Spring Valley Village officials and Police Chief Loyd Evans have agreed that Evans will end his duty with the department after questions arose concerning the chief’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime pay.
The timing of exactly when Evans will step down, however, will not be for possibly two weeks while parties work on specifics and prepare paperwork, according to Evans’ attorney Amanda Bolin.
Until then, Evans is on paid administrative leave. Police Captain Mark Schulze will step in as interim chief until someone else is hired.
“I’m not concerned of anything criminal in nature,” said Evans’ attorney Amanda Bolin. “I do not believe Chief Evans has done anything wrong. I think that will come to light when this eventual agreement is disclosed.”
Bolin said Evans is happy with the agreement and “ready to move on.”
Mayor Marcus Vajdos said details of the agreement could come to light at a special council meeting, yet to be determined.
“We’re not finished with this process,” Vajdos said. “Once the terms of this agreement are settled a subsequential special council meeting will be called to approve the agreement.”
City attorney Loren Smith said Evans received $189,038 in overtime in 2020 and $96,040 in overtime in 2021.
Smith said the chief, whose base salary was $151,000 in 2020, approved his own overtime.
“It is only in the rarest of occasions and under specific conditions that city policy permits OT for exempt employees,” as noted in a released statement.
The numbers came to light following a meeting about salaries for city employees and the information was not well received by city representatives, according to the statement.
“The lack of openness, transparency or even awareness by the individual responsible for the distribution of these OT funds (who was also the recipient of these funds) has left your city representatives questioning the judgment and their trust in this individual to continue their role with the city,” the city’s statement read.
Bolin told KPRC 2 over the phone in early April that the chief worked every one of those hours and was covering for short-staffing because of COVID.