict with coworkers
- Supervisor Support
Call 206-263-8733 to make an appointment. For more information email HRDEAP@kingcounty.gov.
Share this:
Look up immunization rates at your neighborhood school and in King County
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
What percentage of children in your child’s school are vaccinated against measles? How does your school district compare to others in King County? How have student immunization rates changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic? Find this and more on Public Health’s School Immunizations Data Dashboard, recently updated to include data for the 2021-22 school year.
Using interactive data visualizations, you can view local school, school district, county, and state immunization completion and exemption data. Read more.
Share this:
Take our survey on proposed bus routes around future Lynnwood light rail stations
Crossposted from Metro Matters
As Link light rail extends north, our Lynnwood Link Connections mobility project is working to improve public transportation for communities in northwest King County and southwest Snohomish County. This planning is a collaborative process that includes feedback from community, Sound Transit, Community Transit, and other partners, to develop proposed bus routes to meet residents’ priority transportation needs as new light rail stations open in 2024.
We invite you to learn more and take our survey on these proposed bus routes by March 10. Read more.
Share this:
Safety tip: Responding to a theft or attempted theft
Our top priority is your safety and security at work, and we are continuing to partner with law enforcement, community, and other governments to ensure a safer, more welcoming environment in and around our facilities.
This video gives tips on how to respond to a theft or attempted theft, and to call 9-1-1 in an emergency. To report a non-emergency incident, contact FMD Security at 206-296-5000, email FMD.Security@kingcounty.gov, or file an incident report at www.kingcounty.gov/IncidentReport.
Check out the video and watch for additional videos with safety tips this year.
For more information on employee safety programs and resources, see the Future of Work Personal Safety at Work intranet page (employees only) and the Safety at Work page.
Share this:
Former Metro GM Terry White and the ‘only job I ever wanted’
Crossposted from Metro Matters
In 1973, a 10-year-old in South Seattle started riding the bus alone at the encouragement of his mother. She told her son to sit at the front of the bus, and if he had any questions, to ask the driver. The young man did as his mother said, and it created a love of transit that inspired his future.
That 10-year-old, Terry White, would spend his entire career with King County Metro, retiring as Metro’s General Manager. As Metro begins to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, White spoke to KNKX Radio about becoming a bus rider and the evolution of the only employer he ever wanted to work for.
Thank you to KNKX and reporter Scott Greenstone for allowing us to share this story.
Share this:
2023 annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration, Jan. 12
King County employees are invited to join in honoring human rights leader and King County’s namesake, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the annual celebration on Thursday, Jan. 12.
The theme for the celebration is “Truth, Light, and Hope,” along with the guiding quote “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The keynote address will be given by Port of Seattle Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed.
The celebration will Thursday, Jan. 12, from noon to 1 p.m. View the KCTV livestream here. You can also view the event:
- Comcast Channel 22 and 322 (HD)
- Wave Broadband Channel 22
- Event website
For more information, contact Jasmine Harbor at jaharbor@kingcounty.gov or Michael Padilla Ocampo at MPadillaOcampo@kingcounty.gov.
2023 Larry Gossett Service Award
The event will also honor the 2023 Larry Gossett Service Award recipient, Zenovia Harris, with the Kent Chamber of Commerce. Zenovia has been instrumental in leading not only the Kent Chamber in their equity work, but also other Chambers throughout King County, including the Renton Chamber, Kirkland Chamber and Seattle Southside Chamber to name a few.
Through Zenovia’s leadership, she has supported both her own and other local chambers with the following:
- Revisited the Chambers mission/vision, ensuring that they are leading with equity
- Diversified Board member participation (age, race, position etc.)
- Introduced a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee that has been doing internal/external work to ensure their Chamber is leading with equity.
- Instituting equity talks (open to both chamber members and larger community)
- Performing internal evaluations to understand where the challenges and needs are in order to meet their equity goals for their members.
Employee News 