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Open Enrollment is on Nov. 1 – 15
Open Enrollment for your 2016 King County benefits takes place Nov. 1 – 15. This is your opportunity to evaluate your benefit choices and select the right options for you and your family for next year. Learn about your 2016 benefits Your benefits package was designed with your continued health, financial security, and well-being in mind. Use the following resources to learn about your 2016 benefits—and what’s changing for next year: Open Enrollment mailer sent to your home King County Open Enrollment web page Recorded phone messages about important benefit topics: 1-800-347-8046
Celebrating 10 years of helping youth with disabilities find jobs
With more than 1,100 students served over 10 years, King County’s School-to-Work program has plenty of reasons to celebrate. On October 12, 2015, as part of National Disability Employment Awareness month, the Department of Community and Human Services Developmental Disabilities Division celebrated 10 successful years of the program and 1,136 students served by hosting a gathering of partners and stakeholders at the Southcenter Double Tree. “The School-to-Work Program helps youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout King County seek and gain employment prior to exiting their high school transition programs,” Richard Wilson,… Read More
Breaking down job barriers for people with disabilities
October is Disability Awareness Month and King County is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and 25 years of hiring people with developmental disabilities into the work place. In 1990, the King County Council created the Supported Employment Program in response to the issue of employment inequity for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Supported Employment Program matches job seekers with developmental disabilities to jobs by identifying efficiencies and unmet needs throughout King County government. One of those employees is Brooke, a mail clerk with King… Read More
Five Questions with Emmanuel Rivera, Health & Environmental Investigator III, Natural Resources & Parks
1. What was your first role at King County? My first role at King County involved working within the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program (LHWMP) as a Health and Environmental Investigator. As part of the Survey Team, I did business cold calls throughout King County regarding proper use, storage and disposal of hazardous products and waste. 2. What do you do as a Health and Environmental Investigator? As an HE&I III, I am currently the outreach coordinator for LHWMP’s Indoor Chemical Hazards project. My primary function is to provide outreach to underserved… Read More
Get to know four participants in 2015 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 930 participating nonprofit organizations that you can choose to contribute to in the 2015 Annual Giving Drive, which kicked off October 5. Click here to make a pledge. Meet four of this year’s participating nonprofits below (see full list of participating nonprofits here): Cowgirl Spirit Equine Rescue (9406) shelters, rehabilitates, and rehomes unwanted and slaughter-bound horses. Located in Carnation, Washington, its horses are cared for by an all-volunteer staff and supported… Read More
How Metro Transit helped employees make leap from driver to chief
Helping employees grow in their King County careers is a key objective of the Best-Run Government: Employees initiative and Metro Transit recently piloted an intensive program to help employees make the leap from bus operator to base chief. Transit’s Human Resources group built a process that recognized the skills of existing employees and helped them highlight their skills in the recruitment process. “We were understanding that we had a very well-qualified, diverse, talented pool of employees,” said Susan Eddy, Human Resources Service Deliver Manager with Metro Transit. “However when you took a… Read More
Healthy Local Eating coming to Healthy Incentives
King County’s Healthy Incentives program will begin a new pilot project in 2016 designed to help employees reduce their healthcare costs and support local farmers. The Healthy Local Eating pilot project, which will be implemented in two stages over 2016 and 2017, will offer employees the opportunity to reduce their out-of-pocket healthcare costs by purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables through the Healthy Incentives employee wellness program. “We’re building on the success of our wellness program by providing employees and their families an extra incentive to support local farmers,” said Executive Constantine…. Read More
Environmental Lab protects local waters and public health
With more and more people enjoying water activities across our region each year, the work of the King County Environmental Laboratory is more important than ever in protecting the health of local waterways, wildlife and people. With five different lab areas, Lab employees are constantly collecting samples, analyzing environmental samples and generating data to protect the environment and those that live in it, Kate Leone, the Environmental Programs Section Manager, said. Unlike other laboratories, the Lab is a full service lab, meaning it runs through all the steps, from project planning, sample collection and testing, through to data generation. It processes… Read More
Untapped Potential: Behavioral Health Employment Program helps individuals with disabilities join the workforce
At a recent employment resource fair, staff from the King County Behavioral Health Supported Employment Program ran into Tiffany Turner, a graduate of the program. Tiffany now works full time as a manager at the Recovery Café, a community of support for individuals who have experienced trauma, mental health and/or substance use issues. As a single parent of three children, Turner had many challenges trying to raise her children with limited resources or support from others. She found herself overwhelmed and unaware of the symptoms of her illness or how to use… Read More
One King County for ending sexual exploitation and trafficking
Dear fellow King County employee, We’re fortunate to have a talented workforce dedicated to making King County a more just, more equitable community – a place where people’s rights are protected and everyone has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential in life. As we showed when we helped nearly 200,000 residents sign up for affordable health insurance, we’re most effective at improving people’s lives when we work together as One King County to achieve a common goal. Now, I want to apply that same collective approach to confront a… Read More
Watching out for salmon in King County Waters
It’s that time of year again. The time when King County’s many creeks and rivers begin to receive colourful salmon for their spawning season. Each fall, several salmon species make their way from the ocean into the Puget Sound and into King County’s urban and rural streams to lay their eggs. It is an amazing natural process, Jennifer Vanderhoof said. As a senior ecologist for DNRP’s Watershed and Ecological Assessment, Vanderhoof coordinates a volunteer program to monitor salmon in the Lake Washington Watershed, called the Salmon Watcher Program. A multijurisdictional effort, the… Read More
Breaking down language barriers to make King County accessible to all
Imagine not understanding public service announcements or not being able to call an information line because they are not offered in your language. It is a problem that many King County residents face and something the Office of Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) and Customer Service Officers are trying to change. An Executive Order already requires printed public communications pieces and vital documents for broad distribution to be translated into at least Spanish, but the Office of ESJ and county agencies have been developing and implementing new ways to interact with the community and provide information. One approach is working with ethnic media, such as the… Read More
New IT tool helping local law enforcement
After two years of hard work, King County Information Technology (KCIT) and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (PAO) launched a new system known as eLODI, or Electronic Log of Detective Input. eLODI allows law enforcement officers throughout the county to electronically submit their referrals, evidence and case documents to the PAO’s case management system, PROSECUTORbyKarpel. One of the first to involve a Software as a Service (SaaS) vendor of this scale, eLODI was a collaboration of the PAO, Karpel Solutions, the KCIT Project Management Office (PMO), Business Analysis Group, Business Solution Services (BSS)… Read More
Dry summer means we still need to conserve more water
Think we’ve had enough rain? Think again. That’s the message from public water utilities that continue to urge businesses, governments and residents to take aggressive measures to conserve water by 10 percent. While recent precipitation and cooler temperatures did provide some relief, the extended hot, dry weather we experienced over the summer and the lack of snowpack in the mountains continue to create serious water management challenges. In King County, water conservation efforts are essential to maintaining water quality conditions needed to support our salmon populations. Low instream flows combined with high… Read More
Kudos! Four employees spotlighted in The Seattle Times’ Women in the Trades feature
Four King County employees were featured in The Seattle Times’ portrait series “Women in the Trades,” a look into Puget Sound’s hardworking women. Mari Jane Friel (pictured right) and Liesel Brus with Road Services Division, and Kate Osborn and Stacey Walker with Wastewater Treatment Division, spoke about their jobs in what have been traditionally male fields, and what they love about their work. “I love what I do,’’ Friel, a laborer with Road Services Division, said. “It’s something different every day.”
Kudos! David Yoshizumi, Senior Animal Control Officer, Regional Animal Services of King County
Hello Tim and Gene, We had a recent experience with one of your Field Agents who services Carnation, WA. I do not have his card in front of me, but I wanted to pass on my deep appreciation for the service he provided to us!! Our situation was that an elderly neighbor had left their cat (healthy and older) with us when they sold their home and went to assisted living. The cat was an outdoor cat with a “friend” who hung around with him who was quite sickly. Like the neighbor… Read More
Restorative Mediation making a difference for youth
Earlier this year, Juvenile Court implemented a Restorative Mediation Pilot option for youth in diversion. The pilot has since expanded beyond diversion and is now available to adjudicated youth. It provides youth with the opportunity to reduce time on supervision or in place of court-ordered community service hours. Restorative Mediation is an opportunity for an offender to have a facilitated conversation with the victim, giving the victim an opportunity to express how the event affected him/her, to provide space for understanding what took place for both parties, and to restore relationships that were… Read More
Women in Trades: King County Road Services
Mari Jane Friel is up to her knees in mud as dark as chocolate cake and smiling broadly. “I love what I do,’’ she says. “It’s something different every day.” Friel, 58, a laborer with King County’s Road Services Division 2, previously worked in corrections and as a chef in downtown Seattle. Her first day on the job, she was assigned to dig a ditch. Today, she’s wielding a shovel and a siphon to clear a drainage ditch of mud and weeds so that salmon can pass through during the rainy season…. Read More
Kudos! Metro Transit names Operator, Vehicle Maintenance Employees of the Year
Metro Transit employees John Boone and Ryan Stringfellow were recently honored with the Operator and Vehicle Maintenance Employee of the Year awards. Bellevue Base operator John Boone was honored on June 24 as Metro’s 2014 Transit Operator of the Year. At the surprise ceremony, held in the East Base Vehicle Maintenance bay, he was interviewed by local TV outlets before being escorted on stage. Boone was chosen by his fellow 2014 Operators of the Month because of his long and excellent record of providing high-quality customer service to his riders. One of… Read More
CASA program needs volunteers
Each year in King County, more than 12,000 children are separated from their families due to abuse or neglect. With the support of foster programs, many of the children are placed in foster care for the time being their parents are in court. But who represents the children in court? Court Appointed Special Advocates are trained volunteers who represent the children and their best interests during the legal process. “We say that a CASA is the voice of the child,” Pamela Beatty, a CASA volunteer said. “We do the speaking for the… Read More
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