Former ORE director charged with felony theft

Non-profit’s assets protected

A former Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) executive director will be in Gunnison County Court Tuesday facing a class-six felony charge of misappropriating funds from the organization. According to the Gunnison police department, Kristen Van Hoesen has been charged with felony theft of more than $2,000 but less than $5,000.

In a press release, the law enforcement agency stated it received a theft report from ORE in July 2014. “The board of directors for the non-profit organization suspected Kristen Van Hoesen…had misappropriated / stolen funds from the non-profit organization,” the release states. Van Hoesen was the organization’s executive director at the time, having been hired in that position the previous fall.
Julie Feier, ORE’s board president, said when the board started noticing some unusual things with the staff last summer, they took action. “The Office of Resource Efficiency Board of Directors identified inconsistencies in the operations and reporting within the organization back in June,” Feier wrote in an email on Monday. “In light of this knowledge, the Board consulted with the appropriate resources to protect the assets of the partners who have invested interests in the Office of Resource Efficiency to ensure a secure future for ORE to continue to serve the valley. We immediately turned the matter over to the Gunnison police.”
The police spent the next several months conducting an investigation and found that many of the irregularities and concerns cited by the board were not illegal. But the district attorney did feel Van Hoesen should be prosecuted for submitting and taking what was termed as back pay and/or bonuses. That amounted to approximately $4,200 in a couple of separate incidents.
Van Hoesen has been served with a felony summons. She is scheduled to appear in Gunnison County Court on Tuesday, December 2.