Former Lake St. Croix Beach City Clerk/Administrator Dave Engstrom said he plans to sue the city for age discrimination following his termination last month.
Engstrom, 71, who had held the city’s top administrative position since October 2017, was terminated on Oct. 20 after a 3-2 vote; council members Brad Freppert and Tim Schneider were the two “no” votes.
Engstrom, who left city hall immediately after the vote, was put on a performance-improvement plan in July following his first performance review during his eight-year tenure with the city. The council voted to give him 90 days to make “measured improvements” in four specific areas, officials said, including correcting absentee issues and communication issues.
Engstrom opted to have the part of the meeting dealing with his 90-day performance review remain open to the public; performance reviews are generally closed.
“I wanted it to be open and transparent,” Engstrom said after the meeting. “I have nothing to hide.”
Council member Noah Bluesky, the council’s personnel designee, said at the beginning of the discussion that he wished the proceedings were closed. “This is a very awkward situation,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on doing this in front of….”
“Well, we have to have transparency, Noah,” Engstrom said.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been put in a position to go out and get information from everybody who works with you and get back with the findings,” Bluesky said. “The initial review was pretty shocking. It was pretty bad. That’s why we put this performance review in place. The evidence spoke for itself. You’ve had 90 days to meet some pretty specific guidelines, and the bottom line is you did not.”
Engstrom said the findings were “mostly untrue.”
One complaint addressed during Engstrom’s review, he said, was that he had not provided oversight to the city treasurer drafting meeting minutes, which has resulted in the unnecessary expense of the city attorney identifying and revising minutes to resolve the exclusion of motions from the minutes.
“That happened once? I’m looking at the city attorney,” he said, addressing City Attorney Christina Benson.
“I did have to correct and add motions almost every meeting,” Benson responded.
“Oh, OK. So it’s a complaint from you. Thank you,” he said.
When Mayor Tom McCarthy spoke up, Engstrom asked if he could continue. “You’ve got a motion on the table to fire me,” he said. “I’d like to defend myself.”
“Yes. Go ahead, David,” McCarthy said.
“I don’t think you care one way or the other,” Engstrom said.
“I do too. You’re my friend…” McCarthy said.
“You were my friend,” Engstrom said.
“Yes, you still are,” McCarthy said.
“Oh, sure. We’re buddies. We’re pals, right,” Engstrom said.
“There were two ways you could have handled this,” Bluesky responded. “You could have handled it in a positive way and tried to improve, or you could push back and fight and make everyone your enemy. I feel like you’ve made everyone your enemy, and I don’t know why. … I really don’t want to argue about this. The evidence is overwhelming.”
Retained law firm
Engstrom later told the Pioneer Press that he has retained the Minneapolis-based Halunen Law Firm to handle his lawsuit.
During the Oct. 20 meeting, he told the council members that everything would eventually be revealed in court. “It’ll all wind up in court, guys,” he said.
“Please. Please do that,” Bluesky responded. “That would be fine because the evidence is overwhelming. You do not have a case, but go for it.”
Engstrom said during the meeting that Bluesky had said in a previous city council meeting that the city needed “new blood, which means I’m old blood. That’s age discrimination, sir.”
During the Oct. 20 meeting, Bluesky disputed that account.
Interim clerk
The council voted to appointed Deputy Clerk Mary Ashby as interim city clerk.
Ashby, a resident of Lake St. Croix Beach, served on the city’s planning commission from 2012 to 2025, including a stint as chairwoman. She worked in the financial services industry before retiring in 2018, she said.
“Working on the planning commission and being the chair gave me a lot of insight into city ordinances and the ins and outs of city hall,” Ashby said. “Since I’ve been the deputy clerk, there’s a lot of just basic office work, and it’s varied. I love it.”
Schneider thanked Engstrom for his years of service during the Oct. 20 meeting. “We really do thank Dave for his time here, even though it didn’t end the way he wanted,” he said. “He, you know, did do a service for our city for a number of years.”
Bluesky said Monday that he was sorry with the way things ended with Engstrom.
“I really appreciate Dave, and I like him a lot,” he said. “It’s just really unfortunate to see things end this way.”
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