Yesler Bridge Rehabilitation Project: Update, February 2017
The Yesler Way Bridge Rehabilitation Project has been going quite well, and is now preparing for a major milestone—the placement of new girders across 4th Avenue. Carefully putting these structures into place will require the full closure of 4th Ave S between Washington and Jefferson Streets several nights this month.
Crews will close 4th Ave S to all traffic on Monday, February 20 through Friday, February 24 from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Pedestrian, bicycle, vehicle, and bus detours will be placed around the 4th Ave S closure. Check out the detour map to see alternate routes.
Please expect the following:
- Closure of 4th Ave S between S Washington and Jefferson Streets from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Monday, February 20 through Friday, February 24
- Large construction vehicles, lights noise from trucks, back-up alarms, and other equipment
- Pedestrian, bicycle, vehicle, and bus detours around the closure
The Yesler Way Bridge Rehabilitation Project, which will improve safety and reliability while preserving the bridge’s historical elements, will continue through fall of 2017. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the project further, please contact YeslerBridge@seattle.gov or 206-684-8684. To learn more about the project, visit the project website.
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Featured Job: Project Program Manager IV
Closing Date/Time: Wed. 02/22/17 11:59 PM
Salary: $90,521.60 – $114,753.60 Annually
Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week
Location: King Street Center – 201 S Jackson St, Seattle, Washington
Department: Department of Natural Resources & Parks – Water and Land Resources Division
Description: This senior level, limited supervision position provides an exciting opportunity to help extend King County’s long legacy of preserving the natural and working resource landscape. The position will serve as the lead staff for the interjurisdictional Conservation Futures Tax grant process. The position will also serve as a team member on the emerging King County Land Conservation Initiative to protect the remaining high conservation value lands in King County within a generation.
The successful candidate will be a creative thinker with a proven track record of collaborating and forming partnerships. The position will require an aptitude for effectively managing complex and technical data, as well as an understanding of how CFT funding and the annual allocation process can be most effectively leveraged to advance landscape scale conservation with far-reaching and long-lasting benefits to the residents of King County. The successful candidate will have a vision for what it means to implement a long-term goal of conservation in King County and the ability to identify and implement steps toward realizing the vision.
Learn more about this position or view all available jobs.
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Public Health Division Director featured in Green Line Series Interview
GoGreen, one-day sustainability conference focusing on green practices, recently profiled Ngozi Oleru, Division Director of the Environmental Health Division for Public Health Seattle and King County.
Ngozi Oleru, Division Director of the Environmental Health Division for Public Health Seattle and King County
Our Green Line Series interview this week features Ngozi Oleru, Division Director of the Environmental Health Division for Public Health Seattle and King County. She is responsible for leading and managing the environmental health programs serving a population of over 2 million residents and has been instrumental in bringing a public health and equity focus to the impacts of the built environment both locally and nationally in policy and programmatic roles.
Ngozi will be a featured speaker at the GoGreen Conference session on March 16th entitled Building Healthcare and Business Climate Resilience.
You have been working on health equity for ten years now. Why is health equity important? The question shouldn’t be why is health equity important, it should be why ISN’T health equity important. Equity should be the norm. Equity is where/how/when everyone gets to participate in life with full access to opportunities and consequences that are distributed not necessarily equally, but equitably. Does everybody need to be the president of a university? No. Does everyone need to be an engineer? No. But everyone should have access to the opportunities for health and well-being to do whatever it is they are called to do. That’s why it is important.
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When the unexpected unfolds: Protecting people after wastewater overflows
Crossposted from WTD Clean Water Stories
When conversations in our region circle around to water quality, the trigger is usually bad news. Puget Sound’s resident orca whales had a tough year because they couldn’t find enough salmon to eat. Shellfish harvests and beaches close due to toxic algae in the water. Fingers point at polluted stormwater runoff, combined sewer overflows, leaking septic systems, and more.
At King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD), our mission focuses around being part of the solution. We pride ourselves on the hard work we do treating our region’s wastewater, recovering resources from the wastewater system, and planning for a sustainable, resilient future.
The last thing we want to happen is an unexpected spill into the waterways we are trying to protect.
Operating a large regional wastewater system in an area like the Central Puget Sound means that overflows are always a potential. King County operates 3 regional treatment plants, 2 local treatment plants, 4 combined sewer overflow treatment plants, 47 pump stations, 26 regulator stations, almost 400 miles of pipe, and even a community septic system.
Read more at WTD Clean Water Stories
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We put ourselves in tight spots to care for our system
Crossposted from WTD Clean Water Stories
At 6’2”, Randy Westendorf fit right in as a linebacker for the University of Colorado football team. Imagine that same man, now a facilities inspector working for King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD), squeezed into a 48” wide manhole. That visual caught the eye of a coworker, and became a feature in an industry organization’s annual calendar.
What was Randy doing in that manhole, anyway?
Read more at WTD Clean Water Stories
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Kudos! King County among the first in the nation to achieve a global milestone in the fight against HIV/AIDS
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
King County is among the first major metropolitan regions in the United States – and possibly the first – to reach a major milestone set by the World Health Organization in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
A broad partnership led by Public Health – Seattle & King County achieved what is known as the 90-90-90 goal: 90 percent of residents infected with HIV know their infection status, 90 percent are on HIV antiretroviral treatment, and 90 percent are virally suppressed.
King County reached the milestone three years ahead of schedule.
“King County continues to be a global leader in public health,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “The progress we’ve made toward ending AIDS in our community is the result of decades of hard work by our staff, strong community partnerships, and state and federal funding. We will continue to work together to end this epidemic in our region once and for all.”
Read more at Public Health Insider
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All Are Welcome Here: How a statement of King County commitment became a sign for every work site
By Meredith Li-Vollmer, Public Health – Seattle & King County
Even before the Trump administration announced its travel ban, Public Health staff started to notice a downturn in the number of immigrant patients coming for care at our clinics. Tina Maestas, Public Health Nurse at the Renton Community Service Organization, contacted Director Patty Hayes to express her concern.
“The Latino community is rightfully fearful and many are unaware that we are a [welcoming] county,” wrote Maestas. “As national policy takes a grim turn, we can be a beacon of light by proactively providing a safe haven as well as educating staff and all vulnerable members of our community about their rights and our commitment to the health of one unified community.”
With this in mind, we began work on a sign that would reassure and welcome everyone who came through King County’s doors, in coordination with the Office of Equity and Social Justice, the director of Customer Service and Facilities Management Division.
A group effort
It’s typically a time-consuming process for several departments to put ideas together, gather input, garner approvals, and execute a single communications product, but we all recognized the urgency –given the rhetoric about immigrants and refugees at the national level – and expedited the development of the sign so that it was finished within a week.
Laurel Preston, a graphic designer for KCIT and DNRP, worked quickly on mockups for the design while Melissa Warner and I in Public Health coordinated translation of the message into the most requested languages in King County, and also Arabic. Public Health’s medical interpreters/translators, including Irina Smith, Lisa Jaffee and Sadiya Ali, quickly turned around several translations and the rest of the languages were sent to a translation agency.
Bilingual staff from across King County helped with quality assurance checks on the translations, including Lin Song, Mohamed Ali, Sergey Kovalchuk, Matias Valenzuela, Nina Blinkova, and Olga Pugachev. Michelle Nguyen even checked the Vietnamese by sending a photo of the mock-up to the best language expert she knows—her mom!
Finally, Preston magically fit all eight languages into a single sign that reads: All Are Welcome Here. We proudly serve immigrants, refugees, and all who live in King County.
In emailing her translation, Lisa Jaffee wrote, “What an honor to translate such an important statement. Thank you – I’m so proud to work for (and live in) King County!”
When we post this sign, we can all be proud that our County, and everyone who works on its behalf, are ready to protect the safety, dignity and equality of all who live here.
Download the All are Welcome sign here. The sign prints best in color in the 11” X 17” size. Please post the sign in highly visible areas, especially in locations with direct services to the public.
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KCIT delivers new, faster onboarding service
The workstation is ready to go when your new employee arrives
KCIT is excited to announce a new, better, faster and more thorough way to get new employees up and working on Day One. Our new process puts the right tools, systems, and software on the right device(s) so everything is ready to use the moment the new employee arrives.
The new onboarding process includes: Network and PeopleSoft logins, desk phones, laptops, software, applications, email groups, and any other tool needed to start work at King County We’ll even map to your printers!
To get started, users can now follow these simple instructions:
- Visit the KCIT Support Site: https://helpdesk.kingcounty.gov/CherwellPortal/ITSupport
- Select Login in the upper right corner
- Select I Want Something New
- Under User Accounts Select On Boarding/Off boarding/Transfer Employee
- Select the appropriate form to be filled out
Following this easy process will automatically create a HelpDesk ticket. For any questions, employees can call 206-263-4357 (3-HELP).
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ESJ book winners and the continuing conversation on racism, new series to begin March 21
By Rowena Johnson, Department of Natural Resources and Parks
Earlier this year an Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) project team in the Department of Natural Resources and Parks held a drawing to give away five books by poets featured in the 2016 “Reflecting on Race and Racism through Spoken Word, Story, and Conversation” series. To be eligible for the drawing, King County employees were asked to submit their reflections on the 2016 reading series, particularly on what they had learned and what they hope to see in future ESJ literary events. Those who had not attended were invited to express what would have inspired them to come.
ESJ book winner Cynthia Adams
John Miller, who won Diglossic in the Second America by Quenton Baker, wrote that the most important thing he learned was “how many of us employees are passionate about our cultures and the racial/social injustices that our communities have had to confront for many, many years.”
Carl Grodnik, winner of This Glittering Republic by Quenton Baker reflected on the practice of empathy. “The most important thing I learned was to listen. Really listen. And to try to put myself in someone else’s shoes when they’re talking. How would I feel in that situation? Empathize. Be human. Allow yourself to feel.”
Other winners were
- Cynthia Adams, who received Digging for Roots by Kiana Davis
- Mary Rabourn, who received Aux Arcs by Shin Yu Pai.
- Lusha Zhou, who won Adamantine by Shin Yu Pai
Carl attended two of the events last year and believes that “the conversation needs to continue.” The ESJ project team will indeed continue the conversation with a new literary series in 2017.
ESJ book winner Lusha Zhou
This new series, launching on March 21, is titled “Reflecting on Race and Racism: Deepening the Dialogue.” It will provide King County employees the opportunity to listen, exchange ideas, and confront discomfort on issues of race and racism.
Employees will participate in a candid conversation on race and racism with a panel of literary artists of color and a skilled facilitator. The panel will include five of the artists who performed in the 2016 reading series: Quenton Baker, Kiana Davis, Anis Gisele, Shin Yu Pai, and Djenanway Se-Gahon. They will each share a poem and talk briefly about what inspired it. To delve more deeply into the issue of racism, Caprice Hollins of Cultures Connecting will guide the ensuing conversation with questions for both artists and the audience.
To learn more about the artists and to register for this event, visit our Eventbrite page.
Deepening the dialogue through story sharing can elicit new ways of thinking, bring self-awareness to unconscious biases, foster understanding and compassion, and guide us in cultivating a workplace culture of equity and social justice. Please join us for:
Reflecting on Race and Racism: Deepening the Dialogue
A facilitated discussion with a panel of literary artists of color
Tuesday, March 21, 9:30 to11:30 a.m.
8th Floor Conference Room, King Street Center, 201 S. Jackson St.
The artists’ 2016 performances at King County can be viewed online.
Contact Information
- Donna Miscolta, Solid Waste Division, donna.miscolta@kingcounty.gov, 206-477-5282
- Debra Ross, Wastewater Treatment Division, debra.ross@kingcounty.gov, 206-477-5598
- John Conway, Wastewater Treatment Division, john.conway@kingcounty.gov, 206-477-7474
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Claims and Public Records Coordinator
Closing Date/Time: Sun. 03/26/17 11:59 PM Pacific Time
Salary: $34.33 – $43.52 Hourly, $71,406.40 – $90,521.60 Annually
Job Type: Term Limited Temporary, Full Time, 40 hrs/wk
Location: King County Correctional Facility – 500 5th Ave, Seattle, Washington
Department: Department of Adult & Juvenile Detention
Description: The Claims and Public Records Coordinator selected for this position will be responsible for splitting their time between investigating inmate property loss claims and handling Public Records Act responses. Both bodies of work require high level organizational skills and attention to detail. Candidates should have strong written and oral communications ability and be comfortable communicating with a variety of constituents.
Learn more about this position or view all available jobs.
Employee News 