SEQUIM — In deciding the future of the city’s law enforcement leadership, Bill Elliott went back to his past.

City Manager Elliott announced Tuesday that he had hired Robert Spinks, currently a trial court supervisor for the Oregon State Judicial Department, to become Sequim’s new police chief.

Spinks, 46, will start work Feb. 15. He succeeds Ken Burge, who left Sequim in September after a 23-month tenure to become chief of police in Alcoa, Tenn.

It was the second time Elliott had hired Spinks to be a city police chief.

In 1997, Elliott, then the city manager of Milton-Freewater, Ore., brought Spinks aboard to run the 10-officer department in the northeastern Oregon city of 6,470 — a community and department about the same size as Sequim.

The two worked together for nearly four years.

‘Known quantity’

Elliott said Tuesday that his past positive association with Spinks was a key factor in his decision.

“Being a known quantity to me with former chief experience — those were the things that satisfied what I was looking for,” Elliott said.

“He was always very cooperative, always willing to do whatever it took to satisfy the citizens.”

Spinks said Tuesday that he’s just as delighted to be reunited with his old boss.

“That past relationship is a benefit,” Spinks said in a telephone interview from St. Helens, Ore.