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Holiday travel? Metro will help you get there
Emergency exercise tests communications ahead of World Cup
King County Wins 2025 Geospatial Professional Network Award for Innovative AI-GIS System
Recognizing the service of Metro veterans
News
KCIT employee gets some help from technology and four-legged friend
Next time you contact KCIT for email or SharePoint help, you may be talking to an employee who has a four-legged friend helping him in his work day. Dan Johnson, a Systems Engineer with King County’s Department of Information Technology, has been with the County since 1997, initially in the KCIT Help Desk, and now supporting a range of Exchange email, SharePoint and cloud-based services for employees. “My work focus has expanded far beyond Exchange email to include unified communications, the Office 365 suite, and distributed administration and security,” Dan said. “I used… Read More
Get to know four participants in 2014 Annual Giving Drive
Whether your passion is protecting animals, improving literacy, preventing hunger, helping seniors or young people, or supporting the arts, there are more than 950 participating nonprofit organizations that you can choose to contribute to in the 2014 Annual Giving Drive, which kicked off September 24. If you make a pledge to any of the more than 950 nonprofit organizations by 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24, you will be entered into a random drawing for two lift tickets to Stevens Pass. If you have already made a pledge, you will be automatically… Read More
Kudos! Vickie S. Stanley, Metro Transit Operator
We took bus 7037 on route 14 Saturday, June 28th. We accidentally went the wrong direction but the bus driver, Vickie Stanley, was so helpful. She recognized we were from out-of-town and pointed out the sights we went by. And she assured us she would help us find our stop. She even offered to meet us later with coupons to get discount prices at the tourist places. We exchanged phone numbers and plan to keep in touch, especially if she ever makes it to Arizona. A bus driver became a fast friend… Read More
Ebola information and resources
As you know, the news coverage from Dallas and West Africa has heightened community concerns about Ebola. Public Health has been actively working to provide information and guidance to King County residents, health care providers, and partner agencies. They also want all King County employees to be up-to-date with information and resources about Ebola. First, it’s important to know that no one in King County has Ebola and health officials have determined that the risk of an outbreak is extremely low. Although the healthcare system is getting ready to quickly identify and… Read More
Teachers get Public Health immersion to help student career choices
Two high school teachers spent an intense eight days with Public Health’s Environmental Health Services division (EH) – and set the stage for teaching students about career opportunities in Public Health. Each teacher shadowed eight different staff in EH. They learned about food and facilities, solid waste and hazardous waste materials, how information technology serves the mission, and more. The teachers are part of a Teacher Externship Program sponsored by the Washington Alliance for Better Schools which is affiliated with 11 school districts. The program trained 22 local teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering… Read More
Five Questions with Roxanne Vierra, Disability Compliance Specialist, Office of Civil Rights & Open Government
1. What was your first role at King County? I’d previously worked 10 years at the U.W. Disabled Student Services office, then 10 years at the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, where my position included primarily fair housing investigations and a bit of public disability access. When I was offered this job with King County 16 years ago, I was excited because it allowed me to use my Disability Specialist experience in a more active way. While I still handle fair housing enforcement and outreach, my role as Disability Compliance Specialist enables… Read More
Employee Giving Campaign comes to Renton
All King County employee are invited to meet some 30 nonprofit organizations at the Employee Giving Program Renton Expo at Elections on Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and learn more about how their dollars can help our community, A sampling of Expo offerings: Have a wacky or serious picture taken at a photo booth Enter to win prizes, including “Fitbits” Sample bake sale goodies and support Northwest Harvest And more! Check out #KCEGPEXPO in social media to follow what’s happening at Expos. Last year, Elections employees pledged more than $18,000 through the Annual… Read More
King County employee a published author
King County employees do lots of interesting things in their “other lives” in addition to the work they do for King County. We’re sharing some of their stories in our “Other Lives” series. While waiting for a flight to San Diego after her father had died, Donna Miscolta started writing a novel. “I was thinking of my father who had come to the United States as an immigrant. He had never really talked about his experiences in the Philippines or his early years as an immigrant,” Miscolta said. “I sort of used… Read More
Former Marine finds new way to serve community
After two Iraq tours in the Marine Corps, Gavriel Jacobs’ plan was to pursue a career in law enforcement. “I wanted to come back from Iraq and the Middle East to go from serving my country to serving my community and really planned on joining the Seattle Police or Washington State Patrol,” Jacobs said. But when he lost his leg below the knee in combat and spent a year in the hospital, he had to rethink his career goals.
Join us in celebrating Disability Awareness Month
October is Disability Awareness Month, and it’s a great time to raise awareness and learn more about the work that King County does to provide opportunities for all individuals to participate, contribute and thrive in our communities. Attend a lunch and learn event Invisible Voices: What Do You Think of When You Hear the Word Disability? (video + discussion) | Thursday, October 16, noon – 2 p.m. Chinook Building, Room 121, 401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle | Presenter: Roxanne Vierra, Disability Compliance Specialist, King County Office of Civil Rights & Open Government | Contact Roxanne.Vierra@kingcounty.gov to… Read More
Planned System Outage for PeopleSoft Upgrade
The PeopleSoft system will be shut down after 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 2 and will remain down until 6 a.m. on Monday, October 6. During this time, the PeopleSoft Upgrade Project team will be completing the tasks necessary to complete the final steps of upgrading the PeopleSoft applications from version 9.0 to version 9.2. The system will not be available for access by any County staff. Many of you have shortcuts on your desktop and/or favorites stored in your internet browsers with the link to the current PeopleSoft 9.0 environment. As… Read More
Kudos! Metro Transit Operator Philip H. Moseley
Good Morning – I just got on the Rapid B Line to Redmond from Bellevue Transit Center. Bus #6029. This bus driver is BY FAR the most pleasant driver I have ever encountered while riding Metro. He greeted EVERY driver with a smile and a “Good Morning.” Way to go Metro for employing such a wonderful, energetic, and Safe driver!! Just thought you should know!! – Anna T
Almost 100 New Nonprofits Join Employee Giving Program
Whether your passion is protecting animals, improving literacy, preventing hunger, helping seniors or supporting the arts, there are 950 participating nonprofit organizations that you can choose to contribute to in the 2014 Annual Giving Drive, which kicked off September 24. Almost 100 new nonprofit organizations were approved to participate in this year’s Giving Drive across a range of categories. Some of the new participants include: Animals – Best Friends Animal Society (9132), Seattle Area Feline Rescue (9224) Educations and Literacy – Literacy Council of Seattle (9656) Food and Hunger – Emergency Feeding… Read More
AFIS employee works behind the scenes for law enforcement
Coy Hodge’s line of work can sometimes mean the difference between guilty and innocent. “We’re really behind the scenes but we make a big difference for the law enforcement side of it,” Hodge said. Hodge works for the King County Regional Identification Program, also known as Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). AFIS is the fingerprint database King County uses to identify people.
Message from Sheriff John Urquhart and Rhonda Berry, Chief of Operations
Dear Fellow King County employee, King County employees work each and every day to make our community and the world a better place, for ourselves and for our families. Another way we do that is through our King County Employee Giving Program. We are very proud to be this year’s Annual Giving Drive Honorary Co-Chairs. The Employee Giving Program empowers each of us to personally connect to causes we care about, such as providing clean air and water, food, shelter, clothing, counsel, comfort or help in times of crisis. Regardless of what… Read More
Proposed 2015/2016 biennial budget address
Dear fellow King County employee – Here is the full text of the speech I delivered this morning to the King County Council, transmitting the first full biennial budget in county history. You can see the speech in its entirety here. As I told the Councilmembers, a budget is more than just another spreadsheet; its numbers impact the lives of real people. Like I shared with you Friday, I outlined how our revenues are constrained by the state to a level below that of population growth plus inflation. I discussed how the… Read More
Watch 2015/2016 budget proposal today at 11 a.m.
King County Executive Dow Constantine will transmit his 2015/2016 budget proposal to the Metropolitan King County Council today, Monday, Sept. 22, at 11 a.m. You can watch the 2015/2016 Executive Proposed Budget address at 11 a.m. by visiting http://www.kingcounty.gov/KCTV.aspx and clicking the link on the right hand side that says “Watch Us Live”. You can also watch a short video featuring Budget Director Dwight Dively giving an overview of what’s causing King County’s revenue shortfall. Dively explains the state’s tax structure and the broken system of providing revenues for King County, even… Read More
Kudos! Public Defense employees help client build career path
Edwin Aralica, a felony attorney at Associated Counsel for the Department of Public Defense’s Accused Division (ACAD), and Sue Wood, a mitigation specialist at ACAD, recently learned that their efforts to help a young single mother have made a profound difference in her life. Edwin and Sue successfully kept their client out of prison and got her into the new Family Offender Sentencing Alternative program, despite the prosecutor’s opposition. Edwin also helped her address some other legal issues in her life, including a problem with her driver’s license. She now has her GED, has completed… Read More
Firefighters and County employees get valuable emergency training
Area firefighters and County employees are getting some valuable emergency training this week thanks to the County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD). WTD is hosting one of the largest and most successful regional fire department hazardous materials drills at the South Treatment Plant in Renton. Exercises like this provide reality-based scenarios, spaces and equipment for the emergency responders to test, train and advance their skills. WTD hosted similar events in 2010 and 2012. This exercise is held and coordinated in and around the old decommissioned chlorine building and chemical tanks. It features some… Read More
Bailiff enjoys variety of job minus the TV drama
Jacqueline “Jaye” Ware considers herself a traditional bailiff. “I could be defined as an old fashioned bailiff in that I take courtroom conduct and decorum seriously,” Ware said. “It is rare for me to joke or kid around with lawyers or parties in the courtroom as I believe it is essential that the court maintain every appearance of fairness, even more so if there are spectators.” But she also realizes that putting jurors at ease is an important part of her role. “I am more relaxed around the jurors, as I think… Read More
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