Month: May 2023

During Monday’s New Employee Orientation, one of our new prosecuting attorneys shared a little about her family.  With two little ones at home, she welcomed the opportunity at Pierce County, to “just” manage a caseload and not be supervising anyone else.  At some point in the future, she might be interested in a formal leadership position, but not right now. I appreciated her comments.  We all have issues in our personal lives, and ideally, we can harmonize them with our professional responsibilities. Right now, I am dealing with a very difficult phase of my life.  My brother-in-law is in the final stage of a decade-long battle with cancer.  Thinking about my sister and her family, I knew that I needed to be there to support them.  Our team at the…

  On Monday, I joined the Sheriff and several deputies in Washington, D.C. for the 42nd Annual National Peace Officers Memorial Service on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol.  This event honored 443 law enforcement officers who had lost their lives in service to their communities.  Pierce County Deputies Dom Calata and Daryl Shuey were among those being memorialized. Our deputies were representing the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department as well as the larger Pierce County law enforcement family.  I was there bearing witness on behalf of the rest of our County colleagues and all the residents of our County.  We remembered Dom and Daryl and stood by and supported their families.  It was powerful and important - and I hope Pierce County never has cause to be there again. [embedyt]…

I’ve previously mentioned in the blog that one of the highlights of my week is attending the Monday New Employee Orientation.  Meeting our newest colleagues is inspiring! I always enjoy the comments and perspectives of people who have chosen to contribute to our work, and this week’s conversation did not disappoint. In this week’s call we had folks with ties to the Stadium District, Spanaway, Saipan and Saudi Arabia, among many other places.  Their previous work experience ranged from consulting engineering to immigration law, from Costco to teaching in Hawaii, and from a mental health crisis responder to caring for our most challenged children. This exceptional group of new colleagues are working throughout the County, from the Sewer Division to Environmental Education, from the Clerk’s Office to IT, from Aging &…

I hope you read yesterday’s announcement that we are planning to buy a downtown Tacoma building so that we can finally implement our long-planned Justice Center initiative in the County-City Building (CCB). The CCB was constructed in 1959 and originally housed nearly all the County’s operations, as well as those of the City of Tacoma - hence the name County-City Building. As our population grew, the need for our county services grew too.  Courts expanded in the CCB, and other departments were moved out to other leased locations.  The City of Tacoma moved out to their current municipal building (originally built in 1931) in 1977, leaving their court and related services behind.   [caption id="attachment_3999" align="aligncenter" width="779"] The newly built County-City Building - note the old courthouse is still standing.[/caption] Fast…