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806 5th Street, Mukilteo, WA 98275 www.edmondsbeacon.com Volume XXIX Number 1 Oct. 24, 2013

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Like a successful marriage, Ed-monds and its sister City, Hekinan,

Japan, have found the secret to a long-lasting relationship. The two cities are celebrating their silver anniversary this year.

A 37-member delegation from Hekinan will visit here beginning next week – the first delegation since 2008 – and Edmonds is pulling out all the stops.

Carolyn LaFave, Executive Assistant in the Mayor’s Office and liaison to the Edmonds Sister City Commission, said a full schedule of activities for the visi-tors will keep them busy throughout their visit from Tuesday, Oct. 29, until their departure on Monday, Nov. 4.

Some of the delegates will stay at Edmonds Harbor Inn, while others will stay with host families in town.

Residents will have opportunities to meet the visitors, beginning with a free Cultural Fair slated from 10-3 Wednes-day, Oct. 30, at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 4th Ave. N.

According to Kay Vreeland of the Sister City Commission, the morning program, beginning at 11 a.m., will feature several beautiful traditional Japanese dance performances, with accompaniment from taiko drums, Japanese flute, shamisen stringed instrument and folk instruments.

The Edmonds Olympic ballet will

Red carpet ready for the Sister City delegation

2013

WinnersHOWL-O-WEEN

HOWL-O-WEEN

A brighter economic outlook, coupled with ongoing

volatility, serve as background for Edmonds City Councilmem-bers as they begin plowing through the administration’s 2014 budget proposal.

On Tuesday, department heads began the first of two presentations outlining how they fared this year and what their proposals are for 2014.

The public is welcome to

comment at any of the sessions, although the posted public hearing will take place on Nov. 4, with possible budget adoption on Nov. 19.

Presentations on Tuesday in-cluded budget proposals for the following departments: Munici-pal Court; City Clerk; Mayor’s Office; City Council; Human Resources; Economic Develop-ment; Finance & Information Services; Nondepartmental; Development Services; and

More spending proposed with brightening economy

BY PAUL ARCHIPLEYPUBLISHER@YOURBEACON.NET

Somewhere at the bottom of the Strait of Juan de Fuca is

the gun an Edmonds man used to shoot his father to death.

Following the shooting in the early 1990s, the suspect tossed the weapon overboard while fleeing on the Black Ball ferry to Victoria.

Upon his arrival there, cus-toms officials became suspicious while questioning him, and he led them on a foot chase before

being captured.Those are among the details

Edmonds Police Chief Al Com-paan recalls from those heady days when he was a detective on the Edmonds force.

Compaan was several years into his law enforcement career, having advanced from Patrol-man 3rd Class when he was hired in 1978 to Senior Patrol-man to Detective to Sergeant.

He would soon rise to Assis-tant Chief, become Acting Chief upon the untimely death in 2007 of the late Chief David Stern,

followed by his appointment to the department’s top post later that year.

Meeting the youthful-looking Compaan today, a visitor could be forgiven for doubting he had just marked his 35th year on the Edmonds force – the only officer in the department’s history to achieve that milestone.

His road to this point began as a child in south Seattle when he became fascinated with the work of a family friend who was a Seattle Police sergeant.

Compaan went on some ride-alongs – an opportunity that

Police chief marks a milestoneBY PAUL ARCHIPLEY

PUBLISHER@YOURBEACON.NET

Al Compaan celebrates 35 years on Edmonds force

see DELEGATION page 12 X

see CHIEF page 16 X see SPENDING page 12 X

Sponsored by Off Leash Area Edmonds (OLAE), last Saturday’s Halloween Howl

was, well, a hoot. Dogs and their human companions showed up in costume, vying for “Best of” prizes. The winners, clock-wise from top, are: Sports Team Dog – Miley as Rodeo Horse; Owner and Dog Combo – Drake as the Big Bad Wolf & his partner Little Red Riding Hood; Funniest – Bailey as Hammer Head; and Most Origi-nal – Zory, the Boxing Champion “Poominator.” His motto: “I pity da foo who don’t pick up da poo.”

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TEAM USAE-W soccer player to travel to Jamaica

FOR THE BIRDSPuget Sound as seen through an artist’s eye

16 - Edmonds Beacon www.edmondsbeacon.com October 24, 2013

would never be permitted a child today due to safety con-cerns – and, upon enrollment at the University of Washington, entered the Criminal Justice program.

Following graduation in the mid-‘70s, he found himself in a competitive job market.

Veterans returning from Viet-nam were among many looking for work in law enforcement.

In addition, it was the era of civil rights, and law agencies were heavily recruiting minori-ties and women.

When Compaan tested the first time, he found himself in UW’s cavernous Kane Hall with about 800 other job applicants. He didn’t get called.

But following a second test in a Quonset hut at Paine Field – also with hundreds of others – Compaan got that coveted phone call. It was the Edmonds Police Department.

On his first day, Compaan was given his badge, nightstick, gun and other equipment by Sgt. Art Wyatt, who would become a mentor and friend.

Wyatt, now retired and living in Edmonds, said he realized Compaan would go far.

“I was impressed with his professionalism, his approach to the job,” Wyatt said this week. “He had good judgment and was a hard worker.

“Within a year or two, I figured he’d be chief someday.”

Wyatt praised Compaan’s UW education. “I recognized it pre-pared him for the job.”

One thing the UW did not do, however, was teach Compaan how to type, Wyatt said.

A two-finger typist, Compaan “was always behind on his pa-perwork,” Wyatt said. “Almost every shift, he’d work over for an hour or two to catch up.

“But he never asked for over-

time.”Compaan and Wyatt became

detectives around the same time, a period both remember fondly.

Wyatt recalled that prosecu-tors spotted Compaan’s profes-sionalism, sometimes using it to their advantage when cases made their way to court.

“On some important cases, the prosecutors used to have him come in and sit beside them in court,” Wyatt said.

“He was so professional, you’d think he was an attorney.”

Mayor Dave Earling echoed that sentiment Tuesday when Chief Compaan was honored at the City Council meeting.

“He has exuded professional-ism as long as I’ve known him,” Earling said. “And I’ve known him a long time.”

Compaan, while enjoying detective work, also saw some of the downsides of law enforce-ment.

“I can remember getting frus-trated with the prosecuting at-torney’s office if they didn’t see a case as I did,” Compaan said.

“Wyatt said to me, ‘Al, your problem is you’re under the

mistaken impression you’re ac-complishing something.’”

But Compaan thrived on de-tective work, recalling the afore-mentioned shooting incident in particular.

He hopped on the Black Ball to interview the suspect – the longest interview he ever con-ducted – dealt with extradition and other hurdles, and brought the suspect back to face justice.

He remains in Western State Hospital to this day.

Detective work agreed with Compaan.

“It was very rewarding, to get a fingerprint match, recover property, help somebody who had been assaulted. Those were all neat things,” Compaan said.

But it wasn’t always fun.“Crimes where children are

victims are the hardest,” he said.

“We’ve had cases where the children were killed. Those you don’t forget.”

Tall and fit, the chief has an easy laugh and casual demeanor.

That, along with his youthful good looks, helped get him no-ticed by a young woman when he and Wyatt visited the Bel-levue Police Department where

she worked.Anne Compaan said she heard

that two Edmonds detectives were coming by, so she was curi-ous.

“My ears perked up because I was living in Edmonds at the time,” she said.

According to Al, Wyatt looked like the Clint Eastwood type, while his future wife thought he looked too young to be a detec-tive.

“He’s told that story before,” Wyatt laughed. “I wasn’t really the Dirty Harry type.”

Later, Anne joined the Ed-monds department, becoming the former chief ’s executive as-

sistant.A romance bloomed between

Al and Anne, and the couple recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

Of course, when Al became chief, he had to “fire” his wife.

Being married to a police of-ficer, Anne knows his can be a dangerous job.

But she doesn’t dwell on it.“It’s probably a little different

for me, because I’ve been in law enforcement,” she said. “We’ve both tried to make the most out of each day.”

Al said a police officer’s spouse puts up with a lot, including changing work schedules and serving as a sounding board.

“What I have come to appreci-ate and understand is how im-portant a spouse is in an officer doing well,” he said.

Anne said people who don’t know her husband well may not see his best traits.

“It sounds like a cliché, but he’s a people person, a bit differ-ent from what people think,” she said. “He has a fabulous sense of humor. He’s young at heart.

“And he’s kind. I’ve noticed that in his relationships with other people. He has a lot of long-term friendships.”

While both are still working – and content – they are starting to talk about retirement.

Now 57, Al was eligible to re-tire at 53.

“There are other things I want to do,” he said. “Volunteer work, maybe with organizations that have some nexus with justice.”

They’d also like to travel, spend more time with family and friends.

When that day does come, Al Compaan may think more about his legacy.

For now, he said, “I want to leave this place in good order, knowing that the public has con-fidence in us and what we do.”

X from CHIEF page 1

The City honored Chief Al Compaan on Tuesday for 35 years of service to the Edmonds Police Department. Celebrating with him were family members, from left, wife Anne, Chief Compaan, mother Phyllis and father Larry.

Beacon photo by Paul Archipley

We’re Very Excited About Our New Location!We hope our Edmonds clientele will come see our state-of-the-art facility. The Mukilteo community has welcomed us with open arms. We appreciate the hospitality!!

Roger Olsson M.D.

Al Compaan was a fresh-faced rookie when he joined the Edmonds Police Force in 1978.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

BY PAUL ARCHIPLEYPUBLISHER@YOURBEACON.NET

Police Chief Al Compaan, marking his 35th anniversary on the Edmonds

force, has seen changes good and bad over the decades.

Police work, like much of life today, has advanced with technology. DNA analysis, in particular, has been a huge aid in solving crimes.

Police cars are equipped with comput-ers for quick information retrieval. O!-cers are better educated, better trained.

Formerly a bastion of white males, police forces are getting more diverse, helping bring di"ering viewpoints to law enforcement.

Top forces today, like Edmonds, are accredited by state law enforcement oversight agencies like the Washington Association of Sheri"s & Police Chiefs.

“It’s important for a department,” Compaan said. “It forces you to be intro-spective.

“We want as many agencies as pos-sible to walk the talk, and practice what we preach.”

But, unfortunately, some changes have been for the worse.

Burglaries, for example, remain a problem in Edmonds, but a di"erent breed of criminal is to blame.

“For years, your traditional house bur-glar was a neighborhood kid – booze, comic books,” Compaan said.

“Now we’re seeing organized groups.”They move from neighborhood to

neighborhood, from town to town, stealing valuable property, quickly fenc-ing it, and moving on.

“Burglary is a frustrating crime,” he said. “It’s traumatic for the homeowner, and frustrating for us, because we don’t have witnesses.”

He said recidivism is an ongoing problem.

Major contributors are drugs – espe-cially heroin and meth – alcohol abuse, and mental illness.

When police arrest people with those problems, they know they’ll be seeing them again, soon enough.

“We’re just a band-aid,” Compaan said.Society needs to work on breaking

that “vicious cycle.”Compaan said e"orts are underway in

Snohomish County to open a “sobering center” to provide early intervention, “so instead of a band-aid approach, we try to steer them in the right direction.”

Most troubling to Compaan of all, however, is America’s growing penchant for suing each other.

“My biggest frustration is the litigious society we live in,” he said. “That’s some-thing we have to be mindful of in this department, in every city department.

“People think we have deep pockets.”Budget cuts led to layo"s in the

Edmonds force in recent years, but with an improving economy, the city is begin-ning to collect more revenue.

Compaan appreciates that Mayor Dave Earling’s proposed 2014 budget includes the replacement of two positions in the department.

But he also knows that more o!cers isn’t the only answer.

“I’ve done my best to remind employ-ees that con#dence and trust must be constantly earned,” Compaan said.

“We’re subject to a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. The law is complicated, and we’re not going to land 100 percent every time.”

Still, whether in a major metropolis or a small city like Edmonds, o!cers have to be well trained and ready for anything, he said.

“Sandy Hook showed us that no com-munity is isolated,” he said. “So we have to be prepared.”

Good guys are better trained and equipped; so are the bad guys