SANGER – The Sanger Police Department is expected to have steady leadership over the next few months as the city continues its search for a permanent police chief.
The Sanger City Council voted unanimously on April 3 to appoint Michael Salvador, a retired police chief with 37 years of law enforcement experience, as interim chief. Salvador most recently worked as police chief for the city of Atwater in Merced County, a position he retired from in December 2024.
“I’m looking forward to coming and serving you and helping you get through this interim time,” Salvador said. “And if you have any questions about how policing works, how police buildings are supposed to operate, how they get built, I’m your man.”
Salvador was chief in Atwater for nearly six years, and spent about three and a half years as police chief in Coalinga prior to that. Before moving into the role of police chief, Salvador served in the Madera County Sheriff’s Office and was the Madera County undersheriff from 2013 to 2015. He said had it not been for a “bad day in 2014,” he would have been the Madera County sheriff.
City Manager Nathan Olson told the council he expects Salvador to be with Sanger for the next “two to four or five months” while permanent police chief candidates move through the interview process. Four qualified applicants have applied to the position and the first round of interviews will begin soon, Olson said.
Police chief applicants will interview with a panel of the city’s executive staff, including Salvador, and will then interview with Olson. Olson said he then wants to have the top two candidates do a public meet and greet to allow residents to ask questions of them, and then the final decision will be made after that.
Sanger has been without a permanent police chief since former chief Greg Garner abruptly left the department on Feb. 10 after four and a half years with the city. Cmdr. Joshua Johnson was briefly appointed acting chief, but Cmdr. Jason Boust took over that role near the end of February.
Salvador told the city council he is a “jack of all trades.” In addition to his experience, he holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology from California State University, Fresno and a master’s degree in criminal justice administration from Columbia Southern University.
He called himself a numbers guy and a community guy, and said he also has experience leading departments as their buildings were renovated or built.
“When I hear the community and you guys talk about planning,” Salvador said, referencing a previous discussion topic, “I had that conversation with Nathan when we talked about me coming to take this job. I’m in it to help the city manager and you, the council, make good decisions about how to make that happen.”
The city manager typically has the sole authority to hire city personnel, including the police chief; however, because Salvador is a retired public employee, the California Public Employees’ Retirement Systems (CalPERS) requires that the council adopt a resolution to appoint him to the position temporarily.
CalPERS rules will restrict Salvador to working no more than 960 hours in a fiscal year, which at a 40-hour work week is six months. Olson said that a new police chief should be hired before Salvador reaches this limit and Salvador will be on-call 24/7 like any other police chief.
