San Benito assistant chief on paid leave

SAN BENITO — The city’s assistant police chief remains off the job despite negative results from a drug test ordered more than a month ago.

City Attorney Jan Cassidy said in a statement earlier this week that Assistant Chief Arnold Garcia will remain on paid administrative leave pending a decision by the city’s risk management committee. That committee includes Cassidy, City Manager Manuel Lara, the city’s human resources director Art Rodriguez and Police Chief George Gomez.

Garcia was suspended for three days without pay in mid-June after he was “unable” to complete a random drug test. At the time, Cassidy said Garcia had not refused the test, but rather was “unable to perform the process before the persons performing the testing left the premises.”

He has since remained on paid administrative leave.

Cassidy and the police department have yet to elaborate on how or why Garcia could not complete that initial screen. The city made the assistant chief submit to another round of testing on June 21, and Cassidy announced roughly two weeks ago that the full results for those tests had come back negative.

Lara said Wednesday that members of the risk management committee were hoping to meet by the end of the week, but were still waiting for word from Police Chief Gomez.

“I guess they’re still getting all the final documentation for the investigation and everything in order,” Lara said of the police department. “Once (Gomez) tells me when he’s ready to meet we will, so we’re just waiting for him to get back to us,” he said.

Gomez could not be reached for comment.

Lara wouldn’t say whether it was certain that Garcia would go back to his post given the negative drug test results, but did say that he’s ready for the issue to be resolved.

“Honestly, I hope we can put closure on this by the end of this week,” Lara said.