Employee News
Telling the stories of King County employees
Crossposted from the RASKC blog Meet our amazing Animal Control Officers! We value and greatly appreciate the work that our Animal Control Officers (ACO) do on a daily basis. Their genuine commitment to serve the community helps maintain RASKC’s mission to provide collaborative and compassionate animal care services throughout King County. Thank you for all you do! Read more to view their picture and learn about why they love what they do! Read more here.
How I Spent National Public Health Week Crossposted from the Public Health Insider blog Last week we celebrated National Public Health Week, my favorite time of year. As the director of the department, I am steeped in public health on a daily basis, but I am always ready to learn more. I met with different staff – people I don’t get to see too often – to find out more about what they do. As always, I was inspired by their work and their dedication to our important mission.
In just a few years the RainWise program has become a national model for other organizations interested in effectively addressing combined sewer overflows (CSO). It’s well renowned for its fruitful community partnerships and by offering rebates that cover most of the installation costs for rain gardens and cisterns to qualifying property owners. “It’s a great County collaboration with the City of Seattle to showcase our environmental efforts and Best-Run Government initiative,” said John Phillips, King County’s Program Manager for RainWise. “I get calls for more information weekly from all over the country.”… Read More
The new Aspiring Leaders Program (ALP), part of Metro’s Partnership to Achieve Comprehensive Equity (PACE) initiative, is designed to expand career development opportunities for staff who want to grow their careers within the agency. While there are many training programs available across the County, most occur during the day and tend to focus on office or administrative work environments. Hourly operational staff in Metro often need to have their positions backfilled to participate which creates a financial disincentive to offer development programs to these employees. ALP is different as it is available… Read More
Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) received a phone call from an elderly woman letting WTD know she appreciated getting help from an employee last week. She was in the Elliott West Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) facility area and wanted to go to the Cancer Care Alliance in the Eastlake area of Seattle. She was lost. One of WTD’s Facilities Inspection and Conveyance staff took out his map, showed her an easy route and reprogrammed her GPS unit as a backup. She said that he was helpful and that he “saved the day.” Kudos… Read More
To commemorate 50 years of operations at the award-winning Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, the King County Solid Waste Division invites the public to come tour the facility, hear from division and county leadership and enjoy informative displays. Guests will also have the chance to see some landfill heavy equipment up close and take the “One Less Bag” challenge! This is a great learning opportunity for the whole family – children age five and over are welcome to join if accompanied by an adult. Parking is provided and participants will board a King… Read More
“It’s akin to hiking in the mountains with a compass, hike for a while, check your compass, and adjust course, and if there are boulders in the way, we’re going to help and show you a path to go around.” This is how Budget Analyst Karl Nygard describes his work with the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget (PSB) to implement the Best Run Government initiative. While he admits no two days are alike, Karl usually works on budgeting processes for internal service funds for various County agencies, including King County Information… Read More
Our most popular event of the year Want to see the new County laptops? Get your Skype photo taken AND import it into your Skype account? Learn how to go paperless? These are just some of the 10 stations (and dedicated Service Desk teams) at KCIT’s Hands on Technology Day, April 13 from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. in the Chinook Atrium. KCIT teams spend the entire afternoon explaining, showing and fixing! Skype for Business Tips and Tricks: 30 minute in-person (and via Skype) tutorials. Session One: Set up a meeting for… Read More
Now that the clouds are parting and it’s starting to feel like spring, King County Executive Dow Constantine is inviting you to get out on the water and experience West Seattle’s new water taxi. Sunday, April 10 is Community Appreciation Day, hosted by the King County Marine Division. So bring your friends and family out to Seacrest Dock and get an up-close look at the M/V Doc Maynard and take a ride across the bay to Pier 50. All trips will be free as the water taxi kicks off its summer sailing… Read More
Crossposted from King County Employee Giving Regional Animal Services of King County had a record save rate of 88% in 2015 – an impressive feat by itself – but even more so when you hear the comeback story. And King County Employees have been instrumental to this success, at RASKC, leadership, and including through the EGP. Employees have donated more than $70,000 to the Regional Animal Service’s Donation Funds since they started in the program, enabling RASKC to provide extraordinary medical treatment, education, and spay/neuter services. They were referred to the program by… Read More
In his 2016 State of the County address on Monday, King County Executive Dow Constantine called for an historic investment in high-capacity mass transit to ensure the region’s long-term prosperity amid rapid population growth. His strategy to improve mobility includes Sound Transit 3, an initiative he proposed for the November ballot in his role as Chair of the Sound Transit Board. It will expand light-rail service to connect Seattle, Everett, Tacoma, Redmond and Issaquah, as well as West Seattle and Ballard. It will also build a new tunnel in Seattle with stations… Read More
The upcoming 520 Bridge Replacement events presented an opportunity for approximately 160 underrepresented student populations from nine school districts to celebrate the grand opening of the world’s longest floating bridge. On March 24, their attendance kicked-off the 520 Bridge celebration with an integrated partnership established between Environmental Health Services, Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), University of Washington – College of Engineering (UW), and various community partners to promote college and career readiness for youth to become involved in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The students were invited to participate in a… Read More
Drive part time for Metro and release YOUR secret identity. Want more flexibility than a full-time job can offer? Going to work and school? Working part time and need more hours? Working part time as a Metro Transit bus driver is ideal for anyone who wants part-time work without weekend or late-night hours, such as students, artists, and people juggling family responsibilities. Part-time drivers enjoy flexible schedules and good pay and benefits. Plus, they know they are performing a valuable service for their community. Being a part-time bus driver for Metro is part-time… Read More
Everyone loves to feel appreciated. Receiving praise is highly gratifying, and being praised in front of your peers or work group makes it that much more special. Facilities Management Division (FMD) has found an innovative way to do this and also engage employees in complimenting one another. It all started at the December 2015 holiday potluck. FMD Secretary Judy Hairston remembers how the idea came to life, and was instrumental in helping it take off. “Since it’s difficult for FMD as a large group to get together in one place, the holiday potluck… Read More
Our latest Employee Town Hall is now available to watch on-demand in its entirety or as individual segments. Hosted by Natasha Jones, Director of Customer Service, the Employee Town Hall featured King County Executive Dow Constantine, Budget Director Dwight Dively, and Matias Valenzuela, Director of the Office of Equity and Social Justice, in a discussion on the 2017/18 budget forecast and its implications for employees and our priorities. Employee Town Hall (complete with captions – 59’26”) Read more to see all the segments available to watch
Denmark, Italy, Newfoundland, Spain, Washington – wait, what? While this could easily be an alphabetical list of random locations, it’s actually where a few of the Best Passenger Ships of 2015 are located. According to Marine Log, an international publication out of New York City, the MV Sally Fox, the first of two new water taxi ferries recently acquired by the King County’s Marine Division, is one of nine vessels worldwide to receive this honor. It does so because the ship and its crew are focused on providing passengers with an efficient… Read More
Jennifer Hills, Director of the Office of Risk Management in the Department of Executive Services, was “devastated” when she looked at the engagement scores for her division. Lower than she expected “I was surprised because we’d been doing a lot of strategic planning and our 2012 employee survey results were so good.” Hills resolved to approach the conversation with her 22 person division with “curiosity and gratitude”: curiosity about the underlying reasons for the scores and gratitude for the opportunity to be able to address concerns. This opened the door for honest communication… Read More
With the success of ensuring nearly 9 out 10 cats and dogs find a loving home and lowering the euthanasia rate to an all-time low of 12 percent, people are wondering what’s next for Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC). For this reason KC employees reached out to RASKC Manager Gene Mueller to learn what their secret is and the future direction of the agency. Originally from Illinois and a longtime licensed veterinary practitioner, since 2012 he has worked with King County to build on the work being done and further… Read More
Parking spots at Goat Hill Garage will be extremely limited in April. A resurfacing project will temporarily block off part of the 8th floor and the entire 9th floor. Approximately 80 parking stalls will be unavailable for the duration of the project. The work is scheduled to begin during the first week of April, and will take about four weeks, depending on weather. Goat Hill Garage users are strongly encouraged to use other transportation options such as carpools, vanpools, or public transportation. Please visit King County Employee Transportation Program for additional options…. Read More
Just recently a bus rider noticed her route driver had a positive, courteous attitude and thought to share her praise for him with KC Employees. “I was riding on route 4 from downtown towards the Central District. The driver had the BEST attitude and GREAT customer service. There was a panicky rider who though he missed her stop and he handled it with such grace. She even ended up having a nice, relaxed conversation with him all the way until she got off. He greeted everyone and said good-bye to everyone. If you can… Read More