Employee News
Telling the stories of King County employees
Shared from RASKC’s Adoptable Animals Dobbie is a 1 year and 9 month-old, male domestic shorthair cat (A555736). His adoption color is RED, meaning he is a spirited cat with a fun-loving personality. Dobbie is an energetic kitty looking for an active family or a family who already has an FIV+ confident friend that he can play with. He loves to play with all the toys, lasers, wands, ropes, you name it, and he will play with it! Although he is SUPER affectionate, he prefers if it is on his own terms…. Read More
ICYMI: We featured Building Change Management and Effectiveness in our kick-off Training Spotlight post. Building Change Management and Effectiveness is a one-day training being offered July 27 and Sept. 7 in room 560 of the King County Administration Building. Craig Fleck will join King County’s own Debra Baker in delivering the session. Read more. Helping your team, department or organization navigate the challenges of constant change is a critical part of any leader’s or manager’s work. Dealing with change effectively can reduce anxiety, fear and stress, and can increase productiveness, innovation and… Read More
KCIT will deploy a new security tool later this month that will help protect the entire King County network from cybersecurity attacks. The new tool will operate behind the scenes, helping to protect all of our data and systems from both external and internal cyber threats. This deployment should affect neither your computer nor your day-to-day business operations. If you are blocked from a work-approved website or application, either submit a Help Desk Ticket to HelpTicket@KingCounty.gov or escalate the issue through your technical support group.
Crossposted from Zero Youth Detention By Linda Robson How peacemaking circles are changing King County’s juvenile justice system and staff from the inside out “For me, I went to my intro to peacemaking about a year after my father had passed away. And I was close to last on sharing our object, and I had brought a picture of him and me from high school,” said Ashley Mareld, recalling her first foray into the practice of peacemaking circles. “I obviously broke down talking about it—a lot of times people get emotional… Read More
Regardless of where you are in the world, you have the right to cast a ballot in every election and have it arrive on time to be counted. Overseas and service voters have additional voter registration, ballot delivery, and ballot return options. Let your King County expats and servicemembers know the deadline to register to vote online or by mail for the August 7 primary and special election is Friday, July 6 – the end of this week! If you have U.S. friends and family overseas, let them know they can learn… Read More
ICYMI: Here’s a great basic introduction to OneDrive! Everyone talks about “The Cloud” – where internet users can store files and access them from anywhere. Did you know King County employees have the exact same application available to them through Office 365? It’s easy to navigate and use. OneDrive is a great tool for uploading files to share with others (including photos), give others permission to edit and work on files at the same time, and get to your files from anywhere, on your computer, tablet or phone. Essentially, it’s an online locker… Read More
Director Dwight Dively of the Office of Performance, Strategy and Budget has put together a short video of his points on the upcoming 2019-2020 Budget process. “The County uses a biennial – or two-year – budget process, and our biennium starts Jan. 1 of each odd-numbered year,” said Dively. “The timeline for our budget process begins with getting budget proposals from departments by the end of June. The executive will then submit his budget proposal to council Sept. 24. The King County Council would then adopt a budget sometime in mid-Nov., and… Read More
Lorinda Youngcourt announced her resignation Friday, June 29, from her role as Director of the Department of Public Defense. Youngcourt became King County’s first Public Defender in January 2015, joining King County from Lawrence County, Indiana, where she was the Chief Public Defender. “In her three and a half years in the role, Lorinda worked hard to build a new department that extends the highest quality advocacy and representation for indigent individuals and people who cannot afford an attorney in our community,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “She has continued the… Read More
Joseph Rivers is one of King County’s 3,000 Metro Transit operators. He is also a former Special Olympics athlete, current volunteer, has coached and refereed for the games, and is the proud father of two of the athletes competing in this week’s Seattle- and King County-hosted 2018 Special Olympic USA Games! Rivers joined King County Metro General Manager Rob Gannon before the games to announce the partnership between Metro, Sound Transit and Port of Seattle in support of the USA Games. He also discussed the games with KIRO 7 and the Seattle… Read More
Shared from RASKC Fireworks are beautiful to look at, but they can be scary for our pets. The bangs and booms are hard on their sensitive hearing, and even the calmest pet can get upset by the unfamiliar loud noises. To help your pet cope with the noise from fireworks, and reduce the chance that it runs away, Regional Animal Services of King County offers these tips: Keep your pet secured indoors in the quietest room of your home while fireworks are going off. You can also use soothing music or television… Read More
Shared from the Employee Transportation Program In observance of #RideTransit Month, we talked with four Metro managers about their transit commutes and any advice they’d like to pass along to new riders. Metro’s Managing Director of Service Development Bill Bryant is our fourth and final feature, and he regularly rides Routes 15, 18, 40, and the D Line to work from his home in Ballard. Most of the time, he takes the bus both ways, but he also describes himself as a “fair-weather bicyclist” who puts his bike on the bus’ rack… Read More
How do you want to be healthy and well at work? A new program has just launched to help you and your coworkers bring your own innovative ideas and solutions to life – The Balanced You Worksite Fund! When you apply for a Worksite Fund grant, you have an opportunity to create positive change, for you and your coworkers. The Worksite Fund is a competitive grant process that will award approximately 10-30 projects across County agencies to improve health and well-being in our worksites. Grants of up to $5,000 will support a… Read More
Zachary Cohn @ZacharyCohn gave props on Twitter Friday to one of our many great Metro drivers, after being impressed with how Michael Mackay avoided a potential accident: Props to @kcmetrobus driver of e line bus 6202 today at 1150. someone pulled out in front of him on Aurora. He slammed on the brakes, leaned on the horn, expertly avoided an accident, then calmly reached for the radio to apologize for the inconvenience and ensure riders were ok. Thank you, Zachary Cohn, and Kudos, Michael!
Crossposted from Tails from RASKC Like Happy Tails? We sure do! Here’s one from Kayla about her new addition, Maci. My boyfriend and I adopted [her last week]. I believe she is 3 or 4 months now! She is literally the cutest thing ever! We are totally head over heels for her and our hearts can’t get any fuller! She has learned where the toilet is and likes to drink the water so we’re trying to teach her to drink out of her water bowl now! Thanks Regional Animal Services of King… Read More
We help new employees learn – and they help take care of everyone’s sewer system Crossposted from Clean Water Stories Everyone has “stuff” to take care of. You might have a house, a car – or an iPhone. With a smartphone, you have to charge the battery, restart it every once in a while, download apps – and sometimes simply find it (am I right?). When you drive a car, you need to fill it with gas, check the wiper fluid, get oil changes, go to the car wash, and go to… Read More
Interested in soccer, baseball, cricket, concerts or movies? Need to take the dog for a walk? Want to try your hand at flying a radio-control airplane or climbing a 35-foot freestanding structure? Looking to enjoy the outdoors by strolling along a regional trail, picnicking on the lawn, or birdwatching on the shores of Lake Sammamish? Then Marymoor Park is the place for you! King County’s most popular park, more than 3 million people visit Marymoor annually to explore Marymoor’s 640 acres of recreational activities, rare amenities, and culturally-enriching events. Follow King County’s… Read More
Crossposted from Public Health Insider By Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County Firearm-related injury and death – from suicide to accidental injury and homicide – is a major public health problem and a leading cause of premature death in King County and nationally. In 2016, 663 adults and 20 children died from a firearm injury in Washington State, including 144 adults and seven children from King County. Firearm-related injuries have very high personal and financial costs to individuals, families and society; and that’s why prevention… Read More
Closing: 7/9/2018 11:59 p.m. Pacific Salary: $19.98 – $28.54 Hourly Location: Seattle, WA Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week Department: Transportation – Transit Division Job Number: 2018RL08274 Transit Pass Sales Representatives sell transportation passes and ticket books to the general public and area employers in-person, by telephone, mail order, on-line and at community events, using customized and Microsoft computer applications. An unusual feature of this job is that qualified Career Service incumbents may bid on vacancies in another customer-service oriented job called Customer Information Specialist that answers customer questions by… Read More
Crossposted from Best Starts for Kids Blog Part 3 of our Community Owned Data blog series This is the third post in our month-long Community Owned Data series we are doing to highlight our learnings from the Best Starts for Kids Health Survey. We brought the data to specific communities in the form of “data dives,” asked what they thought, and learned a lot from community input and data interpretation! In this post, we share more about what we heard and learned. During the data dives, we presented data about five important… Read More
Crossposted from Noxious Weeds Blog Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) displaying its famous edible fruits. Photo by Susan Aldrich-Markham of Oregon State University. If Washington ever decided on a state weed, Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) would be a strong contender. Some people hate its thorns, some love its berries, but almost everyone has a strong opinion about it. Yet, for all its fame, this plant has only grown in our region for a little over one hundred years—a striking example of just how quickly a noxious weed can take over. Even the origins… Read More