Rift between Northfield Police Chief, City Administrator Escalates

Before taking a leave of absence in a cloud of controversy over remarks on heroin abuse in the city, Northfield Police Chief Gary Smith apparently sent the county attorney the findings of an investigation he conducted on City Administrator Al Roder.

The news deepened the rift between the two men and jolted the city.

Smith’s attorney, David Hvistendahl, confirmed today for Minnesota Public Radio that his client sent in the investigation papers days before he took the leave of absence. But what to do with it, he said, is up to Rice County Attorney Paul Beaumaster, who is out of the office because of a death in his family.

On July 3, Smith announced that heroin and OxyContin use is “epidemic” among area high-school students. He claimed that more than 150 students were using the drugs.

That touched off a firestorm in the college town of 19,000 people.

“The chief’s comments were not well-received,” admitted Hvistendahl. But he suggested hypocrisy in the reactions to Smith’s comments this time. When Smith, 52, made similar comments awhile back, Hvistendahl claimed that almost no one reacted to it, because most of the kids involved were low-income students of color.

“Now it’s apparently a different kind of a problem,” Hvistendahl told MPR. Accused in this round are well-off kids, he said.

Meanwhile, Roder, the city administrator, denied  any wrongdoing. But he declined to make further comments, according to the Star Tribune.