Indoor shelter sites reopen, encampment ends
Working in collaboration with the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Catholic Community Services (CCS), Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (better known as SHARE), and the City of Seattle, we have been successful in negotiating an agreement to re-open more than a dozen indoor shelter sites in Seattle that had been closed since early spring. As a result, SHARE moved their encampments from our Administration Building Plaza and Goat Hill over the weekend.
Under an agreement signed with CCS last week, approximately 250 shelter beds are re-opening, with two significant changes to operations:
- Effective immediately, CCS has taken on a new role as fiscal trustee for SHARE’s indoor shelters, providing financial management, budgeting, and fiscal oversight to improve accountability and sustainability for the SHARE indoor shelter network.
- Second, King County is providing funding to CCS to ensure that case management and housing navigation services will be available to shelter stayers at the SHARE indoor sites – services that previously were not available at any of those locations. Our goal is to provide both the safety of indoor shelter coupled with access to the services that create pathways out of homelessness.
As the summer days wind down, we are pleased that resolution was achieved and the shelters re-opened before the cooler temperatures set in. We are especially grateful to Catholic Community Services and the Church Council of Greater Seattle for their leadership in helping to bring the local churches and the partners together to re-establish this urgently needed shelter.
Thank you for your patience, understanding, and compassion as we worked to negotiate an agreement that not only re-opens 250 needed beds, but also ensures access to services that help people to exit homelessness. A special thank you to the dedicated staff of the Facilities Management Division, Public Health-Seattle & King County, and the Department of Community and Human Services for their efforts to assist the individuals in the encampments and safeguard health and safety issues.
Homelessness affects thousands of people in our community. Many of us know family, friends, or neighbors who have experienced homelessness, or who may be at the edge of homelessness due to our region’s skyrocketing housing costs. King County is absolutely committed to working with our partners in government, housing, faith, and philanthropy to preserve and create affordable housing and to make homelessness in King County rare, brief, and a one-time occurrence.
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Survey Participation Ideas
We had a really fun group Thursday that came up with some great ideas to generate excitement about taking the survey. Here were some of their top ideas:
- Share results of last year’s “One Thing” effort at staff meeting — then end staff meeting early so people can take the 2016 survey.
- When participation hits 100% – pizza lunch with gift drawing!
- For field staff incentivizing completing surveys via rewards, for example if the group achieves over 75% they get something or provide overtime/time to complete the survey.
- Elect an employee survey ambassador to promote the survey to their peers.
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Social Media Spotlight: KC Road Services Twitter
King County Road Services maintains 1,500 miles of road & 181 bridges in unincorporated King County.
Follow the KC Road Services on Twitter today!
Click here to view all King County social media pages.
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Bloodworks Northwest is holding an Apheresis and Whole Blood Drive, September 9 and 16
BloodWorks Northwest will be hosting a blood drive Friday, September 9 and Friday, September 16 in the Chinook Building, room 123, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please sign up at the online scheduling site, contact (800) 398-7888 or email schedule@bloodworksnw.org for an appointment.
- To donate apheresis or blood: Make an appointment, click here or call 1-800-398-7888.
- To donate platelets or plasma: Make an appointment, click here or call 1-800-398-7888.
For more information about the donation process and the importance and impact of donating blood check out the following links: find answers to questions about blood donation, see the difference the gift of blood makes for local patients, and look up basic eligibility info.
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Rev Up For Retirement seminar, September 30
With increased concern over the future of Social Security and the stability of retirement plans, you’re never too young (or too old!) to prepare.
Bring a brown-bag lunch and hear what the Retired Public Employees Council of Washington, the Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors and the Social Security Administration have to say about planning, PERS, Medicare, and Social Security.
Friday, September 30 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eighth Floor Conference Hall, King Street Center, 201 S. Jackson St., Seattle
Registration is required. Due to space limitations, only county employees may attend. To register, please e-mail: KC.Orientations@kingcounty.gov
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Kudos to the Wastewater Treatment program for empowering high school students!
In the August 27 edition of the Seattle Times, the King County Wastewater Treatment Division’s Internship Program was mentioned in the “Rant & Rave” section for empowering teens and youth. The mention went as follows:
“RAVE For King County’s wastewater treatment high school internship program and their staff. The students started with the thought that government doesn’t care about the average citizen and ended feeling empowered to participate in decision making and making our community a better place for everyone. Incredible growth was demonstrated during the students’ end-of-program presentations.”
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Featured Job: Information Technology Projects Manager II
Closing Date/Time: Sun. 09/11/16 11:59 PM
Salary: $102,066.43 – $123,391.01 Annually
Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week
Location: King Street Center – 201 S Jackson St, Seattle, Washington
Department: Department of Transportation – Transit Division
Description: This position will serve as a project manager on large transit technology projects within the Systems Development & Operations workgroup of Metro Transit. Projects may include customer-facing information systems, internal management information and business process systems, transit vehicle operations and communication systems, or other transit-related systems.
Learn more about this position or view all available jobs.
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Tech Tip: Follow-up to the difference between Office 2013 and Office 365
This is a follow-up to the August 3, 2016 Employee News Tech Tip “What is the difference between Office 2013 and Office 365?” Regarding the home version which employees can download from Microsoft at a discount:
- Do the two co-exist – the Office suite together with Office 365? Office 365 is a subscription plan. It means you get the latest Office products and regular upgrades as they come out. Alternatively, you can go out and buy a one-time purchase of MS Office. Then you get no upgrades. So for King County, you can download an earlier version (e.g., MS Office 2013) and because this is part of the Office 365 plan you can choose at a later time to upgrade (to Office 2016) at no cost. With Office 365, you also have the capability to install the version of Office you choose on up to 4 additional computers at no charge. Again, if you chose to go out and buy a standalone copy of MS Office, then you could only install on one computer.
- With Office 365, do you still have Office loaded on your hard drive? I.e. if you don’t have internet access, can you still work on an Office document? Yes, Office gets loaded on your hard drive.
- Do you have to “download” both the most recent Office suite as well as Office 365? No. You are choosing the Office suite (version) that you want as part of your Office 365 subscription plan. See the answer to 1 above.
- Am I remembering this correctly: That I downloaded/registered Office 365 on a home computer a few years back, but then still had to update and pay for the updated Office suite when it came out? I.e. Office 365 does patches but doesn’t update the suite when a whole new edition rolls out (eg. Office 2015 or Office 2017)? You can upgrade at any time, but it is not automatic.
For questions about Office 365 and the Office suite, and how to access them as a King County employee, contact Jamie Holter at jamie.holter@kingcounty.gov.
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CPR classes available this fall
King County employees are welcome to sign up for available CPR classes hosted in the Chinook building September through December. Class dates are as follows:
Basic Heartsaver CPR/AED Training (Open to all King County employees), register with andrew.burns@kingcounty.gov:
- Tuesday, September 13, 2016 – 9 a.m. to noon, Chinook Bldg, Room 126
Refresher Heartsaver CPR/AED Training (Open to all King county employees) register with andrew.burns@kingcounty.gov:
- Tuesday, September 13, 2016 – 1-3 p.m., Chinook Bldg, Room 126
BLS CPR (Healthcare Provider) Training (Open only to Public Health Certificated staff) register with maryalice.allenbach@kingcounty.gov:
- Tuesday, October 11, 2016 – 9 a.m. to noon, Chinook Bldg, Room 126
- Tuesday, December 8, 2016 – 9 a.m. to noon, Chinook Bldg, Room 126
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Update on Courthouse Electrical Project
The King County Council has approved the proposal to immediately replace the downtown Seattle Courthouse Building electrical distribution system, and design work is already underway.
You can get updates on the project on a new intranet site, where you will find the following information
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Project Schedule – a four week look ahead
*This schedule will be updated every other week or as information changes - Project announcements.
You can visit the site here and check back for ongoing updates throughout the project.
Employee News 