The Puget Sound Regional Council is conducting a regional travel study to better understand the transportation needs and preferences of the region’s residents. Beginning in April 2014, thousands of homes throughout King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties will receive postcard invitations to participate in the online or telephone study. Participation in the study can help answer questions about how the can region maintain and improve mobility, accessibility, and connectivity for residents as population grows and travel patterns evolve. The Puget Sound regional travel study will be conducted through June 2014. The study… Read More

The King County International Airport Aircraft Rescue & Firefighting (ARFF) Unit responds to all fire, police, and EMT calls at the airport.  This unit is truly unique: everyone in the unit is a King County Sheriff’s deputy, a trained firefighter and an EMT. On March 9, 2014, two members of the Airport’s ARFF unit, Chief Donald Davis, and Deputy Graydon Matheson, participated in the 23rd Annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb of Seattle’s Columbia Tower. Participants climb 788 feet of vertical elevation, 69 flights of stairs and 1,311 steps in full firefighting gear as a… Read More

Wastewater Treatment Division’s (WTD) Combined Sewer Overflow Control (CSO) Program is sporting a new look and feel, with the goal of helping the public and people outside WTD better understand their work. “Protecting Our Waters” is the new name of a program to prevent pollution caused by excess stormwater in the sewer system on rainy days. Through 2030, WTD will be building nine pollution control projects to keep stormwater mixed with small amounts of sewage out of the Duwamish River, Lake Washington Ship Canal and Puget Sound. These projects complete the program… Read More

We recently asked King County employees to tell us what respect in the workplace means to them in one word. The way we treat one another is just as important as the way we treat our customers, and helps define the type of workplace that we want. Some of the words that resonated the most with employees were Consideration, Kindness, Communication, Trust, Listening, Value, Acknowledgement, Dignity, Acceptance and Appreciation. You can see all the results displayed in a Word Cloud below.

The King County Recorder’s Office is now located on the fourth floor of the King County Administration Building, making it easier for customers to access documents, records, and marriage licenses and certificates. The Recorder’s Office made the move from the third floor of the Administration Building to put its services in easy reach of customers who enter the building from Fifth Avenue. “Our previous location on the third floor of the Administration Building was not easy for some customers to find, and the third floor had a split level with two separate… Read More

On February 11, 2014, PBS NewsHour visited Juvenile Detention to film a story about Pongo Teen Writing – a volunteer, nonprofit organization – and the therapeutic impact of poetry on at-risk youth. Richard Gould, the founder and Executive Director of Pongo Publishing Teen Writing Project, has been helping troubled teens express themselves through poetry and has published their work in anthologies since mid-1970. He has volunteered his services at Juvenile Detention since 1998. Detained youth have responded to Mr. Gould’s encouragement and help by writing about traumatic events in their lives, such… Read More

For hours on end, bus drivers manage to keep a schedule, check fares, give directions, remember stop requests and more, all while safely maneuvering an extra-large vehicle through unpredictable traffic, adverse weather conditions and some really tight spaces! The fact is, bus drivers don’t have an easy job; they just make it look that way. On Tuesday, March 18, join us in celebrating the contributions of our hard-working bus drivers, Access drivers and rail operators. It can be as simple as a smile when you board the bus, and a “thank you”… Read More

The Department of Executive Services (DES) held its first-ever All-Hands Meeting on February 26 with more than 500 employees in the 832-person department taking part in one of the two sessions. The All-Hands Meeting, which brought employees from DES’ 10 divisions, agencies and offices together as one department, featured a short video highlighting a dozen DES employees talking about how they “Deliver Excellent Service” every day; an overview of DES’ “clarity map” that will guide the department over the next 10 years; the results of a recent survey of DES employees focusing… Read More