Four Sequim police chief candidates meet officials, civic leaders

SEQUIM — Nancy Reeder loves the Alaska city she’s called home during her 25 years in the military and in the police department.

But part of the reason she wants to be Sequim’s new police chief is because the Blue Hole city, she said, is “Anchorage without the snow and cold and rain and icy road conditions.”

Edward Erlandson is looking for “a new challenge” after having held every job from patrol officer to detective to lieutenant in his 22 years in the Arlington Police Department in Snohomish County.

Robert Spinks, having worked several law-enforcement jobs in the first 24 years of his career, wants to get back in touch with his outdoors self and make his next stop his last stop.

And Steven Pyle, who’s been postponing a retirement move to Sequim for several years because he loves his law-enforcement career so much, can’t think of a better way to combine his passions than to become Sequim’s top cop.

The four, finalists announced earlier this week to succeed Ken Burge as Sequim’s police chief, mingled with city officials and civic leaders Thursday afternoon at a reception at El Cazador restaurant in Sequim.

Daylong meetings

The gladhanding and gobbling of hors d’oeuvres was a mere hors d’oeuvres, however, to today’s main course — a daylong round of interviews and visits with city department heads and the Police Department’s rank-and-file.

Those meetings will culminate in a note-comparing session with City Manager Bill Elliott, who will make the hire.

That move isn’t expected today, and Elliott this week set no firm timeline for his decision.

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