Pension Office News | August 2016

NEW SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT RETIREMENTS

There was one LEOFF I retirements and three Plan II retirements to report:

Gary McNulty #3170, is retiring again. The first time was in March 2013, but he changed his mind at the last minute. So my advice to the brass is, “keep his prowl car handy.”

After high school, he got a job at University Chevrolet at 45th & Roosevelt. After working as the lot boy for several months, he noticed the same young guys frequently trading and buying new cars so Gary asked them how they could afford to keep new cars.  They replied “we’re firemen.” So Gary went right down to Public Safety Civil Service and signed up for the Firefighter test. He passed. While waiting for a job offer, he learned about the Department’s Cadet Program and took the cadet test. The cadet test was much easier than the Firefighter test, plus he was not so sure about running into a burning building. So he became a Seattle Police Cadet in 1969. His first night on the job was in the 3rd Watch West Central Hole Crew working for Bill Danbom #810, Nick Carnovale #1343, Ed Francis #765 and Don Kuehl #1001. They taught Gary to run the clunky “Solvagraph” copier (it made unreadable, bluish-purple copies of police reports), make coffee and pick up fish and chips at Ivar’s, and all the things he needed to know to be a successful Patrolman.

Ken Crow #2426, was the Cadet Program’s Coordinator. While instructing Gary and the other cadets the important police skill of swimming and lifesaving at the pool at Providence Heights in Issaquah, Ken was in full uniform. He was joking with his charges when they suddenly grabbed him and held him over the pool. Ken said “you guys are like All State Insurance, so I am in #!@*&# good hands and you don’t have the #(*#&!@&!@# anyway to drop me in the pool.” Well he wasn’t in such good hands… so oops. You could say Ken’s theory about being in good hands was all wet. As the Cadet Program was being phased out, Gary and 29 of his cadet peers went to BLET in 1973. All went on to become successful officers.

In 2002, he was the Department’s Officer of the Year, even though he was working with a hip that needed to be replaced, making it difficult to get in and out of the Patrol car. The north-end crooks just hated to see Gary patrolling the Aurora Corridor during 1st Watch. But after 47 years of service (yes, that is counting the years as a cadet) to the citizens of Seattle, Gary is REALLY going to retire. So, one journey ends and another begins. In retirement, Gary and his wife Peggy will be moving over to eastern Washington.

Gary would like to tell the younger, newer officers that as tough as things may seem now with the political attitude in the City and country, to just work through it. Just come to work and enjoy the people you work with because they are your “family”. These are the people that you can look to for help and support. Gary has seen so many political changes as well as “policy” changes, that you just need to keep a positive attitude and work with it instead of falling into an attitude that the citizens and brass do not seem to care.

Steve Damon #5025, was born at Seattle’s Swedish Hospital, raised in North Tacoma near Pt. Defiance Park. He played football and baseball at Wilson High School, graduating in 1979. After graduation, he played baseball at Western Washington University, back when Western had a varsity baseball program. He started as a freshman and pitched against UW, and other Division 1 schools. He met his wife Kathie in his sophomore year and they were married in 1983. He graduated in 1984 with a degree in graphic design. He needed an extra year to graduate, due to not remembering about his freshman year – something to do with double secret probation.

The next two years he worked in downtown Seattle for a printing company. He was
delivering a job to a company located in the Lyon Building at 607 3rd Avenue, when he heard a radio ad for the Seattle Police Department. Coincidently, the recruiting office was next door to the company where his delivery was. After making that delivery, he entered the recruiting office and on a whim, started the application process. When the background detective called his boss at the printing company, his boss got so mad he fired Steve that day. As fate would have it, right next door to the printing office was the unemployment office. He walked out one door and into the other. A few weeks later he was called by HR Lieutenant Ron Sylve #3537, saying “you’re hired.”

Steve was officially hired on April Fool’s Day, 1986. He attended the Academy Class 194 at Glacier in Burien with fellow SPD recruits Steve Jandoc #5021, Todd Jakobsen #5029, Rick Hordan #5022, Mark Mount #5023 and Christine Tate #5030. At that time the Academy was completely staffed by SPD. His TAC Officer was Tag Gleason #4165. Their class motto was “Tag’s Buf Bombers”. BUF standing for Big, Ugly…Fellows? Steve’s first permanent assignment was with Steve Freese #5013 from the previous Academy class, both were assigned to 1st Watch West. They later worked for Sergeant Tom Byers #3696 in the first West Precinct CPT Unit. 1989 and 1991 brought Steve and Kathie a son, then a daughter, respectively.

In the fall of 1992, Steve was working with David Drain #5619 as 2D01. They were
dispatched to an audible residential alarm in Magnolia. The home was palatial, sitting on the south side of the ship canal. It was getting dark as they checked out the backyard. The yard was huge, with a very large lawn. On the lawn was a large blue tarp. As Steve was about to walk across the tarp, David yelled, “Steve, stop!” The blue tarp was actually a pool cover. David’s warning allowed Steve to grab the pool’s edge, keeping him from falling all the way in. He was soaking wet from the waist down. As David talked to the concerned neighbors about the alarm, Steve stood squishing water from his water-filled boots.
In 1993, Steve transferred to the Advanced Training Unit to work for Sergeant Marsha Camp #3989. He instructed Post BLEA officers until the end of 1998. Fellow instructors during those years included legendary Officers Ron Rispoli #3649, Glenn Kerns #5120, Scott Kawahara #4825, and PB Nicholls #3108.

Steve’s next assignments included 1st Watch South, SW and North. He was promoted in
2004, and worked as 3David, 1Sam, and then as the South CPT Sergeant. In 2007 Precinct Commander Tom Byers transferred him into the South Precinct Detective Unit. Memorable cases included the Esquin Wine burglary where the squad recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in wine. Also, the infamous metal theft at City Light where two men purporting to be looking for donations were actually copper thieves casing the storage facility looking for (free) metal.

Steve officially retired on June 30th, 2016 after 30 years. In August, he and Kathie celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. Their future will include lots of golf, flights to Europe, and annual trips to Phoenix for Spring Training. He may even use that art degree to make his mother happy.

Larry Meyer #5127, was born and raised in the greater Seattle area. He severely injured his knee playing organized sports during his junior high years. So his sports avocation was sidelined until he came on the Department years later. While attending Mountlake Terrace High, he worked after school. His classmates were Clay Stockwell #5385, Steve Leonard #6705, Paul McDonagh #4708 and Mark Worstman #5481.

After high school graduation in 1981, Larry attended Shoreline Community
College from1982 to 1984. After class he worked at Sears, then Kits Cameras.

In late 1984 landed a job at John Fluke Manufacturing as a lead supervisor. Each month during the night shift, he saw SPD’s Advanced Training Unit’s EVOC instructors putting on pursuit driving in Fluke’s back parking lot. This piqued his interest. During this time, he met Julie, his future wife, who also worked there. In 1985 Fluke was laying off employees, so as a supervisor, Larry got Julie moved to his crew to save her job. For his efforts, she chewed him out because she wanted to go on unemployment. This goes to show, no good deed goes unpunished, and how little supervisors and prospective husbands know.

In 1986, Larry applied to the Department. He was hired in March 1987. Right after being hired, he proposed to Julie.

After the Academy, Larry did his S/O training in the West Precinct. One of his FTOs was Vinette Tichi #4562. Afterward, he was permanently assigned to the 3rd Watch West. This is when he started participating in sports again – playing baseball and basketball in the SPAA leagues. In 1991 while in West ACT, he chased a suspect up a 10’ high chain link fence. Larry grabbed the suspect as he neared the top. Down he came, onto Larry. Larry’s ACL tore. This injury forced him to take up bowling and golf. He has competed in the Fire and Police Games in both events. One or the other of these teams has been medaling each year since 1999.

Larry has had a varied career. After West ACT, he spent four years in Narcotics. Then ten years in the Bomb Squad. Both he and Scott Kawahara #4825 responded to the suspected suicide bomber who walked into the Federal Court House. He had a simulated bomb pack and holding a hand grenade. After the suspect was fatally shot, Scott and Larry had to check out the bomb pack and hand grenade the old fashioned way – by suiting up and X-raying both suspect devices. The backpack only contained a butcher block and the hand grenade was a dummy training device.

In 2009, Larry transferred to Major Crimes to work a variety of cases from narcotics, auto thefts, knock-offs of copyrighted products, and burglaries. He also had to learn the Department’s new computer system – SPIDER, “it is what it is.”

In 2015, Larry decided to move again and transferred to Criminal Intelligence. Finally, in 2016 he was loaned to Homeland Security as Task Force officer.

Now Larry is going to a new career after 29 years on the Department. He will be an investigator for the Pacific Northwest Home Depot stores.

Bob Shilling #4384, was born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. He ran the 660 and cross country while attending Bishop Academy High in Mission Hills. After graduating, his uncle hired him to work in a restaurant in Palo Alto. Bob learned several jobs while there – waiter, cook and bartender. He attended De Anza Community College in his off time, earning an AA degree. Then he attended San Jose State College from 1971 to 1973.
This is the time he starting looking for a job in law enforcement. But the slowdown of the economy as the Vietnam War wound down, basically killed hiring across the nation. Then Proposition 13, and anti-tax initiative, hit California which resulted in governmental layoffs. So Bob had to stay in the restaurant business. But he did land a paid police reserve position with Palo Alto Police Department from 1972 to 1979. In 1976, the FBI and Department of Labor started to investigate the Hotel, Motel, Restaurant and Bartenders’ Union for being run by organized crime. Bob was still working in the restaurant business. So he was approached by his Department and the Feds to infiltrate the union. He said yes. He went to union meetings, then began moving up in its hierarchy. He became the Director of Organization, which is unionizing workers in business establishments. He was also collecting evidence. His efforts helped convict the leadership of 51 counts of embezzlement and mail fraud. The case was finished in 1978. He even testified before the US Congress in 1982 regarding his undercover work.

In 1980, Bob gave up trying to land a full time job in California law enforcement, and came to Seattle to start our Academy on March 13, 1980. After BLET, he was assigned to the East Precinct for ten years. One of his partners was Walt Furler #2628. They worked the Broadway walking beat.

In 1984, Bob was elected to SPOG’s Board of Directors. In 1986, he was elected Secretary-Treasurer. In 1987 he succeeded John P. Sullivan #2184 as President.
During Bob’s tenure, Patrol Incentive and the mandatory wearing of the bullet proof vest was negotiated. He also came to an agreement with the City to bring five LASO Gang Detectives to Seattle to provide on-duty training to all interested officers. Two 16 hour courses were taught to over 600 officers. This was quite an accomplishment at that time because the bureaucracy insisted there was not an illegal gang problem in Seattle. Finally, during this time there was a committee headed by Nick Bulpin #2185 to investigate buying the property at 2900 Eastlake Ave. E. (the Relief Office) which the Guild did.

In January 1990, Bob was assigned to Special Assault. The rest is history. He has testified before the State Legislature and co-authored 12 pieces of legislation. In 1993, he was appointed lead detective to the Sex and Kidnapping Offenders Detail. This became a model program across the nation, including the Feds. As a result of this, Bob has been appointed to various governmental and professional commissions. One of these commissions Bob served on from 1997 to 2013, was the Intel Specialist Group on Crimes Against Children. His performance there led to Interpol appointing him to head the Crimes Against Children for its 190 member countries. Bob was seconded (TDY) from Seattle to Lyon, France for three years. He built up to a staff of 23 and a budget of $15,000,000. His unit rescued 5420 child victims during his leadership. This was nearly double the number rescued over the eight years previous to his stint. His detail has received numerous international awards for its accomplishments over the past three years. Bob personally received the 2014 International Jurists Award in London. He is the first police officer to get it. Normally it is given to sovereign court judges, ministers of justice or heads of state.

In June, Bob came back to the Police Department to retire after 36 years of service.

PENSION OFFICE NEWS

The 73rd Retired Officers’ Banquet was held at the Nile on September 14, 2016. 425 tickets were sold. 400 attendees were confirmed. The Relief Association did another great job organizing and hosting the event. Chaplain Charlie Scoma did the invocation. Everyone had a good time. 

The lowest serial numbered attendees were:

1.    Ken Frandsen #834
2.    Jean Dunbar #865
3.    Bob Ammerman #1036

Next month, the Medicare Part B Reimbursement Form will be available online, at the Pension Office, and printed in the November Guardian.

The 2017 Reporting Forms will need to be filled out in the next couple months, so watch for them in the mail, and put these on your bucket (to do) list.

Snowbirds – remember to notify the Pension Office of your winter address, or make sure you have the Postal Service forward your mail. Last month our phone number was printed incorrectly, the correct information is contact Stephanie at stephanie.coleman@sesattle.gov or 206-386-1287.

For those few of you that are still receiving paper City checks, the office is still getting reports of slow mail delivery, lost and/or stolen mail. Please consider switching to electronic deposit – one less hassle in life. Please contact Stephanie at stephanie.coleman@seattle.gov or 206-386-1287.