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July 22, 2004
King County receives national recognition for Park’s Business Transition Plan and Partners’ Regional Emergency Response Plan
King County Executive Ron Sims announced that two King County plans have been recognized by the
National Association of Counties (NACo) as 2004 Achievement Award winners. The King County Parks Business Transition Plan
and King County’s public, private and non-profit partners’ collaborative Regional Disaster Plan for Public and Private Organizations in King County
have been recognized for government innovation and success.
“This acknowledgement represents the dedication of King County’s industrious employees, who have gone above and beyond to improve our programs, increase efficiency during times of economic challenges, and promote responsible, responsive and effective county government,” said King County Executive Ron Sims.
King County has received a 2004 NACo Achievement Award for its efforts to create and implement the Parks Business Transition Plan. In addition to receiving the award it will also be offered by the organization as a best practice model for counties across the country to use as a resource.
The Parks Business Transition Plan was developed in 2002 to stabilize parks financially and operationally in the face of a severe budget crisis that threatened the closure of thousands of acres of parks. Seeking to keep parks open, King County Executive Ron Sims appointed a citizen task force to work with parks staff to develop long- and short-term recommendations for stabilizing the parks system. The recommendations, adopted by the County Executive, have become the blueprint for a transition to a new way of doing business that includes cutting costs, concentrating on regional assets, generating new entrepreneurial revenues and establishing partnerships to enhance recreational facilities even in the face of a budget crisis.
Since adopting the plan, King County Parks has saved more than $7 million annually by transferring 20 parks and 10 pools to suburban cities, generated $835,000 in new entrepreneurial ventures through initiatives like the U.S. Bank Concerts at Marymoor, and engaged in creative partnerships that have enhanced recreational facilities at no additional cost to the county.
King County parks remained open throughout the winter for the first time in two years during 2003-2004, forgoing seasonal closures and mothballing that had been implemented in prior years to cut costs. In March of 2004 King County announced its largest ever multi-year naming rights agreement to benefit parks with the Group Health Velodrome. Partnerships like one with the City of Redmond and Fisher Communications that brought a 4th of July celebration to Marymoor Park are enhancing ways people can enjoy the park at no additional cost to the county. That celebration hosted one of the largest fireworks displays in the region and brought the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial to Marymoor Park.
The Regional Disaster Plan for Public and Private Organizations has also received a 2004 NACo Achievement Award. This is a disaster response plan creating the framework whereby cooperative relationships are formed pre-disaster between public, private and nonprofit organizations. This response plan creates a shared concept for how individual, autonomous private and nonprofit organizations and government agencies and jurisdictions will work together in times of extreme natural, technological and human-caused emergency or disaster in King County.
“King County is transitioning to a primary focus on regional governance and the associated issues that can make us a stronger and more cohesive region,” said Sims. “This national recognition of our efforts in disaster planning shows that we are on the right track.”
“Individual jurisdictions and agencies all have individual emergency response plans, but no one had tied all of these together,” explained Eric Holdeman, the director of the King County Office of Emergency Management. “What makes our plan unique is that we pulled private organizations and business in with the public agencies here in King County under one response plan.”
Private partner Bank of America understands the importance of the partnerships under this plan. “Long before September 11th we clearly recognized the importance of working together (public and private). A large percentage of our region’s critical infrastructures are owned or operated by private businesses, and we understand the success of our continuing these critical services for the public and region is enhanced by coordinating our planning and response efforts through the regional plan. Our inter-linkages with public agencies, and understanding those linkages, are important to getting our communities back to some level of normalcy," states Gennie Thompson, Vice President of Business Continuity Emergency Management, Bank of America. “This plan has allowed us to create those collaborative relationships before the next disaster.”
Currently 123 organizations are partners; including cities, fire districts, school districts, water & sewer districts, hospitals, nonprofits, and large private businesses within geographic King County. The plan utilizes existing resources and creates a cooperative environment for more effective and efficient disaster response.
The NACo Achievement Award is the second national recognition for the Regional Disaster Plan. In December of last year the congressionally created independent 9-11 Commission used a high-profile field hearing on emergency preparedness to highlight the King County region with a Best Practices Award for this innovative public/private disaster response plan.
The NACo Achievement Award Program is a non-competitive program that recognizes counties for improving the management of and services provided by county government. Since the program’s inception in 1970, the Achievement Award Program has honored hundreds of county government initiatives that have improved service delivery, achieved greater cost efficiency, provided finer customer service, and helped to develop a better-trained work force. In addition, the award winning programs have provided NACo and its membership with an extensive database of successful county programs.
For more information about the Regional Disaster Plan, contact Eric Holdeman, 206-205-4060. For more information about the Parks Business Transition Plan, contact Tom Koney at 206-263-6229.
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