FOLLOWUP: New partnership agreements for county Department of Local Services
New information tonight about the Department of Local Services, county government’s new way of serving areas like this one. The announcement:
>The King County Executive’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved four partnership agreements between the new King County Department of Local Services and the county departments that provide the following services to unincorporated areas:
· Department of Natural Resources and Parks – Parks Division
· Department of Natural Resources and Parks – Surface Water Management Program, Stormwater Services
· Regional Animal Services of King County
· Public Health – Seattle & King County – Environmental Health Services Division, On-site Sewage Systems Permitting, On-site Sewage Operations and Maintenance, and Plumbing and Gas Piping Inspection.
These four service partnership agreements mark a significant milestone in the new model for delivery of services to the 250,000 residents and the businesses in unincorporated King County.
These agreements will enable the new department and its partners to improve the coordination of services and data sharing. This will allow the county to report back to the residents we serve in a more meaningful way and provide a better understanding of how effectively our services are being delivered.
These new agreements position King County Local Services to provide timely responses to issues that affect area residents and businesses and improve transparency and accountability by more accurately measuring how county service providers are performing in the unincorporated areas.
“Through these agreements, Local Services can respond more quickly and be more accountable on issues affecting residents and businesses outside city limits,” said Local Services Director John Taylor. “The agreements put us on the same page with data sharing, creating policy improvements, and aligning services. This will allow us to better coordinate our resources and work more effectively with the communities we serve.”
Local Services will spend the next year working to create similar agreements with other service providers. We’ll also continually improve our existing agreements as needed. And we’ll work with other non-King County service providers to create similar partnerships that could benefit residents and businesses.
“These new agreements between the Department of Local Services and other county departments are a great step towards providing exceptional services to the residents of unincorporated King County,” said King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert.
“When working to serve 250,000 unincorporated residents, coordination, teamwork and communication are vital. The newly formed Department of Local Services is already making substantial changes to the way these residents access their local government, and I’m excited to continue working with them to better serve the residents of unincorporated King County,” Lambert said.
The Service Partnership Agreements are available on the Department of Local Services website.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
