Back in 1988 I got a speeding ticket at Leary Way and 41st NW. I'd stopped at the original Redhook Brewery on the way to work to return a keg and tap from the house-warming party. I made a southbound left onto Leary Way, underestimating the speed of traffic and had to shift fast on the Chevy Chevette. Moments later I was parked just off of Leary eating dry granola while a very pleasant motorcycle cop wrote me a speeding ticket.

Last week I called the Mayor of Goldendale, Wash., to discuss my speeding ticket, among other items. His voicemail said, "you've reached Mark the Mayor," and the callback came in as City of Goldendale.

Every year the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sponsors the Jefferson Awards for outstanding contributions in public service. Of the 75 nominees, one name in this year's list caught my eye - Mark Sigfrinius. The nomination read, "A Seattle Police Department officer wounded in the line of duty, Sigfrinius now uses a wheelchair. However, he is the mayor of Goldendale and is active in many things."

It was May 15, 1989, mid-morning on the Monday after Mother's Day. Officer Mark Sigfrinius noticed a car traveling over the speed limit with expired New Mexico plates. He pulled over the car at Leary Way and 41st NW; the stop seemed routine until he returned to the car with his ticket book. That's when the driver shot him; the .38 caliber bullet is still in his spine. According to newspaper reports, Sigfrinius managed to draw his weapon to fire at the suspect's car and gave instructions to those arriving on how to call for help.

That shooting has stayed with me - haunted by a motorcycle cop gunned down at the exact location of my traffic stop. But when I called Mark Sigfrinius, now the mayor of Goldendale, I couldn't bring myself to ask directly about the shooting. We circled it like a traffic island instead of a red-green light. I told him I lived in Ballard and had noticed his nomination for a Jefferson Award.

"I don't know who did that," he said. Then we concluded he must not have made the top five because they hadn't offered to pay for his lunch at the award ceremony, "do you know what they're charging?" he asked. "Forty-five dollars for a little piece of chicken."

I told him I'd been stopped on Leary and that his shooting had made me realize the potential danger for an officer with every single traffic stop they make.

"Any stop could be deadly," he said cheerfully, "and it's worse now. Fortunately we're too close to Portland to get the Seattle news, but it's worse today. Society isn't getting any better."

He told me that Goldendale doesn't even have a red-green traffic light, just three blinkers but even there they have to have an emergency plan for the possible violence in their schools. "It's not just big schools," he said. "Look what happened at the Amish School."

He described Goldendale as being the kind of place where three cars waiting is a traffic jam; it's an election year for him. He was a Seattle Police Cadet in college who reported for duty at age twenty-one, even though he had to ask for directions to the North Precinct. He worked mostly in the North Precinct for over twenty years, until after the shooting. Then he was the Public Information Officer for the Everett Police Department but left because he didn't care for the traffic. He and his family moved to Goldendale and just a year later the town elected him mayor, even though he was considered a newcomer from Seattle.

In Goldendale the fire department is comprised of volunteers; fortunately the last major fire occurred on a weeknight when they were training. The mayor's office looks out on the bowling alley and the Post Office. He watches drivers so old it takes them ten minutes to park. "They should not have a driver's license. They are minus four on a scale of 100. But without public transit, we give them a wide berth."

We talked about the rise in violence that has come with population increase; the building boom in Ballard, but our discussions always came back to traffic. He doesn't care for it a bit. Perhaps once a year he gets on his customized Harley and visits the old beat - Wallingford, Lake City, U-District, Ballard, Fremont. If he were to avoid Leary Way, I'm sure he would cite the traffic.

I paid a fine for my traffic stop; he paid with the use of his legs. But Mark Sigfrinius bears no grudge. He was a police office for 22 years; wounded when he was 40 years old. Soon he will have been mayor for 14 years where three cars is a traffic jam.

I told him I'd always wondered if he was the officer who ticketed me on Leary, at that spot.

"Thirty-eight in a thirty? Nah," he said. "Wasn't me."

Peggy's email is atlargeinballard@yahoo.com. She writes additional pieces on her blog At Large in Ballard at www.seattlepi.com.