Unlike many of my peers who sought work at the DA’s Office and other venues after they left the Dept. to supplement their retirement income, I chose not to. In short, I’ve been living a single and mostly carefree lifestyle since I pulled the plug in Jan. 2001.

For the last several years I have spent Tuesdays on the golf course with a group of other retirees that includes Bob Namba, Noel Lanctot and Tom Macris. That left six days in the week which provided ample opportunity to ride my Gold Wing and cruise the Bay with friends in my boat. At least it did until Oct. of last year, when I experienced the second best day of boat ownership and sold it!

Nearly five years ago, when my close friend Bobby Burroughs (the PAC bears his name) fell ill from cancer, I began sending e-mails to his many friends as a means of providing updates on his condition. As word spread, more and more retirees asked to be placed on the mailing list. By the time Bobby passed away on March 13, 2005, the list included over 100 names and e-mail addresses.

With retirees scattered here and there, and with no means of receiving timely and accurate information about other retirees who were gravely ill or had passed on, the need for a newsletter to keep retirees informed became apparent. Since I had both the free time as well as the experience from having published the “Insider” for many years, I decided to create what has become the “Farsider.” Since its early days when it was basically a weekly e-mail sent to those on the list, it has changed significantly, both in its format and the number of subscribers.
A couple of years ago I joined forces with Leroy Pyle, a former SJPD cop, who is now an Internet guru and designer of websites. Instead of an e-mail newsletter that is sent to subscribers, the “Farsider” is now sent only to Leroy. He posts the newsletter to the SJPBA website that he created and maintains, then sends all subscribers an e-mail notification that a new editionof the “Farsider” has been produced and is ready for viewing on the website. It’s set up in such a way that all newsletters from the past 4 1/2 years can also be retrieved and read.

The weekly newsletter, which is published every Thursday, now has 675 subscribers, most of whom are sworn and non-sworn SJPD retirees. But we don’t turn away anyone who is affiliated with the Dept., including active personnel and retirees from allied agencies who worked closely with the SJPD and got to know many people from our Dept. on a personal level.

The “Farsider” is available at no cost to any interested SJPD employee, as well as anyone otherwise affiliated with the Dept.. All one needs is a high-speed Internet connection. I’m not actively soliciting subscribers, but those who are interested can sign up by sending a request to bilmat@comcast.net or leroypyle@sjpba.net.

The newsletter’s primary purpose still, is to keep subscribers informed about the health and welfare of the retired SJPD community, but with no one looking over our shoulder, Leroy and I have the freedom to also have some fun with it. And we do. Those who choose to subscribe should not look for a love fest between us and those with an uber liberal ideology.

To you active duty folks who are pushing beat cars around the City streets, working cases up in the Bureau or earning your paycheck in other nooks and crannies that make up the SJPD, always keep in mind that those of us who came before you, wish you well and are praying for your safety.

Bill Mattos, 1448 Ret.