Over a dozen residents spoke out at a Golden Valley city council meeting after the police chief was placed on administrative leave with no public notice.

At a Tuesday night meeting, neighbors were calling for clarity and city leaders were faced questions about transparency and trust.

“By doing this to our police chief, I could construe this to be a form of intimidation to our other department heads, it’s trying to be safe without saying, ‘Fall in line, or else.’ There’s nothing transparent about this,” a resident said at the meeting.

Over a dozen people spoke during the public comment period supporting police chief Virgil Green.

“There should be open doors and transparency,” one woman said at the meeting. “It seems that city staff and the city council don’t communicate very well, it needs to be rectified.”

On Sunday, the city administrator said in a statement Chief Green is placed on leave until further notice pending review of a complaint, but they did not say what the complaint is.

Sources tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the department was not happy with the chief sharing body cam video with our station claiming it violated the data practices act.

“I don’t understand this. How can we be in a city that doesn’t support a police chief who’s trying to do his job?” a resident asked at the meeting.

The Golden Valley mayor explained she was shocked to find out the chief was put on leave.

“It doesn’t feel good. It feels like I’m being disrespected,” Mayor Roslyn Harmon, Golden Valley mayor, said. “The city manager does have full authority of hiring and firing and what goes on. But for something like this in terms of an internal investigation, I feel that we should have at least been given a heads up.”

Harmon said changes need to be made in the city to increase transparency.

Paula Pentel, former city council member for nearly a decade, said being left in the dark breaks trust in the city.

“It has to come from the top — the city manager and what triggers that, I don’t know. To have this happen, so out of the blue, just took people by surprise,” she said. “We used to be known as good government and I don’t think what we’re seeing right now is good government.”

At the end of the public comment period, Sophia Ginis, city council member said she has full confidence the city staff is following all protocols related to the investigation.

The two assistant police chiefs will lead the department until further notice.