Seasonal home maintenance seminar
Whether you own your home or are renting, make sure your home is ready for the seasons ahead! This seminar is presented by HomeStreet Bank to help you learn basic home maintenance, what you need to do when the temperature changes, covering the cost of home maintenance and you’ll be provided with a home maintenance checklist.
This class will be held at King Street Center, Thursday, September 22 from noon to 1 p.m.
Registration is required. Call the Hometown Hotline at 888-425-6990, or visit www.homestreet.com/KingCo.
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Transit Advisory Commission seeks new members
Crossposted from Metro Matters
Do you ride transit and have a desire to improve transit service for everyone? King County is seeking several new members for its Transit Advisory Commission.
The commission helps improve transit services, planning, and programs by advising Metro, King County, and leaders about transit policy (visit the website to learn more).
The commission’s members include residents and other transit stakeholders. Our goal is to reflect the county’s diversity. Most members ride the bus, and all live in King County. Each serves a two-year term. The commission meets monthly or as needed.
Read more at Metro Matters
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The True Stories Project – 8 Stories: 1 Division
The Prevention Division of Public Health – Seattle & King County held it’s first ever all-staff gathering. From the variety of diverse programs in the division, this short video by Drew Emery captures eight stories that show what we have in common: we care.
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King County Elections and community partners kick-off General Election voter engagement
Earlier this year, King County Elections and the Seattle Foundation launched a pilot program to engage limited-English speaking voters. After soliciting two rounds of proposals, 22 organizations received funding for their voter outreach field plans. In total, the pilot program has awarded nearly $242,000 for community-based voter engagement.
On August 16, those community-based organizations officially kicked-off their work at Elections Headquarters in Renton.
“This represents a new way of doing voter outreach and community engagement in general,” said Director of Elections, Julie Wise. “Rather than assuming we know the right way to engage King County’s many diverse communities, we are partnering with and resourcing the organizations who have been doing this work for decades.”
Read more in the official press release.
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Celebrating 50 years of work to keep our waters clean
Crossposted from the Wastewater Treatment Division blog
In 1966 the Wastewater Treatment Division was created to protect our waters and our health every day. Here’s one story of our progress. – By Monica Van der Vieren
Raw sewage flowed from pipes at every street end. River waters in cities were so dead that fish would avoid swimming upstream. “Scum and toilet debris floated on the water,” said one person, shaking his head. “It stunk.”
That was the Puget Sound region 50 years ago.
Half a century later, WTD is celebrating all of the men and women who commit their careers, skills, talents, and creativity to the regional wastewater treatment system that has transformed our waterways.
Read the story and see (just some!) of the photos from the 50th Celebration last week on the WTD blog at the link below.
Read more at the Wastewater Treatment Division blog
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Ryerson Base wins safety competition
Ryerson Base has won the 2015 Base Competition Award. As part of the Transit Safety Program, a Base Accident Competition was initiated in 1982. Each base is analyzed by how many collision per million miles they have had and that is compared to the previous years performance. The base with the most improved accident record is recognized for their achievement. This year the award was won by Ryerson Base who reduced their collisions by 19.7 percent.
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Ideas to Boost Survey Participation Rates
Today we started our series of engagement survey orientation trainings. At the very end we did a brainstorm exercise to generate ideas for boosting participation in this year’s survey. Our response rate last year as 60% which is good enough to make the data valid, but we’d like to see more people participate.
For the brainstorm exercise we asked people to write an idea on an index card and then exchange cards 3 times with people in the room anonymously rating each idea on a scale from 1 – 5 where 5 is a great idea.
In this space we’ll share what training participants thought were the best ideas.
August 24:
- Survey BBQ
- Have a small party: have food and gather with staff. Post person pictures of people on a board or wall. Decorate.
- Have treats as unit quarterly meeting if we get 100% response rate.
- Create a short list of things that happened as a result of last year’s survey. Post it! Share it! Make it visible!
- Have a competition with another section.
- Let people fill it out in a staff meeting.
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Interim HR Director provides employee satisfaction from the outside in
It’s not easy to step in to a new role, especially for a short time. It takes an understanding of the job duties, but also an appreciation of its goals and culture. Susie Slonecker has stepped into the role of interim Human Resources Director with just this, as well as an awareness of the work being done and also a positive and collaborative way to improve upon it.
A northwest native, Susie first came to Washington for college, attending the University of Washington, Seattle. She returned to her hometown of Eugene, OR for law school before coming to work for the King County Prosecutor’s office in 1993. In her time here, she has become well known for her ability to work with employees and labor relations professionals from across the County on labor and employment issues. She continues to bring these skills into her work within HR.
“I’m looking at things we’re doing and saying ‘is this the right way to do it, and if not, what is the new way to do it?’” said Susie. “It’s about finding a balance and giving employees the space to breathe so that they take the time to do their work well.”
“In any job, everyone seems to be running all the time, and I just think, do we need to be?”
Ensuring work is done in an efficient manner, while still being conscious of employees needs is an important part of how Susie addresses workplace improvements.
“It’s looking at how do we prioritize our work and chunk it out,” she said. “There’s these great big policies and initiatives but saying ‘I’ll get work done on this part’ helps us not lose focus on our own day-to-day.”
“At the heart of Human Resources is humans. We need to listen to a problem in the work place and learn how to collaboratively solve it.”
Susie takes on the community approach to her work because she believes it’s integral to being an award-winning County with nationally recognized practices. She understands that at times it can be difficult due to the divisions and separations between each department, but explains that the success of one hinges on the achievements of all.
“HRD is here to be a partner and a resource. I know there’s some employees who may think we just say no, but we can really help with the many challenges that come with being a big employer.”
“We’re listening and thinking of ways to do things to help people become better employees.”
Done in a strategic and holistic style, Susie works to ensure the system is working well for each employee by helping managers become coaches, providing tools for the workplace and holding people accountable for their actions.
“It’s about supporting both sides of employees – getting to that point where something works for the whole group – and checking back with people to be sure they are happy in their workplace.”
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Executive reaffirms commitment to immigrant and refugee services
Foreign-born residents face particular challenges upon arrival in the U.S., and King County employees have been easing the transition for immigrants and refugees in the area for nearly forty years.
King County Executive Dow Constantine visited the Downtown Public Health Center in Belltown Thursday with members of the media to thank those County employees and to show examples of the important services King County provides to immigrants and refugees shortly after they arrive from Sea-Tac International Airport.
In light of the national attention immigration is currently receiving, Executive Constantine wanted to showcase the Downtown Public Health Center’s employees and intake process for immigrants and refugees, and reaffirm the County’s dedication to assisting those in our area. “Martin Luther King County is living out its commitment that we are a place where every person truly is welcomed on equal footing,” Executive Constantine said during the tour.
King County grows more diverse every year. Since 2000, the County has grown by more than 220,000 residents, and only half of that growth is from births. Most of the remainder is from immigrants and refugees.
Geni Sheikh, one of the event attendees and a refugee from Somalia, got help when she arrived, and then became an interpreter for other immigrants. She is now a King County employee and Public Health Nurse who helps new mothers as part of the Nurse Family Partnership program.
On August 11, Executive Constantine endorsed the recommendations of the King County Immigrant and Refugee Task Force, including the creation of an Immigrant and Refugee Commission with a dedicated staff member to advance equity and opportunity for the more than 400,000 foreign-born residents in the region.
“King County proudly upholds the American principle that we are a nation of opportunity. The task force has produced recommendations that will help immigrants and refugees in our region flourish, achieve their full potential, and contribute to our region’s prosperity,” Executive Constantine said.
For more information, visit the County’s Refugee Services site and view the KING 5 story, or read more in the official press release. For questions, contact immigrantrefugee@kingcounty.gov.
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Social Media Spotlight: King County Department of Public Defense blog
For The Defense tells stories about the people who work for King County’s Department of Public Defense: Their work, the issues they face, the challenges they experience and the successes they celebrate. It looks at the criminal justice system through the lens of public defense — issues of racial disproportionality, the criminalization of people who are poor and mentally ill, reforms that are needed to make the system fairer and more equitable. Finally, it looks at the clients we serve. When we can, we’ll tell their stories, too.
Follow the For The Defense blog today!
Click here to view all King County social media pages.
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