Former Northfield Police Chief Gary Smith. Photo courtesy of Northfield.org
On Tuesday, David Hvistendahl turned over the hosting seat during his radio program “Law Review” on KYMN to business partner, attorney Mary Hahn. In this interview Hvistendahl recalls attending a meeting on July 7, 2007 that included city attorney, Roger Knutson; city employee, Elizabeth Wheeler; City Administrator, Al Roder; and attorney Mark Fowler. Hvistendahl described this as a disciplinary hearing/meeting over Roder’s attempted firing of Police Chief, Gary Smith, because Smith was investigating him (Roder). Roder complained that Smith was accessing personal information about him using his social security number.
Hvistendahl explains how Knutson was trying to force answers from Smith, but they continued to object. A few minutes into the meeting, they pulled out a document and asked if Smith recognized it. Smith explained to Hvistendahl in private that the document had been copied from an encrypted federal terminal. Hvistendahl later determined that Roder ordered Wheeler to pull this information. The document was apparently evidence that Smith had been doing some simple background information searches on Roder. Smith indicated that he needed to report this breech to federal authorities, at which point the meeting was quickly adjourned by the city team.
Hvistendahl mentioned that the city recorded the meeting, but there was an apparent malfunction and Hvistendahl has not been able to obtain a copy of the transcript. It was apparently lost in digital translation.
After the 18-minute meeting was over, those at the meeting discussed how to proceed. It was agreed that based on Smith’s ongoing health issues, they would just wait to see how Chief Smith came out of his surgeries.
