2018 Balanced You Worksite Fund recipients 

Crossposted from Balanced You The Balanced You Worksite Fund is a competitive process overseen by King County Employee Health and Well-Being in the Human Resources Division. It’s one way we’re investing in your health and well-being. In response to our first call for applications earlier this summer, we received over 100 applications totaling almost $300,000 in requests. In 2018, we plan to invest about $100,000 in over 40 projects reaching worksites throughout the County. Your interest and enthusiasm in creating positive change in our worksites was fantastic to see. Continue reading to learn more… Read More

Training Spotlight: Introduction to PeopleSoft Query and Supervision and Leadership Skills Series

Introduction to PeopleSoft Query, Oct 4: The Human Resources Division has scheduled training for the peopleSoft Query tool.This course is open to experienced PeopleSoft Query users who wish to learn how to create useful reports using PS Query. Learn more and register on Eventbrite. Supervision and Leadership Skills – Series, Oct 4: Develop your leadership, communication, motivation, and problem-solving skills with this workshop based series. Take all six sessions in the series to enhance your professional toolbox with skills useful in a variety of workplace situations. The series includes: Conflict Awareness, Developing Your Leadership Style, Communication Skills in the… Read More

King County Metro honors three ‘Operators of the Year’

Ricardo Diaz, Penny Scott and Robert Leyse walked into cheers and applause at a surprise ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 19 at Atlantic-Central Base where they were named King County Metro’s Transit Operators of the Year. Each year since 1979, Operators of the Month are selected from each of Metro’s seven bases, who later are responsible for selecting an Operator of the Year from among them. In nearly 40 years, there has never been a tie between three operators. Metro had two-way ties for Operator of the Year in 1994, 1997 and 2007. Having three operators… Read More

Featured Job: Maintenance Facilities Engineer II

Salary: $36.30 – $46.02 Hourly Location: Renton, WA Job Type: Special Duty Assignment or Term Limited Temp (TLT) Department: Department of Transportation – Road Services Division Job Number: 2018MD08564 Closing: Continuous The Road Services Division, Maintenance Section, is currently recruiting for an Engineer II position to provide facility engineering services for the purpose of maintaining and designing Roads Maintenance Facilities and/or Roads Maintenance Facility renovation and improvement projects.  This is term limited project that will not exceed December 31, 2019. For more information contact Melinda Dickie at Melinda.Dickie@kingcounty.gov or 206-477-3608. Learn more about this position or all available jobs.

Courthouse Building to reopen Friday

The King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle will reopen tomorrow morning, Friday, September 28. Employees who are scheduled to work Friday are expected to report to work as usual. The broken water main has been repaired and all systems will be operating normally. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this closure.

Oxygen masks resuscitate pets suffering from smoke inhalation 

The number one cause of death related to fires is smoke inhalation. In King County, firefighters are all trained emergency medical technician (EMT) basic level qualified. This means they know how to apply oxygen, when to apply oxygen, and how to administer it in a safe manner to humans. However, what happens when a beloved animal has suffered from smoke inhalation? Thanks to an investment from Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC), emergency responders in Tukwila are now equipped with life-saving oxygen masks for pets. The idea to ADD animal masks to Tukwila Fire Departments fire responding vehicles originally came about when… Read More

Local Hazardous Waste Management Program aims to remove dangerous chemical by 2025 from dry cleaners  

The Local Hazardous Waste Management Program (LHWMP) project to transition dry cleaners from using perchloroethylene (PERC) to professional wet cleaning technology has successfully transitioned the first five cleaners. “PERC is a common dry cleaning chemical linked to cancer, liver damage, and neurological problems,” said Ashley Pedersen, policy liaison for LHWMP. “Approximately 190 former and current dry cleaning sites in King County have been contaminated by PERC. The national average cost of clean-up is $200,000” There are about 75 dry cleaners in King County that use the dangerous dry-cleaning chemical PERC to clean… Read More

An honest, open look at progress of our Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan

Dear fellow King County employee, King County has just launched a new public reporting website for our Equity and Social Justice 2016-2022 Strategic Plan to help us monitor, track and share our work to advance equity and social justice in our community. Unlike most governments that use websites as a trophy case to highlight success and ignore challenges, we are offering a comprehensive, transparent view of our work. I invite you to explore this new site; you will see that we are not tackling only the easy-to-fix problems and, consistent with that, we… Read More

Finding hope and raising awareness during National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Dear employee, September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness and recognize that suicide prevention works, help is available, and recovery is possible. Suicide has warning signs, and I encourage you to take the time to learn them. Connecting to help for yourself, a loved one, or a colleague can make the world of difference. Effective and compassionate resources are available, 24 hours a day, and many people have found hope and support through them: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Making Life Easier: Call 24 hours a… Read More

My 2019-20 proposed biennial budget

Dear fellow King County employee, Today I transmitted my 2019-2020 proposed biennial budget to the Metropolitan King County Council. It is a budget that tackles major issues facing our communities, including homelessness and reforming the juvenile legal system. It preserves and protects more of our region’s natural resources and beauty on land and water. It restructures county government so we can serve our customers even more effectively. And it makes sure Metro Transit continues to serve an ever-increasing number of riders. Some of the highlights include: $12 million for modular congregate shelters, micro dwelling… Read More