Social Media Spotlight: King County Council Facebook

The Metropolitan King County Council governs the 14th most populous county in the nation and the second largest government in Washington state. With 1.9 people living within 2,200 square miles, King County has a larger population than 14 U.S. states and more land area than the state of Rhode Island. Follow the King County Council on Facebook today! Click here to view all King County social media pages.

Tech Tip: How to Manually Configure Outlook Anywhere

Read about how to configure a mailbox for Outlook Anywhere. King County devices will be automatically configured for Outlook Anywhere. If you’d like to configure your personally owned device, follow the instructions in the link below on the King County IT Service Center website. Read more at the KCIT Service Center website

CPR classes available this fall for employees

King County employees are welcome to sign up for available CPR classes hosted in the Chinook building September through December. Class dates are as follows: Basic Heartsaver CPR/AED Training (Open to all King County employees) register with andrew.burns@kingcounty.gov: Tuesday, September 13, 2016  – 9 a.m. to noon, Chinook Bldg, Room 126 Monday, November 14, 2016  – 9 a.m. to noon, Chinook Bldg, Room 126 Refresher Heartsaver CPR/AED Training (Open to all King county employees) register with andrew.burns@kingcounty.gov: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 – 1-3 p.m., Chinook Bldg, Room 126 Tuesday, October 11, 2016 – 1-3 p.m.,… Read More

PeopleSoft upgrades and upcoming system outage

This is to inform all County staff that the PeopleSoft system will be unavailable from noon on Friday, August 5 through 6 p.m. on Monday, August 8. During this planned outage, the PeopleSoft team will be upgrading the system tools and applying vendor-provided updates and maintenance. This work will begin on Friday, August 5 at noon and is scheduled to be completed by 6 p.m. on Monday, August 8. The system will not be available for access by any County staff during this outage window. There will be a communication sent out to all County staff… Read More

Now Recruiting 2016 Ambassadors

Crossposted from King County Employee Giving Program The King County Employee Giving Program is recruiting work site Ambassadors for the 2016 Annual Giving Drive. Ambassadors are the heart and soul of the Annual Giving Drive, the key to reaching each and every one of the 13,500 employees here at King County and providing those they work with transformative moments of meaning in the workplace. All while getting to make a difference around the world. Our goal is to have an Ambassador at every work site. Read more at King County Employee Giving

Executive Constantine signs legislation to invest $87 million in workforce housing around transit stations

With rents and housing prices out of reach throughout the region, King County Executive Dow Constantine today joined with County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove and housing advocates to sign legislation to invest up to $87 million for creation of more than 1,000 units of affordable workforce housing near new or existing transit stations. “Today, we celebrate landmark legislation to create vibrant, mixed-income neighborhoods with affordable housing near transit centers,” said Executive Constantine. “It’s an innovative approach to connect more communities across King County to jobs and opportunity.” Read more in the official press release.

Kudos! King County wins recognition for technology practices

King County Information Technology is a winner in The Center for Digital Government (CDG) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) Digital Counties Survey. The survey identifies the best technology practices among U.S. counties, including initiatives that save tax dollars through newfound efficiencies; boost transparency, cybersecurity and engagement; or innovate through unique and exciting projects. King County IT has placed in 12 of the last 13 years we’ve completed. King County tied for fourth place with California’s Alameda County and Miami-Dade County. This year’s showing is the best so far for Puget… Read More

King County sets national standard in supporting LGBT-owned businesses

Crossposted from King County DES Express King County will become a national leader in supporting LGBT-owned small businesses under an inclusive policy announced by Executive Dow Constantine. King County will become the largest county in the United States to track the number of contracts that are awarded to LGBT entrepreneurs, an approach that has dramatically increased the number and value of contracts awarded to local small businesses owned by women, people of color, and people who are disadvantaged during Executive Constantine’s administration. Read more at the DES Express

Draft Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan 2016-2022 available

We are proud to share with you our draft King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan, 2016-2022. This plan, our first for Equity and Social Justice (ESJ), builds on the good work that we have been doing in ESJ and pushes us to become even more thoughtful, strategic and effective. This Plan also lays out the values that we have co-created with employees and community partners and addresses the need to be inclusive, collaborative, responsive, adaptive and people-focused. Fundamentally, we are moving towards becoming a racially just organization. Our ESJ strategies… Read More

Live from Comic-Con: it’s Public Health!

Crossposted from Public Health Insider I’m at a conference, and I just saw a T-Rex wearing a Supergirl backpack trot by.  Clearly, I’m not at the CDC (otherwise, Dr. Tom Friedan has a hobby that no one knows about). I’m at San Diego Comic-Con, the premiere comics convention in the world, alongside a projected 130,000 other conference attendees. So what’s a public health professional doing here? I spoke on a panel called “Comics and health: Saving lives and preventing disease” as part of the Comics Arts academic conference associated with Comic-Con. Our… Read More