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

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

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

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

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

Benefits, Payroll and Retirement Operations wants to ensure our employees are notified of some important changes regarding their pension plans. New DRS Employee Rates in 2015 Based on an actuarial review of the state pension plans, the Washington State Pension Funding Council approved a graduated approach to increasing member and employer contributions. This approach will spread out the impact of increased contributions over a number of years while still ensuring the impacted pension plans remain stable and robust. For employees participating in the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), the rate will increase… Read More