New job has Mathers calling Kentucky home

Long-time Cheney couple picks up stakes for new position with law enforcement support agency

By BECKY THOMAS

Staff Reporter

After living most of their lives in Cheney, Dave and Annette Mather will leave the city at the end of this month.

Both Mathers have made contributions to city government, Annette through her City Council position and Dave through three decades with the Cheney Police Department.

They plan to move to Somerset, Ky., where Dave Mather will work as executive director of the Small, Rural, Tribal, Border and Regional Center. The SRTBRC supports small law enforcement agencies through new technology testing, research and advocacy. Mather said he's excited about the opportunity despite his new title being a bit of a mouthful.

“I joked in the interview that I should get points for remembering the entire name,” he said. “If we could find a good acronym that really captured what it is, that people could actually remember, I would love to see that change.”

Mather, a lieutenant with CPD, said he had not been actively looking for a change, but heard about the job from Cheney Police Chief Jeff Sale, who is actively involved in SRTBRC and led the group's annual conference last year. Sale told Mather that he had better qualifications than many of the applicants for the executive director position.

“I made a joke, like, ‘Well, sign me up,'” Mather said. He then decided to apply late last year, and after initial interviews Mather was the final candidate for the position and the couple visited the center's headquarters in Somerset.

He was offered the job, but they didn't decide whether or not to make the move until the end of their trip.

“We didn't make a decision until Friday morning when we were getting ready to climb back on an airplane to come home,” he said. “Literally we were sitting at the gate when we decided that I would accept their offer.”

Mather said he hopes to influence law enforcement on a larger scale and through a longer time span with the new job than he could have remaining in commissioned policing, but he admitted that it would be difficult to transition from direct interaction with the community to an executive role.

In his office at CPD, Mather has a bulletin board full of photos and notes from people he came in contact with over the years. There are thank you notes, children's drawings and many snapshots. He points to one of an older man with a child in his lap, a grandfather who would never have met his grandson if Mather and other officers hadn't responded when the man suffered a massive heart attack.

“That kind of thing is a reminder of why I signed up to do this,” he said.

Mather started working for the Cheney Police Department in 1988 when he came to college at EWU. He participated in a city program in which students worked dispatch in exchange for city-paid college tuition. Aside from two years in the Army, Mather has been a member of the department ever since.

“I've always appreciated the way this city has treated me and my family and the style of law enforcement here compared to other places,” he said. “It's been a good fit for my personality so I never left.”

While Dave Mather prepares for his new position, Annette Mather is preparing for the transition as well. A commissioned officer at Spokane Falls Community College, she also has served as a Cheney City Councilwoman since 2007.

The couple was honored at a reception in City Hall Wednesday. The city of Cheney has begun the search for new people to fill the Mathers' roles in the community.

Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].