Open enrollment information is in the mail
Dear King County Employee: If you’re eligible for benefits with the County, begin checking your home mailbox for important information about this year’s benefits open enrollment, which will run Nov. 1 – Nov. 15. While you’re waiting for open enrollment to begin, you can get ready by: reading the information you’ll be receiving, and updating the password for your PeopleSoft account if you haven’t logged in to PeopleSoft recently. Every 90 days, PeopleSoft requires you to update your password. To do so, go to www.kingcounty.gov/mybenefits and follow the instructions. Call 206-263-4357 if you… Read More
Get Ready for Winter Weather at Home
Please take a moment to ensure you are prepared for winter weather at home: Make an emergency plan and assemble an emergency kit. Buy flood insurance now if you live in an area prone to flooding. It takes 30 days for a policy to take effect. Review your current policy; a standard insurance policy typically doesn’t cover flood damage. Have a plan to relocate your family and any pets or livestock out of harm’s way. Purchase an inexpensive battery-operated or hand-crank radio and fresh batteries so you can receive urgent news day… Read More
Ebola outbreak and Annual Giving Drive
Dear fellow King County employee: As you know, the Ebola outbreak has caused devastating loss of life and decimated families in West Africa. The World Health Organization estimates 10,000 new cases of Ebola could occur every week by December if the virus is not contained. With our Public Health department leading the way, we in King County are prepared in the event that the Ebola virus should ever come to Washington State. Our experts tell us that the most effective way to prevent the virus from spreading is to support the communities… Read More
Kudos! Ruth Ann Dunn, Metro Transit Operator
Greetings Harold [Taniguchi, Director, Department of Transportation], I am writing to let you know that tonight, your bus operator, route 17 bus #2737, was excellent at working with a rider with special needs. She was able to diffuse a potentially difficult interaction between passengers, and develop a trust with this young man in a very short time. Her calm and caring command, her extra helpfulness, and lack of judgmental treatment, helped all of us riders. I am sure that this young man left the bus with a little less anxiety and a little more… Read More
Equity and Social Justice Fair coming Nov. 20
On Thursday, Nov. 20, King County will host an Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Fair to showcase ESJ work efforts, results, and future plans across all of our departments and agencies. The ESJ Fair has three goals: Build internal awareness of the ESJ ordinance among all King County employees; Showcase recent and current activities and the results of our ESJ work; and Share information and activities across departments in order to learn from each other, stimulate additional action, and inform future work efforts. What can you do to help? Share your ideas… Read More
County archivists preserve, celebrate our history
Within King County Archives’ climate controlled vault resides the first record of marriage in Seattle, the minutes of an 1853 County Commissioners’ proceedings for the Washington Territory and a blueprint of a 1915 King County Ferry. The documents were just a few of the artifacts Archives chosen to highlight for the nonprofit Historical Seattle’s workshop called “Digging Deeper.” The King County Archives was the last stop in the six month series where participants visited a different archive each month to get a behind-the-scenes look into research materials in the many archives in Seattle and King County. “They wanted to increase their members’ comfort level with conducting searches within the archives,” Carol Shenk,… Read More
Five Questions with Theresa Roscoe, Career Support Services Manager, Human Resources Division
1. What was your first role at King County? I began my career at King County 25 years ago as a temporary receptionist for the Office of Civil Rights, after identifying the County as an organization where I felt I could learn and further my career. During my career at King County I worked in Human Resources, the Executive Office and in Transit. 2. What do you do as Manager of Career Support Services? My role is to manage the day-to day activities of the Career Support Services staff. As part of my… Read More
KCEGP Nonprofit Expos provide quality connections between nonprofits and employees
The King County Employee Giving Program (EGP) hosted five Nonprofit Expos in September and October to help employees get a better understanding of how their contributions to the Annual Giving Drive have a real impact on the lives of people and animals, on the arts, and on the environment, both here and abroad. The Nonprofit Expos featured more than 140 nonprofit organizations and reached more than 800 employees directly from every King County department and Separately Elected office. “The Nonprofit Expos are about enabling quality conversations between employees and nonprofits,” said Junelle… Read More
Emergency Sign Language at your fingertips
Does your work ever require a sign language interpreter to assist a customer in an emergency situation? The Emergency Sign Language Interpreter Program (ESLIP) provides sign language interpreters for emergency and time-sensitive situations on a 24-hour basis, every day for King County and City of Seattle programs. These services are provided to ensure effective communication during emergency encounters and situations with individuals who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, or hard of hearing using on-call interpreters. Situations when ESLIP interpreters should be called include, but are not limited to:
Macklemore speaks at 20-year celebration of Drug Court
King County’s Drug Diversion Court celebrated 20 years of changing lives yesterday at an event at King County Courthouse. Drug Diversion Court is a rigorous minimum 11-month, four-phase program that holds participants accountable for their sobriety. Drug Court participants are required to meet with a Drug Court judge once every two weeks, go to chemical dependency treatment three times a week and are randomly drug tested twice a week. The celebration, dubbed “20 Years of Changing Lives,” was attended by County Executive Dow Constantine, King County Councilmembers Kathy Lambert and Larry Gossett, U.S…. Read More
Employee News 