Five free apps to conquer your emergency preparedness procrastination 

Crossposted from Public Health Insider  If you’re like me, you’ve been reading the coverage of the hurricanes and feeling like you should do something to be prepared for disasters. Preparing for an emergency sounds like a huge task and I didn’t know where to start. But, since it is National Preparedness Month, I want to share some apps that helped me ease into preparing for an emergency and overcome the anxiety of thinking about the next disaster. These apps are easy to use, intuitive, and great resources for before, during, and after… Read More

Pop Up Shop a great success in reducing surplus material

Last month King County’s Surplus Program opened a Pop Up Shop led by Fleet Administration Intern, Kyle Wallinder. The Pop Up Shop offered smaller items such as office supplies and was created to eliminate the inconvenience of traveling to and from the surplus warehouse at 707 S Orcas Street. Located across from the Administration building on the second floor of the 420 4th Ave building, the shop was geared toward King County employees in the Seattle core. On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, and Thursday, August 24, 2017, the shop was open between 10 a.m. to noon. The shop was… Read More

Featured Job: Family Planning Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner  

Closing date/time: Continuous Salary: $38.61 – $54.34 Hourly Job type: Career Service Location: Kent Public Health at East Hill, Washington Department: Department of Public Health–Community Health Services The Kent Public Health Family Planning Clinic is looking for a skilled, motivated and enthusiastic ARNP who is committed to serving men, women and teens to provide high quality sexual and reproductive health and education services. Family Planning ARNP’s work with a multi-disciplinary health care team to provide care and treatment in various clinics. The ARNP works in the ambulatory care setting integrating knowledge and data from many scientific frameworks… Read More

Get involved with the Employee Giving Program

Interested in getting involved with the community? Consider being a part of the Employee Giving Program (EGP)!   From sitting on the EGP Committee to becoming an Ambassador, there’s at least five important reasons why you should consider this opportunity.   With the Annual Giving Drive just around the corner, for those interested in becoming an Ambassador, the training program kicks off next week.   Sign up soon as seats are quickly being filled! Find more information here.

Mentors needed! Employees encouraged to apply

Do you have a specific job or technical skill you’d like to share? Are you passionate about King County and its success? Are you an experienced leader that understands the thrill of engaging and empowering others? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, we need you. The request for mentors has been very high, and we need a large pool of mentors to meet those requests. You don’t need to be a manager to be a mentor, just knowledge and expertise in a particular skill and an interest in sharing…. Read More

King County Executive announces new grant opportunities for unincorporated area projects 

King County Executive Dow Constantine today announced the availability of Community Service Area grant funding for a wide variety of educational, cultural and environmental projects that will benefit residents of unincorporated areas. “Community Service Area grants help people share in local art, enhance our forests and green spaces, and connect with neighbors young and old,” said Executive Constantine. “We are proud to support the youth and senior projects, movie and music nights, and neighborhood gatherings that help make King County such a great place to call home.” A total of $90,000 in King County… Read More

RESCHEDULED: End-of-Summer Countywide Potluck, new date Thursday, Sept. 28

In order to be inclusive and support the County’s Equity and Social Justice goals to allow for observance of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, FMD have rescheduled the End-of-Summer Countywide Potluck to take place Thursday, September 28. Please join us on the Admin Plaza from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.    Volunteers are needed to bring a dish to share. Contact Nancy Kodani-Lee at 7-8012 or Julie Long at 7-0204 to let us know what you’ll bring. There will also be a Table Tennis Tournament during the Potluck. Sign up with Jane Wu at 3-8523.    Thank you for your understanding.  We look forward to… Read More

King County controls a new noxious weed!

Crossposted from Noxious Weeds Blog  It’s not every day you find a new noxious weed in your county, but this August King County had one of those days. On Aug. 15, our program was alerted to an infestation of the Class A noxious weed ricefield bulrush (Schoenoplectus mucronatus) growing in a wetland just east of Redmond. Sean Davis with Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in Clark County helped confirm the ID of the species. Prior to this discovery, the main known location of this plant in Washington state had been in the Ridgefield refuge, along… Read More

Survey communications: Asking questions, acting on what we hear

When you ask someone for their feedback on something, you’d better have a plan for how you are going to act on that feedback. That’s exactly what King County has done with its annual employee survey. Almost 340 action plans were created to act on the issues you said were important in the 2016 survey. Two critical issues you raised were Career Opportunities and Leadership Visibility. Here are some of the ways that we acted on your responses:  Career Opportunities Expanded the Bridge Fellowship program to provide leadership and development opportunities to more employees. Created an… 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