PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — During Tuesday's City Council meeting, the mayor took a moment to address a Channel 2 Action News report from Monday.
Vande Zande is under investigation, along with his department. Mayor Teresa Philyaw said the probe that now has cost over $10,000 in taxpayer money wasn’t so much about Zande, but more about what was going on inside the department.
“We were having so many. We were being told that morale was so low and of course saw officers leaving and that became a big concern,” Philyaw said.
In the letter of resignation, the police chief wrote out some specific terms of blasting the investigator's credibility and stating that he "hopes" his offer of a resignation "will alleviate the need" for council "to spend any time discussing this issue at length."
The big question is why.
“I think the person you need to be speaking with is the chief. He had his reasons and I have not spoken directly to him as to that," Philyaw said.
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Yet the City Council is following the orders the chief laid out in his letter. When Channel 2's Lauren Pozen asked why, the mayor wouldn't elaborate.
“Lauren, that is a very hard question, he made his decision and we tried to respect when he had that in his resignation letter. We knew that we would be getting a report later that might give us more findings about what is going on, in no way are we blaming anyone at this time," Philyaw said.
We'll be able to access that report, by state law, later this month.
The council also voted on about $2,000 to finish paying for the private investigators work.