Home Repair Program makes life easier for local family
Before the King County Housing Repair Program, Shawn Price had to carry her son Elijah, who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, up and down the stairs to her home.
“I would take him out of the wheelchair, pick him up and carry him up the stairs,” Price said. “You have to do it so I took muscle relaxers and I would just do it, it was a lot of pain.”
Now, thanks to the program, Price was able to install a ramp leading to her front door.
“It’s a beautiful ramp, it contributes to the house,” Price said.
The King County Housing Repair Program offers loans and grants to low- to moderate-income households to enable necessary household repair projects such as fixing roofs, pipes, electrical systems and flooring. Residents, who qualify for assistance based on their income, receive no interest loans and no payments due until the house is sold. Watch the KCTV video.
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FBI honors probation counselor for work with sexually exploited youth
In late 2013, Deb Stuckman, a Juvenile Probation Counselor with Superior Court, was recognized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for her work to help commercially sexually-exploited youth.
Deb received the award “…for your excellent work with the Central Sound Child Exploitation Task Force that has achieved notable success in major crime control efforts. Your close cooperation with officers from other jurisdictions also contributed to the Task Force’s successes on behalf of the public. These operations are complex and sensitive, and the FBI is grateful for your outstanding contributions.”
Deb began working for King County Juvenile Court in May 2005. About a year later she became involved with the collaborative efforts around juvenile domestic minor sex trafficking. This collaboration was in the very early stages and included a few members of the Seattle Police Departments Vice section, a few probation officers, and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) doing outreach work with at-risk youth.
About four years ago, Deb was approached by the Special Agent in Charge of what was then known as the Innocence Lost Task Force. Deb meets with the Task Force twice a month, as time permits, and maintains her contact with other organizations.
Deb has attended many local and national trainings which has led to an incredible knowledge base, and she is always willing to share her expertise and information with others who have questions and concerns, and to address issues that arise.
“The majority of work that I do with the Task Force is collaboration,” Deb said. “I work with officers from agencies throughout the region to ensure services are in place, they are connected to some sort of system or advocacy program—or often both. If a network of communication needs to be set up, I do my best to assist. I also work to advocate within my own agency to promote best practices when working with youth who are involved in commercial sexual exploitation or are at high risk.”
She continues to collaborate with the local NGOs to increase awareness within the department of available services and to familiarize advocates and case managers with the court process. Deb also works with the Commercially Exploited Youth Multidisciplinary Team Coordinator discussing this multifaceted issue, brainstorming issues, looking forward, and supporting the work that is being done.
The Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) Hotline is 855-400-CSEC or 855-400-2732.
(Excerpted from The Superior Court / Department of Judicial Administration Newsletter).
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Featured Job: Contract Specialist II
Application Deadline: Thursday 6/5/14
Salary: $71,905.60 – $91,145.60 Annually
Department: Department of Executive Services – Finance and Business Operations Division
Description: King County’s Procurement & Contracting Service Section (PCSS) is looking for a detail oriented Contract Specialist. A successful candidate for this position will have knowledge of contract administration, possess positive negotiation and project management skills and have experience in improving operations. Some of the responsibilities for this position include determining and developing a procurement approach, working with client groups to analyze and develop the scope of work, holding public pre-proposal meetings, compiling contract terms, scope and price, and providing training for Contract Specialists and administrative staff involving the requirements and regulations of the procurement process. Interviews for this position will be held on June 9, 2014.
Learn more about this position or view all available jobs.
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Victim Advocates help abused women escape, start again
Emily Elting, a Domestic Violence Victim Advocate for the King County Prosecutor’s Office, helps abused woman find their way out of domestic violence through the justice system and into new lives. One of those women is Jane Gregory, who was beaten nearly to death by her partner in 2012. Jane got the help she needed from Emily and was able to testify at her abuser’s trial. Watch the KCTV video here. Note: the video contains some graphic images.
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Wastemobile makes hazardous waste disposal easy
When the permanent hazardous waste facilities weren’t enough to deal with all of King County’s hazardous waste disposal demands, the Wastemobile was created.
“We didn’t know how big the demand was; we needed a better plan of doing it,” said Henry Draper who was the original project manager of the Local Hazardous Management Program’s Household Hazardous Wastemobile. “That was the genesis of the Wastemobile.”
Now, celebrating its 25th anniversary, two Wastemobiles serve rural and suburban areas of King County, accepting residential and small business hazardous waste materials.
The Wastemobile is dedicated to recycling and the beneficial reuse and recovery of household hazardous waste, and that starts with being able to determine whether a waste product is hazardous.
“One of the main challenges the Wastemobile program hopes to overcome is educating residents on what constitutes hazardous waste,” said Julie Mitchell, who now manages the Wastemobile program.
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Kudos! Public Health Preparedness gets perfect score in CDC review
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded Public Health’s Preparedness Section a perfect score of 100 in a recent assessment of its ability to receive, stage, store, distribute, and dispense medications during a public health emergency.
In 2004, the CDC established the Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) to increase preparedness for biological disasters and protect the public if there is a public health emergency in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. A public health emergency could include an anthrax attack, an influenza pandemic, or a natural disaster that affects the health of a community.
The goal of the CRI is to ensure appropriate medical supplies and medications can be mobilized during a disaster and provided to an entire jurisdiction’s population within 48 hours of the decision to do so.
The CDC conducts annual technical assistance reviews to assess state and local capabilities and readiness, and results in a numerical score of up to 100 for the participating jurisdiction. In addition to an assessment of the jurisdiction’s handling of medications during a public health emergency, the review also evaluates response plan development, stakeholder coordination, public and internal communication planning, trainings and exercise, and outreach to vulnerable populations.
Michelle Dulaney and Ali Jaffe-Doty in Preparedness led Public Health’s medical countermeasures capability, working with employees in Public Health’s Preparedness Section, Communications, the Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Immunization Section, Community Health Services Division, and pharmacy operations, whose expertise was essential in securing a perfect score.
“Our ability to leverage resources and gain commitment from key partners including commercial pharmacies, healthcare systems, long term care providers, local emergency managers, first responders and private industry has generated resilient, sustainable, community-based capability,” Dulaney said.
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Responders help King County achieve world’s highest cardiac arrest survival rate
King County’s emergency responders have long been recognized as among the best in the world and that standing was enhanced even further this week when it was revealed that the cardiac arrest survival rate in King County, already the world’s best, has reached an all-time high.
Someone who has a cardiac arrest in King County has a greater chance of survival than anyone else in the world, with the survival rate in King County up to 62 percent in 2013, according to the latest analysis by county officials. By comparison, the cardiac survival rates in New York City, Chicago, and other urban areas have been recorded in the single digits.
“People are alive today in King County who would not have survived in most other places in the country,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “Our system delivers rapid, high-quality critical care wherever you are.”
King County’s success in saving lives is based in a coordinated, regional system where everyone – dispatchers, first responders, fire departments, law enforcement, paramedics, urgent care centers, and others – is guided by consistent medical direction and evidence-based practice.
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Weddings at Brightwater Stories Go Global
Wastewater Treatment Division recently had great success getting information out about its Brightwater Treatment Plant when a story posted on its Facebook page about weddings at Brightwater went viral.
A KIRO-7 story about wedding availability at Brightwater’s Environmental Education and Community Center led to coverage from FOX News, Huffington Post, TIME.com, and newspaper websites galore including the Washington Post, New York Daily News, the UK Daily Mail, the Times of Malta and the Irish Examiner. WTD was even interviewed for A3 Radio’s morning show in Melbourne, Australia!
The context was playful but informative, and gave the Brightwater facility tremendous visibility for many of the things it does: great use of space, the ability for a county facility to generate revenue to support free educational programming, and the coolness factor of a sewage plant operating as a “zero odor” facility.
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Annual Report Highlights Employees’ Work to Help Solve Crimes Using Fingerprints
The King County Regional AFIS Program, or Automated Fingerprint Identification System, just published its 2013 annual report.
AFIS is a regional levy-funded program that has been operational since 1986 under the administration of the King County Sheriff’s Office that provides criminal identification services to all cities and incorporated areas of King County.
Program employees collect and search the fingerprints of arrested individuals to locate unknown aliases and warrants prior to their release. Staff also recover, process, search, and compare fingerprints from crime scenes.
The AFIS Program aids in solving crimes throughout King County, and contributes to the safety of both officers and residents.
Above: Latent Print Examiner Kerie Cress compares recorded fingerprints and latent prints collected at a crime scene to resolve identification
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Solid Waste and KCIT making strides in small business contracting
When King County’s Solid Waste Division (SWD) put out a contract to build the new Shoreline Recycling and Transfer Station eight years ago, there wasn’t a specific goal or target for including small businesses in the project.
“We paid a contractor $24 million, but we don’t know what went to a small firm,” said Ann McFarlane, a contract specialist for SWD.
Today, King County agencies are working to make sure that there are more opportunities for small, disadvantaged, and minority- and women-owned businesses to compete for and obtain County contracts – a result of the Procurement Reform Initiative launched by King County Executive Dow Constantine to make it easier for vendors and contractors to do business with King County.
For SWD’s recently-redeveloped Bow Lake Recycling and Transfer Station 25 percent of the $41 million contract went to certified small contractors and suppliers.
McFarlane said the awareness of dealing with small business has greatly increased since putting in small business contract requirements.
“I think the King County Small Business Program has come a long way,” McFarlane said.
The percentage that goes to small businesses is determined by the Business Development and Contract Compliance group (BDCC) in the Department of Executive Services. The BDCC’s goal is to “retain, expand, create and recruit businesses within industry clusters that are core to the region’s economic base and offer the greatest potential for growth.”
When creating a contract for a project, departments and agencies fill out a form that describes the scope of work. The BDCC then determines the subcontracting tasks within the scope of work, and the availability of small businesses to do the work before establishing a specific required percentage of participation by these small contractors and suppliers. If there are a lot of areas where a small business could do the work, the BDCC considers this information in conducting their analysis to set the percentage of participation.
“All we have to do is fill in a form and they (BDCC) set the requirements,” McFarlane said. “It has become so easy and the requirements have grown larger.”
In order for a small business to be eligible for a contract, they have to undergo a certification process to become a Small Contractor and Supplier (SCS) with the County. The SCS certification also applies for the Port of Seattle, the Seattle College District and Sound Transit.
“That makes it more attractive for a business to get certified,” McFarlane said.
McFarlane also mentioned that SWD’s smaller work order contracts under $100,000 mostly go to certified SCS firms, a job made easier by the County’s Small Business Accelerator program that allows certified SCS firms to compete among themselves for designated contracts.
King County Information Technology (KCIT) has also made great progress with its outreach and use of small businesses. Despite not having an exact goal for small business contracts, KCIT is working to educate small business owners on how they can compete for and win contracts with the county.
“One of the things we’re doing is hosting a KCIT forum geared toward small businesses,” Bryan Johnson, Senior IT Contract Specialist III said.
Johnson said it can be daunting for small businesses to try and navigate getting a government contract, and the forums allow KCIT to reach out to small firms and educate them on the types of services that the County may need in the future.
“The goal is to be clearer around the County’s vision and what technologies we’re into,” Johnson said. “We’d like to increase the numbers with small businesses.”
According to Johnson, bids for KCIT contracts under $25,000 typically go to small businesses. For example, a recent contract for 1,000 new Lync phones was fulfilled by a certified SCS business.
The next KCIT forum is on May 27 at the Chinook Building, and approximately 300 invitations have been sent. Find out more here.
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