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See you at the Market!Every Sunday through Sept. 23 | 9 am-2pm
Sound Transit Plaza, 23 A Street SWwww.auburnfarmersmarket.org | 253-266-2726Algona Auburn Pacific
Auburn Int’l Farmers Market
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INSIDE | Farmers market opens [2]
REPORTER .com
FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
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18A U B U R N˜ Sports | Coach of the Year:Auburn Mountainview’s Jared Gervais leads football team to first ever postseason appearance [12]
TOP HIGH SCHOOL GRADS
INSIDEThe Reporter salutes some of the best graduating seniors from each of the Auburn School District’s four high schools, pages 4-5, 9-11.
BY SHAWN SKAGER
Friction between City sta� and Paci� c Mayor Cy Sun heated up again this week when City Clerk and Personnel Manager Jane Montgomery ar-rived at work Monday to � nd her o� ce door padlocked shut.
Montgomery, who last Friday went public with concerns that the mayor’s hir-ing practices were detrimental to the City, said in a news conference Monday that she believes the lockout is the mayor’s retaliation for her blowing the whistle.
“I don’t really know, but I assume it’s because the mayor intended me to be barred from the workplace and be barred from working,” Montgomery said. “I was told that he’s attempting to give me some sort of letter. I’m assum-
ing that’s a termination. I don’t know. I haven’t received it. All I know was I was barred from my workplace and told by the city attorney to seek assistance to get into my workplace.”
A� er Paci� c police cut the padlock and removed the hasp from her door, Montgomery met with her personal lawyer and held a news conference on the City Hall lawn.
“� ose workers are not able to work. � ere is a climate of
fear, intimidation and a hostile workplace environment,” she said. “� ere are people not � lling positions that keep the City running. � ose positions have not been � lled. � ere were six managers, and I’m the only one le� .”
According to Montgomery, Sun’s personnel decisions not only skirt City procedures
Carlos Lopez Jr. and Sumner LaValley made the most of their opportunities at Auburn Riverside. MARK KLAAS, Auburn Reporter
PURSUING PATH TO EXCELLENCE
Myiah “Shemyiah”
Christian and Miguel
Cardenas shone in their new
start at West Auburn.
ROBERT WHALE, Auburn Reporter
Change for the better for West Auburn duoBY ROBERT WHALE
For Myiah “Shemyiah” Christian and Miguel Cardenas, the switch to West Auburn High School was, without a doubt, the best thing they could have done for themselves.
Best, though for distinctly di� erent reasons.[ more WEST AUBURN page 4 ]
Seniors shine at Auburn RiversideBY MARK KLAAS
Carlos Lopez Jr. appreciates his good fortune, his place in time.
� e son of Guatemalan im-migrants, he is about to become the � rst in his family to attend college.
� e opportunity humbles him. “I don’t like to feel too much
pride. It’s just because I’m re-ally lucky, really,” said Lopez, an Auburn Riverside High School
senior who graduates Saturday, one of eight 4.0 students in the 381-member class of 2012.
Gi� ed in subjects ranging from math to music, Lopez will
take his talents to the Ivy League grounds of Rhode Island’s Brown University on a scholarship this fall.
[ more RIVERSIDE page 4 ]
Paci� c City Clerk and Personnel Manager Jane Montgomery, center, and her lawyer, Joan Mell, right, talk with KOMO’s Lindsay Cohen outside Paci� c City Hall.SHAWN SKAGER, Auburn Reporter
Clerk’s lockout latest episode in Pacific saga
Sun
[ more PACIFIC page 3 ]
Public memorial is Friday for slain Paci� c teenREPORTER STAFF
From 6 to 8 p.m. Friday in Paci� c Park, friends, class-mates and acquaintances of
Walter Denesha will gather for a candlelight memorial to illuminate a life lost.
� ey will come together not to remember the hor-ri� c manner in which the Mount Baker Middle School seventh-grader
[ more MEMORIAL page 3 ]
www.auburn-reporter.com [3]June 15, 2012
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and policies but also disregard state rules and put the City at risk. She has documented her concerns and turned them over to the City attorney.
“�ere are many dif-ferent examples. I’d prefer not to go into all of them,” Montgomery said. “But I can say that policies are be-ing violated. Procedures are being violated. Unquali�ed, uncerti�ed people have been allowed to perform City functions. �is causes great risk to the City. �e liability to the City is great, and it could ultimately cost the City its ability to even function.”
At Monday’s City council meeting, Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem John Jones said the council is committed to investigating Montgomery’s concerns.
“I believe it’s our respon-sibility as representatives of this City to investigate the validity of these state-ments,” Jones said. “I also consider these actions by her as local government whistle blowing, in relation-ship to governmental viola-tions of law and code. As such, I want to make sure her actions are not retali-ated against, which Sun has done with the hasping and locking of her door over the weekend.”
Among Montgomery’s chief concerns are Sun’s attempts to hire former mayor Howard Erickson as the City’s building inspec-tor and code enforcement o�cer, a job neither the council nor Montgomery believes he’s quali�ed for.
Montgomery also has �led a no-contact order against Erickson with King County District Court for verbal abuse and intimidat-ing behavior.
“We have people who the mayor has put in there who are not quali�ed, attempting to do work they know nothing about,” Montgomery said. “I guess
that kind of tells you what kind of work is being done. If (someone were to say that) citizens’ tax dollars are being carefully watched and managed, I’d have to say, ‘no, they are not.’”
Although uno�cially employed by the City, Erickson has signed o� on building inspections on its behalf, including a gas inspection that prompted the City attorney to contact Puget Sound Energy to inform them an illegal inspection may have been conducted, in order to head o� possible insurance li-ability issues.
Councilmembers also are concerned about the mayor’s attempts to hire Erickson.
Whatever hopes there were to deal with the City’s personnel woes with the mayor were postponed on Monday. Sun did not attend the City Council meeting.
In lieu of a discussion with the mayor, the council voted to advise Sun to have Erickson stop conducting inspections.
“We just need to stop the work until the entire hiring process is followed properly and he meets the quali�ca-tions of the job require-ments,” Councilmember Clint Steiger said.
�e council also mo-tioned that the mayor stop signing o� on building ap-plication permits, which he has done since taking o�ce in January.
At the council meet-ing, residents turned out in force, over�owing the room into the hallway and speaking in opposition and support of Sun. Among the many choosing to ad-dress the council was Don �omson, who said he was ready to begin a petition to recall Sun.
“I have seen, personally, intimidation, insults and one thing said and later denied (by the mayor),” �omson said. “And because of the information and the things I’ve seen, as
a concerned citizen, I want to do a recall.”
For Montgomery, who did not attend the meeting and has retained her own lawyer, this week’s lockout was the last straw.
“�e mayor has been pretty much running a dic-tatorship here and ignoring all the rules and the policies and procedures,” she said. “I’m gravely concerned about that. One of the things that’s happening is that every single structure in govern-ment in this City has been turned topsy-turvy by the current administration. If you disrupt every single body that has been in place for years, all of the policies and procedures, it’s chaos.”
Sun did not return calls for comment.
[ PACIFIC from page 1 ]lost his life but to honor the unique spirit of a blue-haired kid who �gured out early that it was more fun to be an individual and stand out than to conform.
Eighth-grader Tristan Howard was one of Denesha’s best friends.
“I could always rely on him, tell him anything,” Howard said. “Now that he’s gone, a big chunk of my life is gone.”
Howard and classmate Jaclyn Leibrant organized the memorial not only to raise money for Denesha’s family but also to cel-ebrate what made their friend unique.
“He decided to dye his hair blue because it was one of his favorite colors, though not his main one,” Howard remembers. “It made everyone think of a Smurf.”
According to Howard, the pint-sized Denesha owned his uniqueness, choosing to defuse potential static from his peers with humor rather than take it to heart.
“He decided to make a catchphrase and would always say ‘Smur�ng it out,’” Howard said.
“He was himself,” Leibrant agreed. “He
didn’t change who he was to �t in and be popular. He was proud of who he was, and he showed it. A lot of kids our age don’t real-ize that. �ey’re too afraid they just want to be what they think other people want them to be.”
Since his death, Denesha’s trademark blue and his individuality have become rallying points for Mount Baker students still struggling to come to grips with the loss of their classmate.
Leibrant’s mother, Lisa Leibrant, said that in addition to remembering Denesha, organizers will
sell T-shirts, cake pops and candles, with proceeds going towards Denesha’s family.
“You don’t have to be a close friend of the family to give a little time,” she said. “I didn’t know him, he was just a little blue-haired kid I saw walking down the street. But these are things you can do for your neighbors and community.”
Donations to the Walter Denesha memo-rial fund may be made at Columbia banks.
[ MEMORIAL from page 1 ]
Walter Denesha
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OPINION | Coal train express stirs debate [5]
REPORTER .com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013
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18A U B U R N˜ Sports | Auburn Riverside’s Ben Blanchard soars to become a state-class diver [10]
Daniel Snodgrass and a furry friend take in the festivities at the Teddy Bear Run for MultiCare Auburn Medical Center last Sunday. The South King County Chapter of Alky Angels presented the run. Riders dropped stu� ed animals into collection barrels. The stu� ed animal donations go to the hospital for distribution to patients. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter
Michelle Rylands, left, Ilalko Elementary School PTA secretary, and Lyndsay Morris, school counselor, display the “Hands of Hope” quilt that will be sent to Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Ilalko also plans to send donated copies of the book, “Good People Everywhere”, to the school. ROBERT WHALE, Reporter
LONG-DISTANCE COMPASSION
Journey Unauthorized o� ers musical escape at the Auburn AveBY SHAWN SKAGER
If you came of age in the late ’70s or early ’80s, there is a pretty good chance the soundtrack to your � rst crush, � rst dance or � rst kiss
came courtesy of the rock band Journey.
So prevalent was the band’s radio-friendly, musical mix of hard rock balladry that there was simply no escape from the tunes, whether on the radio, on MTV or at a junior high school dance.
Teddy Bear Run
[ more JOURNEY page 18 ]
Ilalko project brings comfort to Sandy HookBY ROBERT WHALE
� e massacre of 20 children and six adults on Dec. 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.,
horri� ed the nation.In the days and weeks that followed,
Ilalko Elementary School Counselor Lyndsay Morris began thinking about do-ing something for the kids in her charge.
“What can we do to keep kids safe,” Morris asked herself.
[ more ILALKO page 9 ]
BY ROBERT WHALE
� ere may be a joint American-Vietnamese war memorial one day at Veterans Memorial Park.
But to get one, veterans groups must sit down together and work things out.
It also could take some soothing of feathers ru� ed by poor communication and misunderstandings about the size and scope of one such memorial.
� e City’s Municipal Services Com-mittee on Monday heard from veteran Tom Stoddard, a freelance writer for Veteran’s A� airs, who has worked with the Vietnamese Community for 10 years to make a memorial happen.
� e idea, Stoddard said, began 10 years ago as an e� ort by a Vietnam-ese-American woman in Tumwater to place a memorial in Olympia, thanking
City, veterans groups considering American-Vietnamese war memorial
[ more MEMORIAL page 9 ]
BY SHAWN SKAGER
Paci� c residents came to Monday’s meeting of the Paci� c City Council expecting to give the council and Mayor Cy Sun an earful about low sta� ng lev-els in the police department.
But before people could vent their anger at Sun for his refusal to hire more police o� cers, he walked out, upset by the council’s decision to strike two ordinances and an appoint-ment to the city’s civil service commis-sion that he had put on the agenda.
Citing Sun’s negligence in clearing the items with it � rst, the council removed them.
Exit Sun, to catcalls from the audi-ence.
Council members stayed to hear what the people and acting head of police Lt. Edwin Massey had to say about low o� cer sta� ng and the potential risk to public safety.
“If we go back to 2010, we had 11 commissioned o� cers,” Massey told the council. “We started this year with seven
commissioned o� cers. It seems like we’re kind of going in the wrong direc-tion here. � e criminals don’t leave the city, they don’t decrease in number, and we’re down to seven o� cers.”
Today the department has four patrol o� cers, augmented by a sergeant, a lieutenant and a detective.
And with the potential loss of another
Crisis in Pacific: small police force stretched
Cy Sun
[ more PACIFIC page 2 ]
www.auburn-reporter.com[2] February 15, 2013
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o�cer looming, Massey said – he is handling administrative duties for Chief John Calkins while Calkins is on stress-related medical leave – the City is in crisis.
“We need a �x, I need o�-cers,” Massey said. “And that’s the bottom line. We need to take care of our city, and we can do it with more o�cers. If I lose another o�cer, what is the magic number? I have an o�cer that scored high with another agency. If I lose him, I’m down to six. An-other and I’m down to �ve. What is the magic number where somebody will say we’re going to hire new of-�cers for you?”
Although there is money in the budget to hire two o�cers, Sun has refused.
“�e police department sta� that we’ve got now is adequate for the city’s protection,” Sun said in an interview on Wednes-day. “�ey’re saying it’s not enough sta� mainly because the chief wants to build up a … I would use the word empire. In the past the police depart-ment was always highly sta�ed. And I promised the voters that I would cut costs without jeopardizing the services required by the City to perform. With that, I’m holding the cost
line where it is. �ey’ve budgeted the money for the police department, but that doesn’t mean that they should spend it.”
Not that he’s against hiring, Sun said, he’s just waiting for information from the police department before he will consider ap-proving the hiring.
“I’m waiting for the police department to give me a report on the shi� schedule, the uniform crime report, the closure rates, and the last time the evidence room has been audited,” Sun said. “A�er it’s complete, if I have to hire, I will.”
At Monday’s meeting Massey told the council that the e�ects of low sta�ng are already evident in increased crime and overtime costs.
“We’ve seen property crimes go up,” Massey said. “We’ve seen crimes against persons go up. And there is no real �x for that. We need more o�cers. �e morale is pretty low within the police department because our o�cers have been working long hours. I’ve been work-ing six days, but some of my o�cers have been working 10, 12 days without a break on 12-hour shi�s.”
Sun refuted the claim that the o�cers are over-worked, however, adding that he did a comparison that found they weren’t working any more overtime
than other departments in the City, including adminis-tration and public works.
“�e overtime that they claim the police o�cers are working, and that they’re over-worked, it’s not true,” Sun said. “It’s not the true picture.”
Massey told the council that overtime hours more than doubled from 2011 to 2012.
“In 2011 with 10 o�cers the overtime was 687 hours,” Massey said. “In 2012, which we ended with seven o�cers, it was 1,497 hours.”
Among residents there is genuine concern for their safety.
At the meeting an emotional Katie Garberd-ing read to the council a statement she had meant for Sun.
“It’s my belief that these o�cers are being forced to work long hours with no days o�, that they are stretched tighter than a rub-ber band,” Garberding said. “�ey’re stretched to the limits, and it’s only a matter of time before we’re at the point were something or someone is going to snap. I can’t see how a skeleton sta� can provide protection and safety to over 6,300 residents, with an average of 7,500 calls for protec-tion or service each year. It should be the mayor’s top priority to have a police force for its citizens.”
[ PACIFIC from page 1 ]
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18A U B U R N˜Sports | Coach, teacher, marathoner still goingstrong in his 60s[11]
Omar Garcia shows a trick on his skateboard during the sixth annual Battle of the Bowl at Brannan Park last Saturday. Skaters of all ages and skill levels competed for top honors in the showcase. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter
Sky rider
Auburn Riverside High School’s Ashley Harrison uses laparoscopic surgery tools to perform a “Skittlectomy” – removing the colorful candy pieces from the inside of a mannequin by watching a monitor connected to an inserted camera. The activity, under the guidance of MultiCare instructor Theresa Renico, RN, left, was one of the many hands-on exercises during MultiCare’s ninth-annual Nurse Camp. COURTESY PHOTO, Patrick Hagerty
ROBERT WHALE
� e wart-spangled, bedraggled, down-and-out tra� c median under the railroad trestle on Auburn Way
South and Highway 18 has seared many an eyeball over the years.
Monday a� ernoon, the homely median pulled strong words and a demand for action out of one grossed-out, fed-up Auburn City
Councilman. “One of the worst medians in the
whole city,” said Bill Peloza, chair-man of the Municipal
Messy medians steam City
[ more MEDIANS page 5 ]
STUDENTS GET CLOSE TO THE REAL DEAL AT NURSE CAMP BY ROCHELLE ADAMS
For the Auburn Reporter
� e drama unfolds at a high school baseball game.
A fan falls 20 feet from the stands reaching for a � y ball.
A group of 10 students in blue scrubs are responsible for aiding the patient until the ambulance arrives.
“Ready, one, two, three,” says Emma Kroll, a Kentwood High School student, guiding the pa-tient’s head while the group rolls him onto his back and prepares to examine him for cuts and
broken bones.� e scenario was part of
MultiCare Health System’s ninth annual Nurse Camp July 16-20 at Tacoma General Hospital.
� e camp started in 2004 owing to a shortage of people pursuing a career in the nursing � eld, Nurse Camp Director Liesl Santkuyl said. � e camp began with 30 students the � rst year and has grown each year since. � is year’s event had about 100 students in attendance from
[ more CAMP page 5 ]
Paci� c Police o� cers place handcu� s on Mayor Cy Sun after he tried to enter the sealed City Clerk’s o� ce at City Hall on July 19.SHAWN SKAGER, Auburn Reporter
BY SHAWN SKAGER
� e latest episode in the ongoing drama at Paci� c City Hall played out July 19 as Cy Sun’s own police force busted the controversial mayor for trying to enter the sealed City Clerk's o� ce.
Hours a� er Sun’s release, the King County Sheri� ’s depart-ment announced that it was investigating the mayor for destruction of City documents, at the request of Paci� c City Council President Leanne Guier.
Sun, 82, was arrested about noon when he tried to enter the sealed o� ce to move � le
cabinets containing City docu-ments, including personnel � les.
Acting on the advice of City Attorney Kenyon Luce, Paci� c Police Lt. Edwin Massey had taped o� the o� ce and posted a pair of o� cers at the door to keep Sun out.
Mayor arrested, released; probe ensues
[ more MAYOR page 4 ]
more photos online…auburn-reporter.com
www.auburn-reporter.com[4] July 27, 2012
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ROBERT WHALE
Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 25-year-old Bonney Lake man with vehicular assault for alleg-edly striking and criti-cally injuring an Auburn woman July 19 as she stood alongside her car at 901 1st NE, near her home.
Samuel Cruz will be ar-raigned Aug. 6.
As of Tuesday a�er-noon, the victim, Stacey Ankerfelt, 28, is making progress in her recovery.
According to police, shortly before 6 p.m. that day, Ankerfelt, 28, had
walked around to the street side of her car when Cruz, southbound on J Street Southeast, struck her, then continued into a car parked in front of her vehicle.
Witnesses said the impact threw Ankerfelt at least 30 feet. Accord-ing to the Valley Regional Fire Authority, �re�ghters found her on the road, unconscious and with life-threatening injuries.
Medics rushed her to Harborview Medical Cen-ter in Seattle with multiple skull fractures, a cerebral hemorrhage and broken ribs.
Ankerfelt teaches ��h grade at Kent's Scenic Hill Elementary School.
Cruz, police say, stopped and waited for police, �re, and medics to arrive. Police arrested him.
Investigators who spoke to Cruz noticed that he seemed to be under the in-�uence of drugs or alcohol because he was struggling to walk and keep his bal-ance when they took him to hospital for a manda-tory blood draw.
According to police, Cruz told investigators he takes a drug called Subox-one for opiate dependency.
Man charged with vehicular assault
“We just can’t let anyone get in there right now,” Massey said before the ar-rest. “�ere is an ongoing investigation.”
Before his arrest, Sun declared that the �les were crucial to the operation of the City.
“He’s following the at-torney’s orders,” Sun said. “He’s not following mine. I’m supposed to be the boss. All of the �les are in there, locked up. We can’t move without them. �e City is at a standstill right now.”
Sun, aided by a lock-smith and several public works employees with hand trucks, tried to get into the o�ce. A�er tearing o� the police tape, Sun was handcu�ed and transported to the Paci�c Public Safety building, where he was
placed in a holding cell.A�er about 45 minutes
Sun was released without being charged. He was also given an email from Luce explaining the decision to seal the o�ce.
“I want to make you aware that I have instructed the police department to ensure the personnel records of the City are pro-tected from loss or destruc-tion,” Luce wrote. “I made this decision because there is an ongoing investigation, and there have been recent incidents of destruction of City records...”
�e email added that, should Sun require �les from the sealed o�ce, “a copy will be made and it will be provided to you. Please direct your request to the police department.”
A�er his release Sun
explained his actions at a news conference at City Hall. He said he had been trying to obtain “necessary �les to run the City,” in-cluding those detailing job descriptions, possibly to �ll vacancies as he reorganizes Paci�c’s government.
Later July 19, King County Sheri� Steven Strachan con�rmed that his department was investigat-ing the mayor.
“I was reached by phone by the Paci�c Council Pres-ident Leanne Guier, who asked if she could request the King County Sher-i� ’s o�ce could become involved in an investigation of criminal wrongdoing involving members of the City of Paci�c,” Strachan said.more story online…auburn-reporter.com
[ MAYOR from page 1 ]
BY ROBERT WHALE
Marcus Frounfelter was arraigned July 19 and pleaded not guilty to a charge of second degree murder for the stabbing death of 23-year-old Roger Roberts of Auburn on July 2.
Frounfelter, 24, of Seattle is scheduled for a case set-ting hearing on Tuesday, July 31 at the King County Courthouse. Frounfelter allegedly stabbed Rob-erts as the Auburn man tried break up a �ght in which Frounfelter was not involved.
According to the Auburn police a�davit of probable cause, which forms the basis of the single charge, Roberts had intervened to break up a �ght between a man and woman and was preparing to return to a friend’s house across the street when Frounfelter allegedly stabbed the un-armed Roberts in the chest. �e King County Medical Examiner reported Roberts died of a single stab wound to the heart.
Frounfelter later told police that he had come outside because he had seen his youngest child in the street among the �ghting adults. According to witnesses cited in the a�davit, however, none of Frounfelter’s children were outside at that time.
According to the a�da-vit, the series of events that led to Roberts death started
with a verbal argument between Frounfelter’s aunt and her live-in boyfriend in their home at 909 6th St. SE. When the �ght became violent it spilled into the front yard and onto the street in front of their house.
A group of friends in a house across the street, including Roberts, were enjoying a get together when they heard the noise and ran out to break up the �ght. According to court records, a man who lives in that house held the male side of the �ghting couple down to make sure he wouldn’t hit anybody, while another man restrained the woman and one of her female acquaintances.
According to the af-�davit, witnesses told police that the �ghters had calmed down and the neighbors were walking home when Frounfelter emerged from the house. Just as the neighbor across the street reached his front yard, he turned back to urge his friends, including Rob-erts, to return with him. Instead, he saw Roberts stumbling into the street.
According to the a�da-vit, the man thought at �rst that Roberts was having a heart attack, which would have been consistent with previous medical problems, he said, but he soon real-ized that Roberts had been stabbed. �e man told po-lice that he tried to stop the bleeding. He said he hadn’t seen the actual stabbing.
According to the af-�davit, a female witness told police that a�er the �ght was broken up she turned and saw Roberts ly-ing in the street. When she realized he’d been stabbed, she turned to Frounfelter, whom she knew carried a knife.
According to the a�da-vit, the woman approached Frounfelter “who had wide eyes, and asked him, ‘what did you do?’ (She) stated that Frounfelter did not respond but looked down at his hands.”
Within minutes of receiv-ing the 911 call, police caught up with Frounfelter in a car with several occu-pants inside several blocks away, a bloody folding knife still in his pocket, accord-ing to the a�davit. Asked if he had stabbed anybody, according to the a�davit, Frounfelter allegedly admit-ted to police that he had “but didn’t know who he stabbed.” According to the a�davit, he admitted also that the knife on his person was the one he had used to stab his victim.
According to the af-�davit, Frounfelter allegedly admitted to detectives that he had about �ve to six beers and a couple of hits of marijuana before the �ght. He told detectives that he su�ers from brain trauma, has undergone some 19 surgeries to correct the problem and has su�ered a series of strokes.
Seattle man pleads not guilty in stabbing death of Auburn victim
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18A U B U R N˜ Sports | Auburn/Kent Little League all-star softball squads still alive in state championship tournaments [10]
Olympian Ariana Kukors pauses before speaking to the crowd at the Auburn Performing Arts Center last Friday. ‘Thank you so much for all your support,’ the London-bound Kukors told family, friends and supports at her sendo� . MARK KLAAS, Reporter
OLYMPIC DREAMS REALIZEDBY MARK KLAAS
A humbled, grateful Ariana Kukors stepped to the podium last Friday night.
Auburn’s celebrated Olympian hopes to step onto a di� erent podium in less than three weeks when she competes for gold at the London Summer Games.
“De� nitely, a medal … a medal, for sure,” Kukors said of her objective for the July 27-Aug. 12 Olympics in England. “I want to do well. I de� nitely can make improvements. I’m just so excited to be going.”
Proud Auburn community celebrates, sends Kukors o� to London Games
[ more KUKORS page 6 ]
BY ROBERT WHALE
� e Valley Regional Fire Au-thority and other � re agencies throughout the greater Puget Sound Region know a lot about beating back � ames and saving lives.
But a recent uptick in the number of the� s of outside brass hose connections has cre-ated a new type of emergency that � re� ghters are hard pressed to handle.
More important, the absence of these connections, which support � re protection systems like standpipes and � re sprin-klers inside buildings, can kill.
To date in 2012, thieves have walked away with a total of 37 individual � re department con-nections (FDCs), compromising at least 34 � re suppression sys-
tems in the VRFA-service area.While a handful were the single
connection model, most were
VRFA: Thefts of fire life-safety equipment up
Man charged with murder in stabbing deathBY ROBERT WHALE
� e King County Prosecutor � led a charge of second-degree murder against an Auburn
man on July 5, accusing him of stabbing another man to death in Auburn during the early morning hours of July 2.
Marcus Frounfelter, 24, will be arraigned at 9 a.m. July 19 in courtroom GA at the Norm
Outside brass hose connections are a vital piece of � re safety equipment, and unfortunately, a prize for thieves. COURTESY PHOTO
[ more THEFTS page 4 ]
Cy Sun
Pacific mayor ready to take on recall
[ more STABBING page 4 ]
BY SHAWN SKAGER
It was billed as an opportunity for representatives from the Teamster’s Local 117 union and Mayor Cy Sun
to clear away the City of Paci� c’s logjam of building permits and � nd a temporary � x for the community’s vacant building inspector union position.
But Tuesday’s open meeting at City Hall also provided a chance for Pacif-ic residents to watch their controver-sial mayor in action, to what makes him tick, motivation and to weigh in
with appraisals of his performance.For Jack French – a longtime resi-
dent and former Paci� c councilman – and Rachel Kringle – a recent [ more SUN page 3 ]
www.auburn-reporter.com [3]July 13, 2012
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transplant and commu-nity activist who authors the Taking Back Pacific blog – the opportunity was eye-opening.
“People have the feeling that you aren’t hearing them,” French told Sun after being invited to speak during the meeting. “You need to slow down, and you need to listen to people. The coun-cil has the same ideas, too. They’re against you because you want to run the whole show by your own way. Cy Sun’s way. It’s either my way or the highway, that’s what I’m getting out of this.”
Despite his contentious approach to negotia-tions, Sun did manage to get approval from the union to allow the City to temporarily use Sound Inspections to issue and approve building permits (contingent on approval of the City Council, which has to OK any payments made to Sound) until a permanent solution can be found.
Sun also cleared out several pending construc-tion permits that were languishing in the permit-ting office.
But mostly, the meet-ing was about the mayor’s management style and the motivation behind his confrontational relation-ship with the City Coun-cil, none of whom were in
attendance.“(When I started)
nobody came up from the council and said you’re the new mayor, congratula-tions,” Sun said. “I just sat there, my wife and I. Then my wife started elbowing me and said, ‘They’re talk-ing about you.’”
According to Sun, his first interaction with the council focused on controversy surrounding his military record and set the tone for his future relationship with the councilmembers.
“I heard Gary Hulsey say to me (at that first meeting), ‘Tomorrow at 8 o’clock you will report to my house and present your credentials and your medals,’” he said. “And this is a councilmember talking. He said, ‘If you’re not there, I’ll have the FBI arrest you.’
“This is the kind of greeting I got from the council on my first day,” Sun continued. “I sat there and got all the sneers, the bad looks, and the humili-ation was almost unbear-able.”
When Kringle sug-gested in the meeting that a mediator might help to smooth over relations between him and the council, Sun was swift to respond with a challenge.
“I tell you what, why don’t you people get together and conduct a recall on me?” Sun said. “I’d be glad to accept it. I
want you to get together and start the recall on me. That will solve all the problems. That way I can just go away. Let’s do that. That’s my decision. Have a recall on me. I’m waiting for a recall. And I’m wait-ing to quit and go home on a recall.
“I want to leave all this, and I’ll tell you why,” Sun said. “Every time I get a phone call from my kids (in Oregon) they ask. ‘Dad, what the hell are you doing up there? Get the hell out of there.’ My grandson called me after the meeting last night (Monday) and asked why I didn’t come home because they’re skinning me alive. But I can’t come home unless they recall me.”
When asked why he continued to act as mayor, despite wanting to leave, Sun’s answer was simple.
“Because the people voted me in, and I want the people to vote me out,” Sun concluded.
[ SUN from page 1 ]
BY SHAWN SKAGER
�e City of Paci�c has until the end of the year to get its house in order or risk losing its insurance.
On July 2 Paci�c Mayor Cy Sun received a letter from Wes Crago, chair-man of the Cities Insurance Association of Washington, informing him that Paci�c’s membership in the asso-ciation would be cancelled e�ective Dec. 31. Along with its membership in the association, the city was also informed that it would be dropped by insurance car-rier Can�eld.
According to Paci�c Councilman Gary Hulsey, the loss of insurance would be disastrous for the City.
“If we lose our insurance it will take us a while to get another,” he said. “�at would mean that no o�cial City vehicles or machinery would be able to operate. You need insurance to have them on the road. And
each employee and o�cial would be personally liable for anything that went wrong. E�ectively, we’d have to shut the City down. If I were a City employee, and we didn’t have insurance, I wouldn’t show up for work.”
According to Crago’s letter, the cancellation is in response to the city’s “failure to employ quali�ed person-nel” in positions that could expose the City to litigation.
Currently the City is without several key depart-ment heads, including: the city clerk and personnel director; the police chief; the community services di-rector; the public works and community development director; the City engineer and the building inspec-tor and code enforcement o�cer.
Can�eld declined to comment on the speci�cs of it’s concerns, but Council-man Tren Walker said he believed the lack of a public works director and City en-gineer was one of the main
reasons for the insurance carrier’s concern.
“�ere is nobody in those positions, they’ve been gone the longest,” he said. “And we have two major road projects in the works. Luck-ily Sumner has taken the lead on the Valentine Road project, but there is still the Stewart Road construction.”
One option the City is exploring to satisfy Can�eld is using an interlocal agree-ment with Auburn to pro-vide vital city services, such as building inspections.
According to Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis, he met with Sun to discuss the pos-sibility of providing services to Paci�c.
“We talked about the pos-sibilities,” Lewis said. “We already provide services to other cities around us, and they provide services to us.”
“It’s what we all do,” he said. “We talked about a number of things, but I told him that their attor-ney needs to talk to our attorney.”
Whatever remedies Paci�c takes, they’ll have to come quick, according to Crago’s letter.
“�e CIAW Board of Directors, through its administrator Can�eld, is willing to reconsider this ac-tion, but we will need to see swi�, concrete and veri�-able deeds to bring a more stable and professional environment to the City of Paci�c.”
ALSO: �e Paci�c City Council took action Monday to ensure it will continue to have legal representation by passing an ordinance wresting control of the hiring and �ring of the City attorney from the mayor.
Ordinance 12-1826 repealed the chapter in the Paci�c Municipal Code that put the power of hiring and �ring the City attorney and
City prosecutor in the hands of the mayor. �e ordinance switched the positions to contract employee posi-tions, which would require a vote by the council to hire or �re the City attorney and prosecutor.
City attorney Kenyon Luce will continue to serve as the City’s attorney, negat-ing a 30-day termination notice he had received from Sun last month.
Pacific’s insurance will be cancelled if changes are not made by year’s end
CorrectionAn recent article on
the Valley Regional Fire Authority's �re bene�t charge misstated the cu-mulative increase in taxes between 2008 and 2012. It should have read $5.57 a year on a residential homeowner.
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18A U B U R N˜ Sports | Amputee athlete goes the distance as late-blooming runner, triathlete[15]
Second-grader Jaysovann Man leads Natalie Potter in a crawl under a net during the Dick Scobee Elementary Relay Recess, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Students went through an obstacle course on the school’s large � eld. The recess ran in the spirt of � eld day and Auburn’s Relay For Life. More details, photos, page 5. MARK KLAAS, Auburn Reporter
On a mission
BY ROBERT WHALE
For 27 years the remains, the 16th set tied to Green River Killer Gary Ridgway, were known to the King County Sheri� ’s O� ce as “Bones 16.”
But on Monday King County Sheri� ’s Cold Case Detectives an-nounced they had positively identi-� ed the bones as those of 20-year-old Sandra Denise Major.
� e remains were found close to
Mountain View Cemetery in Auburn on Dec. 30, 1985, near those of mur-der victim Kimi Pitsor and another still unidenti� ed Green River victim.
DNA samples obtained from family
Green River Killer victim ID’d
[ more VICTIM page 6 ]
WALTER LEAVES MEMORIES, MESSAGE
Family, friends came out to honor the life of 13-year-oldWalter Denesha with a community candlelight vigil.SHAWN SKAGER, Auburn Reporter
BY ROBERT WHALE
Getting people up and working again in a down economy remains King County's top priority.
Such was King County Executive
Dow Constantine's message to the Auburn-Area Chamber of Commerce Luncheon on Monday at Emerald Downs.
Now there is a bright spot, Constan-tine said, because things in the Seattle
Metropolitan area, which includes Au-burn and Kent, are starting to perk up.
Quoting numbers compiled by the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, Constantine said that the three-county metropolitan area in 2011 showed the
ninth-highest job gains of the 100th largest metropolitan areas in the na-tion. Collectively, Dow said, the largest metropolitan areas in the nation added about one million jobs last year.
Constantine: Things looking up in a down economy
Constantine [ more CONSTANTINE page 4 ]
Paci� c community gathers to honor slain teenagerBY SHAWN SKAGER
Friends, schoolmates and acquaintances gathered at Paci� c Park last Friday to honor the memory of slain Mt. Baker Middle School seventh-grader Walter Denesha.
Dozens gathered to hon-or the Paci� c teenager who, according to police, was stabbed to death in his bed by his sister’s ex-boyfriend, Brandon Suhr.
Suhr, 19, pleaded not
guilty to the murder at his arraignment at the King County Courthouse in Seattle on Wednesday.
Last week’s vigil – orga-nized by Mt. Baker eighth-graders Jaclyn Leibrant and Tristan Howard – celebrat-ed Denesha’s uniqueness and the impact he had on his classmates.
“� e topic of the night was actions speak louder than words,” Leibrant said. “People are saying that Wal-ter stood up for those who were being bullied. � ose people who were bullying him were saying, ‘I’m going to stop this, I’m not going
[ more DENESHA page 4 ]
www.auburn-reporter.com[4] June 22, 2012
to bully anymore.’ But so far, none of us has seen that hap-pen. So those are just words.
“I think, for anything to come out of this, we need to see those actions.”
Leibrant continued:“� e one comment that
keeps coming up is that Wal-ter was there to stand up for other people, but who was there for Walter?”
Leibrant hopes the event starts a “chain reaction” of anti-bullying action.
Candles were lit and posters displayed in tribute to Denesha, a 13-year-old boy who had a penchant for standing out by dying his hair blue. Classmates performed music and spoke about how he had dared to be di� erent.
� e candlelight memorial also served as a fundraiser with T-shirt and candle sales bene� tting the Walter Dene-sha Memorial Fund.
Leibrant and the Mt. Baker community also have con-tributed money for Denesha’s family by hosting “Walter Wednesdays” at the school.
“It’s where you can wear a cap for a dollar,” she said. “We made about $1,000 do-ing ‘Walter Wednesdays’ in one day.”
Proceeds raised went to the fund set up by the White River Valley Lions at local Columbia Banks. Donations continue to be made at the banks.
Sarah Samuelson, a Lakeland Hills Elementary teacher, was one of several adults who turned out.
“Like a lot of people, I’m here because I wanted to hear from them (the stu-dents) and see if they’re OK,” she said.
Although Samuelson didn’t know Denesha per-sonally, she said her daughter was a teacher’s assistant in his seventh-grade class at Mt. Baker.
“We’re here to support what they’re doing and help them process their grief,” Samuelson added.
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Sarah Samuelson, a Lakeland Hills Elementary teacher, signs a poster for Walter Denesha’s family at Paci� c Park last Friday.SHAWN SKAGER, Auburn Reporter
[ DENESHA from page 1 ]
Constantine cited a recent study of 366 metropolitan areas throughout the nation that gave the Seattle met-ropolitan area a third-place ranking as the strongest local economy based on sustained growth over the past 20 years.
� e Puget Sound region, Constantine said, has led the revival, especially in the manufacturing sector.
Indeed, he said, over the past year this region has led the nation in manufactur-ing job creation, showing an increase of 7.3 percent, or 12,600 jobs.
Accounting for “fully half of that growth,” Constantine said, was the manufactur-ing sector, led by the Boeing company.
Constantine praised the King County Aerospace Alliance, a broad-based partnership of local jurisdic-tions, chambers of com-merce, the Port of Seattle, local economic development groups and educational insti-tutions like school districts and universities, for working to expand and prosper the aerospace industry in the Puget Sound Region.
“Here in King County … we’ve been able to main-tain the kind of access to a middle-class future that has really been the foundation of the American dream,”
Constantine said.Constantine said that one
of his goals is to make access to higher education a prior-ity, so that when the Boeing Company or Microso� look for people to � ll high-paying jobs, they’ll � nd them locally.
� e state of Washington, Constantine said, is creating 850 new slots for engineer-ing students at the Univer-sity of Washington and at Washington State University. � e King County Work-force Development Council has awarded $900,000 to community and technical colleges to provide cer-ti� cated training for speci� c skills needed by the Boeing Company and aerospace suppliers.
Constantine noted that he and King County Coun-cilmember Bob Ferguson have proposed to put about $2 million from the Veterans and Community Services levy into a new aerospace and veterans employment training initiative.
“It’s a two-year program from Workforce Renton that helps veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan transfer the skills they have learned in the military into good-paying jobs in the aerospace industry,” Con-stantine said.
Constantine praised the City of Auburn’s new In-novation Partnership Zone designation, which puts
research, workforce training and private sector participa-tion in close proximity to promote collaboration, which can lead to new technologies, products and companies.
A woman from the audi-ence asked Constantine to assess the impact on the Port of Seattle of bringing an 18,000-seat capacity basketball stadium into Se-attle’s SODO district, where stadiums already exist.
“� e transportation impacts would be mostly a� er the time the Port of Seattle is closed at 4:30 p.m.,” Constantine said. “Most of the games there would in the evening. � ere are chal-lenges today, and they have not been properly addressed. One is freight getting to and from the Port. � e second is the more di� use problem of warehousing and manufac-turing businesses trying to move their goods around, and then commuters coming through…
“� e new arena would marginally worsen those problems but would not be the di� erence between night and day. What we need to do is to address the challenges we have now, and by so do-ing we would address issues attached to having a new basketball arena,” Constan-tine said.
Suhr pleads not guilty to murder chargesAlgona teen Brandon Suhr pleaded not guilty in a King County courtroom on Wednesday to the � rst-degree murder of Walter Denesha. Suhr, 19, is alleged to have broken into a Paci� c apart-ment on May 31 and killed the 13-year-old Mt. Baker Middle School seventh-grader with a sword.
Suhr reportedly hid Dene-sha’s body in a closet before forcing the boy’s 16-year-old sister to write a note claim-ing responsiblity for the death and threatening to kill the rest of her family if she didn’t accompany him.Investigators say Suhr was upset by the breakup of his and the girl’s relationship.The trial is scheduled to start on July 16 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle.Suhr is being held on $2 million bail.more story online…
auburn-reporter.com
[ CONSTANTINE from page 1 ]
BY ROBERT WHALE
A Des Moines man accused of killing one of his friends last January because he thought the man was a child molester goes to trial Nov. 13, 2012 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent for � rst-degree murder.
Prosecutors will argue that Denzil Rick Moore, 45, shot and killed � omas Humphries, 55, in Des Moines then disposed of his body on the lawn of a vacant home in Auburn.
Prosecutors have also
charged Glae Matthew Ro-land, 34, Des Moines, with rendering � rst-degree criminal assistance for allegedly helping Moore to dispose of Humphries bullet-riddled body and conceal evidence.
Ian Goodhew, a spokes-man for the King County Prosecutors O� ce, said the cases are joined under the same cause number “so unless the defendants’ attorneys move for sever-ance, they will be tried together.”
Both men have pleaded not guilty and are in King County Jail.
A check of records
revealed that Humphries had never been arrested for or charged with any sex crimes in Washington State and was never listed on King County’s sex of-fender registry.
Auburn police got a break when they learned that the King County Sheri� ’s O� ce had been talking to Glae Roland, who told them he had been in the vehicle when Humphries was shot. Roland also described the weapon as a .22-caliber handgun, which matched the bullets the medical ex-aminer had removed from Humphries’ body.
Trial date set for men suspected of killing friend
