SPRING VALLEY VILLAGE, Texas — The city of Spring Valley Village and its police chief have officially parted ways after accusations that the police chief authorized nearly $300,000 in overtime pay for himself.
At the beginning of April, a special meeting was held and Chief Loyd Evans announced he would be leaving his position as chief of police. That announcement came after Evans was placed on administrative leave for "very substantial amounts of overtime" that he reportedly signed off on and paid himself.
The final decision for the city and Chief Evans to part ways was made during a council meeting on Tuesday. The city of Spring Valley Village said the chief will be retiring, effective April 30.
The details on what went into the separation weren't immediately available. KHOU 11 has submitted a request to the city of Spring Valley Village for those details.
The city of Spring Valley Village released the following statement on its decision to separate from Chief Evans:
To the Residents of Spring Valley Village,
The last two years have been challenging for us all. The pandemic has caused mandates, emergency declarations, and changes that none of us could have foreseen. We also lived through a summer of public unrest and an unprecedented freeze. Through it all, your City has adjusted quickly and continued to thrive.
For 30 years, Loyd Evans served the City of Spring Valley Village. His dedication and professionalism were beyond question and we appreciate his service to our City.
Tuesday night, the City parted ways with Loyd. He will be retiring effective April 30.
Our focus as a City Council has always been to create a safe, friendly, and thriving community for our residents and that was our focus as we worked to find a peaceful end to our working relationship with Loyd.
Your Police Department and Staff have been exemplary during this time. Under the leadership of Acting Chief Schulze, they’ve continued to serve our residents at the same high level and will continue to do so.
We as a Council and City Staff take our vows to the City, State of Texas, and our country seriously. We know without a doubt that our Police take the oath to serve our citizens very seriously as well.
Moving forward, the City will be examining all systems and processes pertaining to approval of employee overtime pay and considering additional safeguards to prevent abuse of trust by senior City employees. We are also committed to having an independent consultant perform a review of our operations to ensure that Spring Valley residents continue to receive exemplary service.
Where we can improve, we will improve. Our priority is to insure our Police Department continues to provide the wonderful service the team has done historically making our community one of the safest in the country.