King County employees reduce project lead times by two years through Lean
Crossposted from Lean in King County
During an open house Wastewater employees explained to coworkers how they improved efficiency, standardized processes, and saved time – thereby saving ratepayer money.
In September, King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) celebrated the hard work of hundreds of employees who have been streamlining how WTD operates the regional system and how it builds new facilities needed for our growing population.
Employees explained to coworkers how they used Lean techniques to improve efficiency, standardize processes, and save time – thereby saving ratepayers money – during a four-hour open house.
WTD has a long history of continuously improving our business using employee ideas.
Over 1.5 million people in the region depend on WTD for award-winning wastewater treatment. WTD operates, maintains, and upgrades over 400 miles of pipelines, five wastewater treatment plants, 46 pump stations and 26 regulatory stations. The division faces a 63 percent increase in the capital improvement program to continue providing safe, reliable sewer service to a growing region and to meet combined sewer overflow control requirements by 2030. With this in mind, the division made a special effort to streamline how they deliver the projects they need to build.
Read more at Lean in King County
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Executive Constantine names new GM for Metro, the nation’s 10th largest transit service
In naming interim Metro General Manager Rob Gannon to the permanent position, King County Executive Dow Constantine selected a leader with experience at Metro as well as Amazon.com and the University of Montana.
Gannon, 47, served as Interim General Manager from March 2016 until now. He was Metro Deputy General Manager from 2013-2016, and Human Resources Manager for the King County Department of Transportation from 2011-2013. He previously oversaw budget and labor relations at the University of Montana.
“As our region grows and becomes ever more reliant on fast, efficient transit, Rob is the right person to lead Metro,” said Executive Constantine.
Read more in the official press release.
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Univision honors Metro’s Penny Lara during Latinx Heritage Month
Crossposted from Metro Matters
The people of King County are fortunate to have Penny Lara. A longtime advocate for equity, Lara is a transportation planner at King County Metro focused on improving access to transportation for communities with special needs.
Lara came from the Department of Public Health, Seattle-King County, where she played a key role in implementing ORCA LIFT –the reduced fare card for low-income riders — and building upon her experience leading efforts to enroll King County’s Latinx community in health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Read more at Metro Matters
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Kudos for KC Metro staff smiling through the storm!
On Friday October 14, a King County Metro rider appreciated her ride so much she submitted an online commendation. She says:
“A big hug to all of you at Metro who do such an amazing job. I just wanted to say thank you, the weather is terrible today and there are lots of cranky customers so I wanted you to know how much I appreciate all of you.”
Thank you for letting us know how much you appreciate our Metro staff and their dedication to providing high quality customer service with a smile!
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Social Media Spotlight: King County Youth Justice Twitter
KC Youth Justice highlights King County and its partners’ efforts to steer more youth away from courts and detention and reduce youth interaction with the juvenile justice system – especially for youth of color who are disproportionately represented in it.
Follow KCYouth on Twitter today!
Click here to view all King County social media pages.
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Q&A: Public Health takes on lead poisoning at work
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
When we think about people at risk of lead poisoning, we may think about children exposed to lead-based paint, or those exposed to lead through certain hobbies. But did you know that thousands of workers in this country are exposed to lead at their workplaces – day in and day out? Alarmingly, the federal and Washington state worker health & safety standards to protect those workers are inadequate and are based on outdated science from the 1970s. In addition, workers of color in King County are at particular risk for lead poisoning because of the types of jobs they do.
We sat down with Steve Whittaker with Public Health’s Environmental Services Division and the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program (LHWMP) to find out more about this problem and what Public Health is doing to protect workers in King County and across Washington state. Steve is a toxicologist with many years of experience in this topic area.
Read more at Public Health Insider
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Tech Tip: Zombie records can come back to haunt you (and the county!) BEWARE!
Brought to you by the King County Public Records Committee and the Records Management Program
Records retained past their mandatory retention period could put you and the county at financial risk – not to mention risk of embarrassment.
Just like zombies, records can do the most harm after they have reached the end of their life. Undead records lurk in basements, closets, on old floppy disks, and forgotten places on network drives – buried and lost amongst the clutter. But, they will come back to haunt you in the event of a public records request or litigation action.
How to kill a hoard of zombie records in three easy steps
- Make sure they’re zombies Just because the records are on the older side and are no longer needed to support day-to-day business doesn’t necessarily mean they’re zombies. For records to be a true zombies they must be past their retention period. This is different from archival records or records required to support current or imminent litigation actions or current public records requests.
- Acquire weapons needed to defend yourself Before you kill zombie records, make certain you can defend yourself from attack. Documenting destruction of government records promotes both transparency and accountability. In the event of a legal or audit challenge, this documentation provides crucial evidence of “defensible disposition” demonstrating that you were aware of and compliant with current records retention requirements.
- Kill them…. Kill them dead To truly kill zombie records you need to make them unreadable and irretrievable. The King County Records Center offers free secure physical records shredding at their facility through the direct destruction program. To ensure complete destruction of a digital records, seek out and delete all copies.
Good records management practices keep zombie records from doing life-altering damage not to mention devouring your valuable time. Need a professional zombie records slayer? Contact us today!
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Seasonal home maintenance classes
Whether you own your home or are renting, make sure your home is ready for the seasons ahead! This seminar is presented by HomeStreet Bank to help you learn basic home maintenance, what you need to do when the temperature changes, covering the cost of home maintenance, and you’ll be provided with a home maintenance checklist.
There are two dates available for this class:
- Wednesday, November 2 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Chinook Building in downtown Seattle
- Monday, November 7 from noon to 1p.m. at the South Treatment Plant in Renton
Registration is required for this event. Call the Hometown Hotline at 888-425-6990, or go online to: www.homestreet.com/KingCo
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New discounts available for employees
Discounts for the Summit at Snoqualmie 2016-2017 Season Pass are available through December 31, 2016. To take advantage of the King County Discount for Xpass (all ages), Gold, Unlimited and Limited (ages 12-61) season passes follow these online instructions. To purchase passes for Snow Guarantee, Child (ages 0-6) and Senior (ages 62-69) please follow these instructions. Information about the discount pricing can be found here.
Shopping discounts: CorporateShopping.com connects employees to over 250 top national retailers offering incredible employee discounts and private offers. Register now. For questions about this program or assistance with registration please email info@corpshopping.com
Car Rentals at Hertz, Avis and Budget: For Hertz discounts input code: CDP number 1742729. For Avis discounts input code: AWD number D134100. For Budget discounts input code: BCD number Z408900.
See all available discounts on the Employee Discount Webpage.
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Safety and security at work
Ensuring your safety and security at work is our top priority. Recently, King County hosted an employee Lunch and Learn with representatives from the Sheriff’s Office and the Facilities Management Division (FMD) Security Unit sharing information and resources.
In response to employee requests, we now have a list of safety tips online. This information from the Seattle Police Department is designed to help you enhance your personal safety and avoid potential trouble.
We have also launched a new online security incident report form. You can use this form to report non-emergency incidents to the FMD Security Unit for possible follow-up. You can report incidents that happen at work or on your commute. FMD Security will also continue to take incident reports by phone at 206-296-5000. As always in an emergency, call 9-1-1 for immediate assistance.
We also plan to add more safety training classes and host more Lunch and Learns focusing on safety and security at work. Look for announcements about these offerings in future issues of Employee News.
Employee News 