Wastewater Treatment Division’s (WTD) Combined Sewer Overflow Control (CSO) Program is sporting a new look and feel, with the goal of helping the public and people outside WTD better understand their work.

“Protecting Our Waters” is the new name of a program to prevent pollution caused by excess stormwater in the sewer system on rainy days. Through 2030, WTD will be building nine pollution control projects to keep stormwater mixed with small amounts of sewage out of the Duwamish River, Lake Washington Ship Canal and Puget Sound. These projects complete the program started in 1979.

The tagline, “Doing Our Part on Rainy Days”, sets expectations about WTD’s role to protect waterways by controlling CSOs without overpromising. It’s a great, quick way to tell the story of why WTD does CSO projects.

Why such a big change? It’s not to “sell” something; it’s about good communication that helps busy people better understand (and hopefully appreciate) the value of WTD’s work. It’s also because people outside WTD and workgroups struggle with the term “CSO”, which requires a detailed explanation almost every time the topic is discussed – even with other County staff.

Finally, it’s because good messaging and strong visual cues (pictures speak a thousand words!) can help increase awareness of WTD’s work and public support for the rate structure needed to fund it.

The new message and image platform was developed by an internal WTD team of communicators, planners, capital project staff, graphic designers and management over the course of several months which reviewed market research and opinion polls, conducted internal brainstorming exercises and eventually presented the new concept for review and approval by division and department directors, as well as the Executive’s Office.

WTD will make a transition over the coming months, incorporating the look and messaging into newly produced materials and website updates.

Special thanks to: Susan Kaufman-Una, Erika Peterson, Doug Marsano, Michael Popiwny, Jessie Israel, John Phillips, Heidi Sowell, Sandy Kilroy, Jamie Foulk, Rachael Dillman, and Annie Kolb-Nelson for their efforts!

(Original article written by Annie Kolb-Nelson for WTD’s The Watermark newsletter).

We recently asked King County employees to tell us what respect in the workplace means to them in one word. The way we treat one another is just as important as the way we treat our customers, and helps define the type of workplace that we want.

Some of the words that resonated the most with employees were Consideration, Kindness, Communication, Trust, Listening, Value, Acknowledgement, Dignity, Acceptance and Appreciation.

You can see all the results displayed in a Word Cloud below.

The King County Recorder’s Office is now located on the fourth floor of the King County Administration Building, making it easier for customers to access documents, records, and marriage licenses and certificates.

The Recorder’s Office made the move from the third floor of the Administration Building to put its services in easy reach of customers who enter the building from Fifth Avenue.

“Our previous location on the third floor of the Administration Building was not easy for some customers to find, and the third floor had a split level with two separate customer service counters,” said Norm Alberg, Director of the Records and Licensing Services Division. “By moving to the fourth floor, we are making our services more accessible and efficient for customers and combining to a single counter.  In addition to improving customer access, we reduced our square footage.”

Alberg thanked the employees in Facilities Management Division who ensured that the transition occurred with minimal disruption to customer.

“We’d like to recognize the efforts of the Facilities Management Division for the design and implementation of the improved space, move from the 3rd floor, and meeting the project deadline in a tight timeframe,” Alberg said. “We were serving customers on the 3rd floor until close of business on Friday and opened up, ready for customers on Monday morning.”

The Recorder’s Office records and provides access to over 350 types of documents, including:

• Real estate documents (deeds, mortgage documents, real estate tax affidavits, etc.)
• Survey, condominium and plat maps
• Liens
• Marriage applications and certificates
• Miscellaneous documents (powers of attorney, wills, community property agreements, military discharge papers, etc.)

The Recorder’s Office joins the Licensing Section’s Vehicle and Vessel Licensing on the fourth floor, part of the Department of Executive Services’ Records and Licensing Services Division (RALS). The new address is 500 Fourth Ave., Suite 430, Seattle, WA 98104.

On February 11, 2014, PBS NewsHour visited Juvenile Detention to film a story about Pongo Teen Writing – a volunteer, nonprofit organization – and the therapeutic impact of poetry on at-risk youth.

Richard Gould, the founder and Executive Director of Pongo Publishing Teen Writing Project, has been helping troubled teens express themselves through poetry and has published their work in anthologies since mid-1970. He has volunteered his services at Juvenile Detention since 1998. Detained youth have responded to Mr. Gould’s encouragement and help by writing about traumatic events in their lives, such as, losses, death, abandonment, abuse, and parental addiction. Several anthologies have been published over the years highlighting poems written by detained youth (who are not identified in the book by their full name).

PBS featured this innovative program in its ongoing series “Where Poetry Lives,” during its March 17 NewsHour program. Reporter Jeffrey Brown and U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey learned more about the program and how it empowers young people in crisis to express themselves. Watch the nine-minute video here.