Two of our firefighters render medical aid on cross-country flight
Crossposted from The Centerline Our Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Unit staff members are trained to respond to emergencies on the airfield, but helping with a medical emergency in midair is a different story. On Sept. 21, King County Sheriff’s Office deputies Seth Grant and Graydon Matheson were returning from a conference in Louisville, Ky., aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from Chicago. A flight attendant asked over the intercom if there were any medically trained passengers aboard. Grant and Matheson immediately responded, as did an ER doctor who also happened to be aboard. An… Read More
County resources help employee find the right job
Sometimes you get a second chance. When Sean Porter started his career at King County, he had a completely different job. For the first eight months, things went well. But then the pressures grew – along with the workplace distractions. It was soon discovered that Sean had a very treatable medical condition. After working with a trusted supervisor, along with Disability Services, he was able to locate a new job as a Maintenance Planner Scheduler/Transit Administrative Specialist II at Rail. Though it’s never easy to switch jobs, he credits the help of… Read More
Employee development through Special Duty Assignments
At King County, Special Duty Assignments (SDA) create opportunities for employees who wish to hone their current skills and add new ones to their resume. Such is the case for one King County employee; Public Health Administrative Specialist Donna Rodgers-Yates has been with King County for more than 20 years, and in June Donna took on a SDA with King County Information Technology as a Human Resources Associate. “Opportunity for personal and professional growth prompted me to take on a SDA,” Donna said. “After gathering more information about other departments and exploring… Read More
Poofighters rock on and take the stage at world’s biggest, most extreme, wastewater Ops Challenge at WEFTEC in Chicago
Crossposted from Clean Water Stories When asked why he became a wastewater operator, Darek Kenaston reveals, “The more I got into it, the more I was interested. It was a good fit. I’ve always been around the water. I grew up in Florida, two blocks from the beach. I love the water, and why not be part of protecting it?” These days, people want good pay, meaningful work, and opportunities to grow their career. That makes a stable career helping clean water – plus an opportunity to be part of a team that builds comradery and… Read More
Kudos! Employees go above and beyond to lend coworkers a hand
The following kudos is from Kimberly Fleming to her coworkers for their help on a recent project: I want to say thank you to Rena Jackson, Sarah Rivas, Jim Shoemaker and Susan Krzyzanowski from Procurement and Payables for their willingness to work with the Retirement and Payroll Accounting teams on our needs concerning the King County substitute IRS form W9. They took the time to listen to our concerns, understand where we were coming from and jumped into action to address a process frustration we were having. They saw it as an opportunity to help and make things better, I just can’t… Read More
Drug court judge helps people get back on the road to recovery
Crossposted from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Facebook For years, Judge James Cayce presided over mostly criminal trials: Child rapes. Murders. One family torture trial stretched out over four months, but despite the difficult nature of the crimes, Judge Cayce enjoyed the work. When the opportunity came along to preside over Drug Court, Judge Cayce hesitated. “I didn’t want to do drug court at first, but Judge Carey asked me to do Drug Court on Fridays in Kent, so I sat in a couple of times…and I loved it,” he recalls…. Read More
King County TV and Office of Cable Communications manager recognized with national awards
KCTV’s video Digital Connection won first place in the “Use of Social Media” category at the Government Programming Awards, an annual national conference held by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA). The county-operated TV station took home three other programming awards including one in the public health category for a piece on King County’s Heroin Task Force. NATOA’s annual government programming awards honors excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia and electronic programming produced by local government agencies. This year, NATOA received more than 900 entries submitted in 65 categories by local governments across the country. “We are… Read More
Kudos! Courteous Metro Transit driver provides outstanding customer service
The following kudos was received June 12 and is from a King County Metro rider: Driving a bus is not an easy job with the traffic, so when you encounter a driver who goes beyond the job it needs to be acknowledged. So with that in mind I would like to bring to your attention the driver [Andrea Abbott] I had this afternoon who not only drove the bus in a safe and efficient manner but also provided the kind of customer service you like to receive; each passenger was greeted as they boarded with… Read More
DPD employee graduates from Washington Leadership Institute
DPD’s own Matthew Sanders, an attorney in the Association of Counsel for the Accused Division, graduated from the 2017 Washington Leadership Institute (WLI) last week. The WLI is a program sponsored by the University of Washington and Washington State Bar Association to recruit, train, and develop attorneys from traditionally underrepresented groups for future leadership positions within the bar association and the legal community at large. The program selects attorneys with three to ten years’ experience for an eight month program that includes weekly meetings and offers participants the chance to receive mentoring… Read More
Metro Transit’s Nathan Vass is committed to the challenging Route 7
This article originally appeared in The Seattle Times. It features Metro operator Nathan Vass. He is known among passengers, co-workers and friends as a charismatic storyteller who can defuse tough situations that come with a nighttime bus route traversing Seattle’s urban core. LeRoy Haigler first rode Metro Transit’s No. 7 bus after a one-way train ride from his home in Philadelphia to start over in Seattle. Homeless and fleeing family trauma, the 19-year-old had little money, few belongings and no place to go. He boarded the downtown-bound bus on Rainier Avenue round midnight, finding… Read More
Employee News 