7:30 Opening Greeting — President Phil reminded the BBRC Membership that this Labor Day Weekend is the “Unofficial End of Summer” and the start of the fall season. This weekend is also the opening of the college football season followed by the beginning the school year.

7:31 Invocation & Pledge

Bill Rambo, in his Labor Day Invocation, honored past BBRC members, the veterans of foreign wars, the work ethic of the American workforce, and all parents who are getting their children ready for the start of the school year.

7:34 Introduction of Visiting Rotarians & Guests

Tom Smith introduced several visiting Rotarians and guests including Scott Harrison of Seattle 4, Michael Fredrickson and Phil Petroski of the Bellevue Rotary Club, and former BBRC Member Wallace Mahoney, who dropped in from Long Island.

7:39 Classification Talk — Chris Rasmussen

Chris Rasmussen is a graduate from the School of Business at Western Washington University. His first job was in Sacramento in financial planning with his uncle. After of couple of years of apprenticing with a highly successful company, he returned home to start his own business. Of course his first clients were his parents. After building his financial planning business, Chris was married three years ago. His wife is a 1st grade teacher who has been very busy this month getting ready for the start of the school year. Chris is excited to be a member of the BBRC and so proud of and excited with his new club that he is now driving from the Rasmussen’s new home in Maple Valley to attend BBRC Friday Morning meetings in Bellevue. (When Chris joined he was living in Issaquah.) President Phil awarded Chris his Blue Badge upon the completion of his classification talk.

7:44 Upgrade to Blue Badges — Chris Rasmussen, Corr Pearce, Tim Johnstone

7:46 Auction — “Out of Africa”

Curtis Cummings and Steve Lingenbrink exhibited the five of the 14 wood carvings they brought back from Kenya Africa. They spoke briefly about their delivery of 150 desks to five schools, the digging of two latrines, training of teachers and children in the America’s Foundation for Chess’ First Move Program’s chessboards and curriculum. Curtis called everyone’s attention to the artworks they are auctioning off. Steve showed a PowerPoint presentation that was of National Geographic quality and style and featured photographs of rhinos, lions, tigers, wilder beasts, wild boars, elephants, giraffes, zebras, leopards, and the many other animals they saw during their visit and safari. (This presentation was a sneak preview of their program that is planned for later this month along with the auction.)

7:50 Announcements — President Elect Jenny Andrews, reminded everyone of the New Member Meeting at Jitters on 4th of September, this coming Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. The Board of Directors meeting will be at the Glendale Golf and Country Club on Tuesday, September 11th.

Rotary First Harvest will be seeking volunteers for the second Saturday, September 8th. Volunteers are also wanted for the 13th and 27th of October. October 13th is the 25th Anniversary of Rotary First Harvest.

8:00 — Speaker: Washington State State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste

Ernie Hayden introduced Washington State’s 21st State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. Governor Christine Gregoire appointed Chief Batiste on February 14, 2005, to the largest public safety, law enforcement agency in the state.

The Washington State Patrol is a statewide general authority Washington law enforcement agency employing over 2,300 (1,150 sworn and 1,150 professional support staff) personnel with a biennial budget of $369 million. Chief Batiste oversees the day-to-day management of the agency’s six bureaus: Field Operations Bureau, Fire Protection Bureau (State Fire Marshal), Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau (statewide Crime Lab), Investigative Services Bureau, Management Services Bureau, and Technical Services Bureau.

He began his career with the Washington State Patrol in March 1976. He was promoted through the ranks of Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, and Deputy Chief. Chief Batiste retired from the Washington State Patrol in April 2002, with over 26 years of service. He has been the Deputy Chief of the Tacoma Police Department, and was recently the Assistant Chief of the Port of Seattle Police Department.

His first assignment was in the Bellevue area in 1976. He also served this area as its State Patrol Captain in 1991-93. Chief Batiste has a big leadership role. He is the head of both the state patrol and the fire marshal’s offices. The state patrol also has major homeland security, emergency preparedness, and ferry safety and security responsibilities. The chief and the Patrol operate two training academies, a K-9 core, seven forensic laboratories, and a staff of 1000 commissioned and 1000 non-commissioned employees.

1921 Patrol Established

June 8, 1921, was the date legislation authorized the appointment of highway police with the power of peace officers. The first six patrolmen were commissioned September 1, 1921. The initial force were motorcycle patrolmen and the 6 patrolmen were responsible for the entire state. The original issue was a badge, cap emblem, and a gun. It wasn't until 1924 that every patrolman became uniformed.

In 1933, the Legislature acknowledged the need for a police organization that was mobile and could be concentrated immediately at any place in the state where the public safety was endangered. The Highway Patrol Division officially became known as the Washington State Patrol, which had been given full police powers. The first radio was installed on a motorcycle in the Vancouver area in 1933. While radio communications had a future with the patrol, motorcycles were on their way out by 1933. Light, fast automobiles of the panel delivery type, which could be used as a combination patrol car, mobile jail, and ambulance, were proving much more versatile for all-weather work than the motorcycle.

The Uniform

The uniform has been designed and redesigned, but one apparel feature was introduced in 1937 that remains to this day — the bow tie, unique in law enforcement. Originally red, the bow tie was changed to black after a couple of years and has remained a fashion constant as the WSP uniform evolved to its present crisp blue shirt with dark blue pocket flaps, French blue pants striped with dark blue, and royal blue campaign hat.

The Crime Labs

The TV Program CSI has created great interest and support for the state’s seven crime labs. The Crime Laboratory Division is one of two major divisions under the Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau (FLSB) of the Washington State Patrol. The division operates four full-service crime laboratories in Seattle, Tacoma, Marysville, Spokane, and three limited-service crime laboratories in Kelso, Kennewick, and Tumwater. 
All of our laboratories are accredited through the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD) and provide quality forensic services for criminal justice agencies within the state of Washington.

The governor and legislature has just added 20 new personnel to the
Crime Lab and turn around can now meet the 60-day required time period.

Driver Safety

Chief Batiste said, “Our target for 2030 is ZERO FATALITIES.” We have a long way to go as 632 citizens died in auto accidents in 2006, down from 1000 in the previous year. “About 40% of collisions involve driver impairment. And there were 12,500 DUI arrests in 2006."

To improve driver safety the patrol has four goals:

1. Improve and change Driver Behavior
2. Enforce Traffic Safety Laws
3. Improve highway design and vehicle safety design
4. Improve Emergency Medical Care

New laws for 2007 and 2008 to improve driver safety in Washington State include: the new “hands free” cellular phone law; the felony DUI law (5 DUIs in 7-years); child booster seats regulations, and the seatbelt “Click it or Ticket” advertising campaign.

All states are developing long range strategic plans. In Washington, our plan is identified by the name: Target Zero. That is an achievable strategy to reduce highway deaths in Washington to zero by the year 2030. The trend is already downward. If we changed nothing, we would expect to hit zero fatalities in 2077. The goal of Target Zero is to simply move that date up to 2030.

Following a rigorous selection process, trooper cadets attend a 26-week basic training course. The Academy is known for unique types of training. One is water safety, where a motor vehicle is submerged into a training tank and used in underwater rescue exercises. Another is the 2.7-mile emergency vehicle drive course, one of the finest in the country. Nationally recognized, the course stays in almost constant use.

In addition to trooper basic, the Academy supports training in communications, firearms, commercial vehicle enforcement, first aid, basic supervision, management, and other fields related to law enforcement. Collision investigation is one of the most notable courses offered at the Academy.

State Fire Marshall’s Office Supervised by Chief

The State Fire Marshal's Office joined the State Patrol when the Legislature transferred the Fire Protection Services to the Patrol in July 1995.

In the spring of 1996, commercial vehicle enforcement officers (CVEOs) began special training, which included firearms. CVEOs are being armed for the first time in more than 20 years, when the last of the troopers assigned to weight control returned to traffic duty.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal, Fire Protection Bureau, provides services to fire districts, government agencies, members of the media, and the general public. These services include fire incident reporting and data collection; fire code review and adoption; construction plan review for fire sprinkler and alarm systems; and fire inspections of high risk occupancies housing elderly and vulnerable populations. In addition, our bureau regulates the fireworks and sprinkler industry through a licensing program.

Chief Batiste is also responsible for a second academy, the State Fire Training Academy (North Bend, WA). The Fire Training Academy provides high-risk fire training to fire departments and fire protection districts; a Certification Program through a standards and accreditation process; and training in the coordination of fire service resources for mobilization during natural or human-caused disasters. Hazardous materials training, fire and life safety prevention education, and public information services are also fire protection responsibilities.

Question and Answers

Q: Why 5 DUIs to get a felony?

A: Cost of imprisoning people. The Department of Corrections is already short of 1000 employees.

Q: What are the greatest impairments other than alcohol?

A: Cell phones, text messaging, distractions ... the text messaging law goes into effect January 1, 2008, and the “hands free” phone law goes into effect July 1, 2008. However, remember, regarding drinking and driving, that the designated driver is not someone that drinks less than you.

Web Fun

Bible Stories
Courtesy of Phil Salvatori

The following Bible stories were apparently written by real students and are genuine, authentic and unretouched. Richard Lederer assembled them; they appeared in National Review magazine on 1995-DEC-31.