CENTER— During a special meeting Monday morning, the Center Town Board accepted the resignation of Police Chief Tristan Van Zalinge and officially announced the appointment of Saguache Undersheriff Jim McCloskey as the town’s interim police chief.
Van Zalinge had served as the town’s police chief since last August but was still within his six-month probation period.
McCloskey will serve as interim chief until the town advertises for the chief’s position and reviews the applicants. He also will continue to function as the Saguache County Undersheriff, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said Monday. Center Town Administrator Brian Lujan confirmed the hiring process could take several months.
The human resources firm hired out of Grand Junction by the town to evaluate a complaint lodged against a Center police official also recently completed its investigation of the complaint. Van Zalinge told Valley Publishing in February that he was the subject of the complaint.
But Lujan strongly emphasized that “Van Zalinge’s resignation has absolutely nothing to do” with the resolution of the complaint and there was never any discussion of criminal charges within the department.
For now, no one else will be leaving the Center police force, Lujan advised. But policies and procedures will be re-evaluated and officers will undergo additional training following the guidelines issued by the human resources firm. The town has not yet hired additional officers who had applied for positions just as news of the complaint surfaced.
Because the human resources firm was hired to look into a personnel problem, Lujan reiterated, the nature of the investigation and the actual findings of the firm cannot be made public.
Background
Lujan stressed in an earlier article that the police department and its officers were never under review per se. A complaint made by an unidentified individual(s) was simply reviewed by the human resources firm at the request of Lujan and former police chief Van Zalinge.
Lujan explained in a telephone interview in February that this is a routine matter he himself could have handled. He said he chose instead to suggest it be referred to an outside human resources agency a) because the town does not have such an agency itself and b) because he felt he lacked the particular expertise needed to deal with it.
In the past 18 years, the town of Center has been served by five police chiefs and three interim chiefs, including McCloskey. LeRoy Torres was the town’s longest serving police chief. Some have voiced the opinion they believe the town would be better served by an Hispanic chief rather than a white male.