This year saw the first time that the King County Employee Survey was translated into multiple languages – six to be exact – and the feedback about this offering has been overwhelmingly positive. The translations are primarily an outcome of a busy, dedicated team that until a little over a year ago, did not even exist at King County.

The COVID-19 Language Access Team has been receiving kudos and recognition within the enterprise as well as the community for their success in putting information into the languages that our diverse community needs. The team grew out of an urgent call to action last year to provide up-to-date, concise, and relevant information to the various people in the area that do not speak or read English as a first language. King County is known to have one of the most prolific collections of languages spoken in the country and the pandemic amplified a need that had already been identified.

In fact, Senayet Negusse had been recently hired for purpose of providing leadership for the county and operationalizing and integrating language access for the County departments and agencies in the newly created position of Language Equity Program Manager in the Office of Executive’s Equity and Social Justice. However, she was quickly tasked with helping to build a team and process that could support COVID-19 communications.   

There was a strong partnership already underway with the City of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. Peggy Liao, Negusse’s counterpart at the City of Seattle, had been assigned to work with King County Public Health to support the language access efforts. When Negusse joined in March, they worked closely together and began creating a system for King County. Negusse developed a COVID-19 language access guide and the team co-created processes for items such as translation requests, project tracking, and invoicing translators.

“The vendors we had in place for translation were taking 8-10 days to turn around work,” Negusse stated. In the early months of COVID, this was obviously not good enough. The team began building a base of “over 100 local translators, individuals committed to making sure our communities receive information quickly, while considering their cultural needs.” 

Negusse explained that this team did not just manage the translation, but also helped to provide guidance on such things as how to reach audiences. It involved connecting to people in numerous ways, like the distribution to ethnic media and by harnessing the power of targeted social media as a strategy.

It started with a call for volunteers

When the message went out that there was a need, a team of volunteers began to come together in  February last year for the enormous task of reaching out across a county that is as varied in cultures as it is in landscape and structure. One of the first to join up was Francesca Collins, who was working as an Education Consultant in the HIV/STD program at the time. She was recruited by the team to work with Liao, having previously collaborated with the Communications team on health education campaigns. With the support of her manager, she offered her community health expertise to do whatever was needed.

“It was bananas last year,” Collins laughed, bringing a little levity in retrospect to a serious issue. “Health and Medical Area Command (HMAC) was overwhelmed with emails, people just wanting answers to every question you can think of.”  According to Collins, HMAC was serving as a hub for COVID-19 updates, tracking cases, providing reports, talking with the public, strategizing testing and response, and COVID-19 communications, “on top of managing many other COVID-related things.”

When Liao returned to her duties at the City of Seattle, “It was just Francesca and me, until Amanda came on,” Negusse said. “We all worked together and brought on more coordinator staff.”

Amanda Kay came from Communities of Opportunity in response to the call for volunteers to join the team. What started as a four-week rotation helping to operationalize the work, kept getting extended. It has since turned into a Special Duty Program Manager position. She’s also a leading evangelist for the Language Access Team.

“The team has flourished in the last year, there’s a lot of passion and encouragement,” says Kay proudly. “Our team has become a cohesive service for COVID-related materials.”

“It would be nice to see a service like this expanded in the future,” she continued, “but for now we are only funded to provide COVID-related translations and reviews through September.”

Another early team member to join was Angélica Esquivel, a contract Spanish translator and interpreter working for the City of Seattle, who was recruited last February to help with the heavy workload. She’s now a regular member of the Language Access Team, working as a Coordinator, and bringing a wealth of experience beyond just reviewing documents.

“There are multiple Spanish-speaking cultures here,” Angélica explains. “Taking into account the words and expressions requires research and review. You have to make sure the language is appropriate across cultures.”  That includes elements such as other language bases or CDC resources, and even outreach for input from the translator community for direct feedback.

The work continues

Equity and accessibility are key components to the future of a thriving, successful King County. The gaps that had been identified highlighted the need for language access services to be implemented into the practices, policies, and procedures of King County. The goal is building trust and relationships with limited English proficient communities. 

The arrival of COVID-19 accelerated the implementation of these programs, resulting in over 30 in-language website pages, plus videos and public service announcements in over 20 languages. The team’s accomplishments had other regional, national, and even global jurisdictions looking to King County as an example in how to reach out to culturally diverse constituents.

Now back in her regular role for the Executive’s Office of Equity and Social Justice, Negusse is tasked with leading policy development and operationalizing and integrating language access in collaboration with King County departments and agencies. In conjunction with her colleague Hamdi Mohamed, they have been creating a hub of materials and resources, including a training on KING COUNTY CODE 2.15 Immigrant, Refugees and Language Access Ordinance (KCC 2.15), which, in part, requires all departments to have a language access plan.

Negusse has also been working closely with KCIT to develop what will be known as the Community Engagement Translation Program. The Office of Equity and Social Justice and KCIT are preparing to launch the Community Engagement Translation Program (CETP). This program will provide funding for translation of select web content into the top six most spoken languages, and an enterprise translation management platform.

If you have COVID-related materials that need translation, or you would like to know more about the Language Access Team, please contact ESJLanguages@kingcounty.gov.

from Dow Constantine, King County Executive

Over the past year-plus, as the nation and world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of public servants has come into clearer focus. I want to take the opportunity this week during Public Service Recognition Week to thank you for your service.

When the pandemic struck, you stepped up to make sure that our community continued to receive the vital in-person services people count on. Our public health professionals, supported by employees and community partners across King County, provided guidance and care to help our residents protect themselves and their families from the virus. Now they are partnering again – to vaccinate our region at record rates. Other employees adjusted the way they delivered services – in-person and remotely – to ensure that people could access the support they needed while slowing the spread of COVID-19. However you have been helping to serve the people of King County during our COVID-19 response, please know that I am grateful for your efforts.

We are still in a precarious phase of this pandemic. Our vaccination program has been extremely successful, with two-thirds of King County adults already receiving their first dose, and nearly half fully vaccinated. Yet the virus continues to spread at concerning rates, and we must remain vigilant to slow its spread and end this pandemic.

This remains a challenging time, one with a lot of uncertainty, stress, and anxiety. I know we are all anxiously awaiting a return to our normal lives. An end to the pandemic is in sight and I know that by working together and supporting one another we will get there.

I am grateful for everything that you do for the people of King County. I have never been more proud to lead this County and to be your colleague in public service.

King County’s Vets 4 HIRE program, which launched in 2015 and receives funding annually from the Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy (VSHSL), provides six-month or longer on-the-job training experiences to help current and former military service members with their transition to civilian employment, and funding is available to support departments in recruiting veterans to their teams.

Participating King County agencies provide their program participants with part-time or full-time, practical experiences in a variety of fields to help them become more competitive for King County and other civilian jobs. The VSHSL will reimburse agencies half of the participant’s first six months of wages up to a maximum of $7,800.

So far, 12 county agencies have provided experiences for 83 military service members since 2015, in positions as diverse as human resources, parks maintenance, IT security, civil engineering, and more. Of these 83 participants, almost 85% reported a positive outcome, and almost 40% obtained regular positions with King County after their participation in the program. The remainder either went on to school or secured employment at other organizations.

Veterans bring unique skills, ideas, and perspectives to the workplace that are extremely valuable to organizations. If your department has a body of work that can help support a veteran in obtaining their civilian career goals, please consider creating an on-the-job Vets 4 HIRE opportunity. The Levy provides funding to support 16 positions each year. There are still 2021 funds available and there is a current candidate pool established to help simplify your hiring process.

To learn more about the program please contact your department Human Resources or Vets 4 HIRE Program Manager Susan Navetski at susan.navetski@kingcounty.gov.

King County Elections will hold a candidate filing period for the elected member position on the King County Personnel Board.  The candidate filing period will begin on Monday, May 3 at 8:30 a.m. and will end at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 7. There is a $5 non-refundable filing fee. Visit kingcounty.gov/elections/personnel-board for more information.

The Personnel Board conducts hearings on appeals of certain personnel actions as provided for in Section 540 of the King County Charter.

The Personnel Board consists of five members, four of whom are appointed, and one member elected by county career service employees. The elected term is for a 5-year term.

The county charter requires the elected member of the Personnel Board to be a resident of the state of Washington and not currently employed by King County.

A primary will be held on Tuesday, June 1 to determine the final nominees up for election on Tuesday, June 22.  The primary and election will be conducted through the mail.  If any candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, they will be deemed elected and no further election will be conducted.  Only career service county employees are eligible to cast ballots.

For more information on filing for office, contact King County Elections at 206-296-1565 or election.services@kingcounty.gov.

For more information on the position, please contact the Personnel Board at 206-477-3400 or  PersonnelBoard@kingcounty.gov.

As King County employees, we have the responsibility of managing our records all year long. So what makes April so special?

“Records Management Month is the time we set aside to celebrate and recognize the important and valuable work that we all do as records managers!” County Records Analyst Lisa Mankin said. “Whether you’re a department director, an administrative specialist, or an inspector in the field, we are all records managers.”

The records employees create and receive are valuable assets.

“The Records Management Program is always happy to use the month of April to recognize the work that we do every day to organize and preserve our records, especially when we do it as part of our standard work processes.”

Follow these tips to help improve your records management best practices:

• Take the 15 minute “Basic Records Management Training” in KC eLearning.
• Delete transitory emails that don’t document your work.
• Create good records by using meaningful email subject lines and consistent file naming conventions.
• Include instructions for managing records as a part of user manuals of standard work.
• Contact records.management@kingcounty.gov if you have questions about how to manage your records.

 Get more records management tips and resources.