Northfield Mayor Lee Lansing improperly used his role as a city official to further personal and family interests, according to an outside investigator hired by the City Council.

In a report delivered Monday night, attorney William Everett, of Buffalo, Minn., told the council that Lansing exerted improper influence in an attempt to have the city relocate its municipal liquor store to property owned by his son, David Lansing, and David's development partner, Paul Norby.

Lansing also successfully pushed the city to reduce -- by more than $20,000 -- a park dedication fee that the city proposed to charge the developers, the report says.

And Lansing misused his city office in a dispute with developers who bought the building that houses his family's hardware store, according to Everett. In particular, Lansing tried to block the developers from occupying the building, the report said.

Everett also examined several other issues related to city business, but found no evidence of wrongdoing. A report investigating the city's relationship with its engineer has not been finalized.

Everett did not, however, look into issues related to an ongoing criminal investigation that Northfield police had initiated of City Administrator Al Roder. The investigation, details of which have never been made public, was turned over to the Goodhue County attorney's office, and Everett didn't go into the matter on the grounds that it could undermine the ongoing probe.

Nor did he take up data-practices and open-meetings violations alleged in a lawsuit filed against the city this fall by the mayor and his son. The mayor later withdrew himself as a plaintiff in the case.

Everett gave the council a 61-page report, plus three pages of information that were not released to the public because of data privacy laws.

The City Council hired Everett this fall after the state auditor declined the council's request to investigate a handful of potential problems with the way the city is run.

Lansing's offenses constitute a violation of the city's ethics code, Everett said.

"I am just dumbfounded," Lansing said after the meeting, adding that, if he had acted improperly, it was "certainly not intentionally."

Sarah Lemagie • 612-673-7557