Metro offers mentorship and career development opportunities
The new Aspiring Leaders Program (ALP), part of Metro’s Partnership to Achieve Comprehensive Equity (PACE) initiative, is designed to expand career development opportunities for staff who want to grow their careers within the agency.
While there are many training programs available across the County, most occur during the day and tend to focus on office or administrative work environments. Hourly operational staff in Metro often need to have their positions backfilled to participate which creates a financial disincentive to offer development programs to these employees.
ALP is different as it is available to all agency employees, on all shifts, and is designed with all types of workplaces in mind, not just office environments. After a successful pilot in Metro’s Light Rail Section, the first official round of ALP was launched in December 2015, which included Vehicle Maintenance mentors paired with Power and Facilities mentees who are now preparing to celebrate their completion of the program.
The King County Metro ALPS Program group: Back row: Jeff Sattler, Chris Wilkinson, Joe Luxem, Troy Jarger, Derrick Hunter, Michael Marks, Stan Lillquist. Front row: Chris Parrot, Ron MacMillan, Maggie Halter, Deb Stenoien, Luisa Quiambao, Rich Acosta, Dennis Clemens, Joe Trecker. Not pictured: Nick Nash and Ed Mays.
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Kudos! Lost Citizen Aided by Resourceful Wastewater Treatment Division Staff
Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) received a phone call from an elderly woman letting WTD know she appreciated getting help from an employee last week. She was in the Elliott West Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) facility area and wanted to go to the Cancer Care Alliance in the Eastlake area of Seattle. She was lost. One of WTD’s Facilities Inspection and Conveyance staff took out his map, showed her an easy route and reprogrammed her GPS unit as a backup. She said that he was helpful and that he “saved the day.”
Kudos to this employee for going the extra mile to ensure excellent customer service!
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Cedar Hills Regional Landfill 50th Anniversary Open House
To commemorate 50 years of operations at the award-winning Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, the King County Solid Waste Division invites the public to come tour the facility, hear from division and county leadership and enjoy informative displays. Guests will also have the chance to see some landfill heavy equipment up close and take the “One Less Bag” challenge!
This is a great learning opportunity for the whole family – children age five and over are welcome to join if accompanied by an adult. Parking is provided and participants will board a King County Metro bus for the guided tour.
Where: Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, Maple Valley
When: Saturday, April 23, 2016. 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Please note that space is limited to 108 people and reservations must be made by April 18. To RSVP for the event or to request accommodations or an interpreter, contact Solid Waste Division Communications Specialist Anna Kegel at (206) 477-1693 or anna.kegel@kingcounty.gov.
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Analyst and PSB Office work to bridge gap between balanced budgets and Best Run Government
“It’s akin to hiking in the mountains with a compass, hike for a while, check your compass, and adjust course, and if there are boulders in the way, we’re going to help and show you a path to go around.”
This is how Budget Analyst Karl Nygard describes his work with the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget (PSB) to implement the Best Run Government initiative. While he admits no two days are alike, Karl usually works on budgeting processes for internal service funds for various County agencies, including King County Information Technology (KCIT), the Business Resource center (BRC) and the Finance and Business Operations Division (FBOD).
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Save the Date! KCIT Presents Hands on Technology Day – April 13 at the Chinook Building
Our most popular event of the year
Want to see the new County laptops? Get your Skype photo taken AND import it into your Skype account? Learn how to go paperless? These are just some of the 10 stations (and dedicated Service Desk teams) at KCIT’s Hands on Technology Day, April 13 from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. in the Chinook Atrium.
KCIT teams spend the entire afternoon explaining, showing and fixing!
Skype for Business Tips and Tricks: 30 minute in-person (and via Skype) tutorials. Session One: Set up a meeting for internal and external customers. Session Two: Call forwarding, team calling and Skype mobile. Session Three: Skype “How To” includes loading a picture, volume control, ring controls and various device settings. This is one of our most popular events.
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April 10 is Community Appreciation Day – come sample the West Seattle Water Taxi!
Now that the clouds are parting and it’s starting to feel like spring, King County Executive Dow Constantine is inviting you to get out on the water and experience West Seattle’s new water taxi.
Sunday, April 10 is Community Appreciation Day, hosted by the King County Marine Division. So bring your friends and family out to Seacrest Dock and get an up-close look at the M/V Doc Maynard and take a ride across the bay to Pier 50. All trips will be free as the water taxi kicks off its summer sailing schedule.
“I invite my West Seattle neighbors to take a ride on our new state-of-the-art water taxi as we kick off the summer sailing schedule,” said Executive Constantine. “The M/V Doc Maynard is the latest example of how we’re offering clean, fast, reliable alternatives to gridlock. Grab your sunscreen and join us on April 10th.”
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Invite Your Favorite Nonprofit Today
Crossposted from King County Employee Giving
Regional Animal Services of King County had a record save rate of 88% in 2015 – an impressive feat by itself – but even more so when you hear the comeback story. And King County Employees have been instrumental to this success, at RASKC, leadership, and including through the EGP. Employees have donated more than $70,000 to the Regional Animal Service’s Donation Funds since they started in the program, enabling RASKC to provide extraordinary medical treatment, education, and spay/neuter services.
They were referred to the program by an employee and blazed the trail for other organizations.
The opportunity to get your favorite nonprofit in the program is now! Sure- we have 930 nonprofit organizations in the program… but is yours?
Read more at the Employee Giving blog
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Executive calls for historic investment to connect the region with high-capacity transit
In his 2016 State of the County address on Monday, King County Executive Dow Constantine called for an historic investment in high-capacity mass transit to ensure the region’s long-term prosperity amid rapid population growth.
His strategy to improve mobility includes Sound Transit 3, an initiative he proposed for the November ballot in his role as Chair of the Sound Transit Board.
It will expand light-rail service to connect Seattle, Everett, Tacoma, Redmond and Issaquah, as well as West Seattle and Ballard. It will also build a new tunnel in Seattle with stations serving downtown, South Lake Union and Queen Anne.
The proposal will deliver more than 108 miles of high-capacity light rail to create a regional transit system that rivals San Francisco’s BART and Washington, D.C.’s Metro.
Watch the State of the County address online here, and read more in the official press release.
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SR 520 Grand Opening builds on Public Health, University of Washington and WSDOT partnership for youth
The upcoming 520 Bridge Replacement events presented an opportunity for approximately 160 underrepresented student populations from nine school districts to celebrate the grand opening of the world’s longest floating bridge.
On March 24, their attendance kicked-off the 520 Bridge celebration with an integrated partnership established between Environmental Health Services, Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), University of Washington – College of Engineering (UW), and various community partners to promote college and career readiness for youth to become involved in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
The students were invited to participate in a half-day forum facilitated by Environmental Health in coordination with the University of Washington and the WSDOT to learn about the real-world applications involved in constructing the new SR 520 floating bridge project. The high schoolers met with former governor Christine Gregoire, students from the UW College of Engineering, WSDOT technical experts, and Seattle and King County – Public Health officials on topics including policy development, education and Equity and Social Justice.
View the events on King County TV (KCTV) here.
For more information about the SR 520 Bridge Replacement public grand opening activities taking place on April 2 and the ongoing STEM education efforts visit www.520golong.com.
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Featured Job: Transit Operator
Drive part time for Metro and release YOUR secret identity.
Want more flexibility than a full-time job can offer? Going to work and school? Working part time and need more hours?
Working part time as a Metro Transit bus driver is ideal for anyone who wants part-time work without weekend or late-night hours, such as students, artists, and people juggling family responsibilities. Part-time drivers enjoy flexible schedules and good pay and benefits. Plus, they know they are performing a valuable service for their community. Being a part-time bus driver for Metro is part-time work that pays off!
An excellent point to consider as well is that we only hire full-time drivers from our current part-time operator pool, and right now employees with good records are currently promoting to full-time in under a year! (This has normally taken anywhere from 2-4 years in the past).
Check out what these drivers have to say about the benefits of working part time for Metro: the Musician, the Photographer, the Veteran, and the Coach! For more information and to apply visit www.kingcounty.gov/Jobs.
Employee News 