Boulder’s current chief of police has completed his physical and mental evaluations, Mayor Rusty Giulio said in an August 21 letter to the Monitor.
Joe Canzona, hired June 20, 2018, finished the requirements August 6, said Giulio.
Giulio’s letter came in response to a written request from the Monitor for the release of “any City of Boulder documents pertaining to any and all city police officers hired beginning in 2014 and continuing to the current date that verify the officer completed the physical and mental health evaluations required under Montana Code Annotated 7-32-303 (2) and the date of that completion.”
The Monitor also asked for verification of the hiring date for each officer.
The issue arose after the Monitor reviewed relevant state law, along with information from regulatory agencies, and learned a mayor is barred from hiring an officer who has not completed those two requirements, in addition to others.
Giulio’s response letter was not accompanied by any city documents but indicated records are incomplete or missing in four of six hirings.
In the two hirings for which the hiring date and the completion of the physical/mental health evaluations were listed in Giulio’s letter – the hiring of Renee Collinson in late 2013 and the hiring of Canzona as chief in 2018 – the evaluation dates were about two months after the hiring date.
According to Giulio, the city is not in possession of the personnel file for Juan Trujillo, the chief before Canzona. That file is in the possession of former city attorney Steven Shapiro, said Giulio in his letter.
Giulio said the current city attorney has been asked to submit a written request to Shapiro for that file and other city records.
