GAYLORD — A police chief who suspected City Council members were meeting illegally at the Chamber of Commerce office allegedly planted a digital recorder there to prove it and is now facing criminal charges for doing so.

The allegations against Gaylord Police Chief Dale Roiger stem from an incident in July 2007, which is when the council was considering shutting down his department and contracting with the Sibley County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services.

The key piece of evidence is a two-hour and 37-minute digital recording. It includes the sounds of a chair moving, a door closing, traffic noise and a Chamber of Commerce answering machine with a message from coordinator Pat Pinske, who also happens to be a City Council member, according to the criminal complaint.

Roiger is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday for gross misdemeanor charges of intercepting communications and misconduct by a public officer.

Chris Wagner, a detective with the Carver County Sheriff’s Department, was asked to investigate after Roiger allegedly told a City Council member he had tried “bugging” the Chamber of Commerce offices but didn’t get anything from the recording device. Another witness, who has an office nearby, also told investigators Roiger said he had gotten a digital recording device from the Glencoe Police Department.

“(Roiger) was concerned about rumors that City Council members were violating the open meetings laws by secretly meeting in the Gaylord Chamber of Commerce office,” the criminal complaint said. “At the time, the City of Gaylord was discussing the option of contracting with the Sibley County Sheriff’s Officer for their law enforcement needs.”

When a Carver County investigator asked Roiger about the allegations on April 15, 2008, Roiger admitted to making comments about recording a meeting just to see “where the comment would go,” the complaint said. Roiger also told the investigator he would never attempt to record a conversation without approval.

A Glencoe police detective told investigators he did loan a voice-activated recording device to Tom Webster, a Gaylord police officer, in 2007. That detective also provided digital file to Wagner that included the office noise, Pinske’s voice and the voice of Webster saying, “Testing one, two . . . testing, testing, testing,” the complaint said.

When Webster was interviewed in November, he initially denied having anything to do with the Chamber of Commerce recordings, Wagner reported. After being told his voice was on the Glencoe recording device, Webster said Roiger told him to plant the device in the Chamber of Commerce office.

“(Roiger) told Webster he could get a key on the desk of an employee located at City Hall,” the complaint said.

Webster told the investigator he taped the recording device to the bottom of a cart in the office that night.

“He listened to the recorder for 10 to 15 seconds and did not think that anything had recorded on it, so he returned the recorder to the Glencoe officer,” the complaint said.

Webster also told investigators Roiger warned him that someone from the Carver County Sheriff’s Department would be contacting him. Roiger told Webster “he should lie to the investigator and tell him that the recorder was for a drug case,” the complaint said.

Roiger allegedly told investigators he knew Webster had borrowed a recorder but didn’t know why.

Messages left for Roiger at the Police Department, where he is still serving as chief, and his home Friday were not immediately returned.

City Administrator Kevin McCann said the City Council will be meeting next week. Roiger will continue to serve as police chief at least until then. Council members were aware of Wagner’s investigation and plans are in place to do an internal investigation as well, McCann said.

“The council will meet Thursday to discuss these allegations and a decision will be made at that time,” he said. “The city takes these kinds of charges seriously and will investigate them fully. The official outcome will depend on the court.”

Thursday’s meeting was called as a special meeting to deal with the allegations. The meeting will be closed because it’s for personnel issues, but any actions will be reported to the public.

McCann said he couldn’t comment about Roiger’s concerns about the council violating open meeting laws because he wasn’t working for the city at that time.

City Attorney Don Lannoye did not immediately return a telephone call Friday.