Tom Klose

Tom Klose, Club President 2006-2007

"He lives here, and I think it's important for the fire chief, the police chief and the city manager to be where the action is."

Klose, who began working with the Fresno County Sheriff's Department in 1973, had the seeds planted for a career in law enforcement while he was a youth in Sanger. "My father-in-law, Val Valles, was a deputy constable who later became constable, and he cultivated my interest," said Klose, 55. "He was very instrumental in guiding me into law enforcement." Klose also credited his mother and stepfather for being motivators in his career choice. Both worked for the Sanger Police Department. "I come from a law enforcement family of three generations of police officers and deputy sheriffs here in the state of California," Klose said. During more than three decades with the Sheriff's Department, Klose has been a firearms instructor, training officer and a patrol officer. He has investigated homicides, sex crimes, domestic violence and elder abuse.

He teaches at the police academy at Fresno City College and his community activism extends to being member of the county's Domestic Violence Roundtable and the Child Abuse Prevention Committee.

He succeeds John R. Bart, who resigned last June after nearly four years on the job. From 1946 through 1982, the city of nearly 20,000 saw a succession of police chiefs whose terms lasted from nine months to four years.