LEYDEN — The Selectboard agreed to write a letter to former police chief Dan Galvis to request the return of town property that has been unaccounted for since October.
About 20 residents attended Monday’s meeting, much of which focused on the board’s response to the missing property.
The unsold police property that is said to have gone unaccounted for since Galvis’ retirement includes trailers, generators and miscellaneous equipment, according to a spreadsheet detailing the town’s equipment and shared among residents.
Galvis retired from the Leyden Police Department in October after the Selectboard reviewed racist content from emails he shared with town employees and officers between 2015 and 2016, an incident which Galvis says has misrepresented him. Town Clerk Gilda Galvis, Dan Galvis’ wife and the former police captain, who retired when he did, was not present at the meeting.
Reached Wednesday, Galvis said he has every intention of making sure the town’s equipment is accounted for properly.
“I have no desire to steal anything from the town,” he said.
State law gives chiefs of police immediate control of town property used by the department. Since Galvis is no longer chief, he has no legal control over town equipment. Galvis is, however, the town’s emergency management director.
“I think we all know that the former chief kept a lot of things on his property,” Ginger Robinson, chair of the Finance Committee, said at Monday’s meeting. “We expected to see these things returned, and we’re not seeing it.”
“Enough is enough. The Leyden taxpayers want to know where the equipment is,” resident Ann Zaveruha said. “If that were me, I would have been taken out in cuffs.”
Galvis told The Recorder he is in the process of returning the Humvees on his property and has some non-lethal weapons that are still in packaging and never used. He also has five generators that can only be used for parts, two that work but cannot be replaced or fixed, and some newer ones, he said.
“I maintained them,” Galvis said of the generators. “I maintained them at no cost to the town.”
When Chair William Glabach tried to move on to the next agenda item at the Selectboard meeting, attendees continued to voice concerns about the equipment. Glabach said he would try to sit down with Galvis to discuss a return of the property, but Galvis is the only one who can operate some of it, he added. Residents told Glabach he is not taking the issue seriously.
Resident Sara Seinberg asked if the Selectboard could agree in writing to send a letter to Galvis requesting the equipment be returned. Glabach agreed to discuss drafting a letter, but he did not make a motion to do so.