Beckstrand says non-renewal ‘Came out of nowhere’

On July 1 Derek Beckstrand will no longer be employed by the village of Rib Lake.

Beckstrand has been employed as the village’s police chief since July 2019.

In a closed session meeting on June 13, he was notified that his contract would not be renewed when it expires on June 30.

Beckstrand followed up with The Star News on June 17 to discuss his perspective on how the situation came to this point.

Beckstrand has been the Rib Lake Chief of Police for almost five years. He started in July 2019. During this time, his contract was renewed five times. Beckstrand said the first pushback against his contract renewal was in December 2023.

“It came out of nowhere,” he said. As an alternative to renewal of his contract, Beckstrand said in December 2023 the Rib Lake Village board considered contracting the county for extra law enforcement services.

“In December, they came up with this idea to contemplate contracting with the county for services. They’ve told me that hasn’t occurred, but if you go through the county’s minutes for their law enforcement committee meeting, they have in there that the village has contacted them about services,” Beckstrand said.

At the December county board meeting, Beckstrand was offered a 6 month contract.

“In December, we had a large turnout which forced their hand into offering the 6 month contract,” Beckstrand said.

At the June 12 village board meeting, police committee chairman Trustee George Tesch reported there would be a closed session committee meeting in the afternoon on June 13. Following this announcement Megan Beckstrand, Derek’s wife and a former village trustee, noted the police contract was not on the board meeting agenda and asked when it was going to be discussed.

Beckstrand had requested the June 13 committee meeting be held in open session, but that request was denied. Beckstrand used his cellphone to create an audio recording of the closed session meeting he was part of, and he played that recording while talking with The Star News.

Beckstrand said he was told by committee chairman Tesch that the Rib Lake Village Board voted on the matter of Beckstrand’s contract a month ago during closed session of the May meeting, according to a June 13 recording of Trustee George Tesch and Beckstrand. In the recording, Beckstrand asks, “When was this voted on?”

Tesch responds, “A month ago.” Beckstrand then asked why he was not informed of the decision. Tesch said the board did not have to inform Beckstrand of anything.

According to Beckstrand, “Up until the last few weeks, the board has been telling me that they want me here. They obviously had their mind made up a month ago with what they were going to do and would continue to tell me that they want me here.” Beckstrand noted that he has to figure out where he will live and what he will do on a shorter timeline because the board opted not to inform him of the decision made a month ago.

The minutes of the May 8 village board meeting state “No action was taken on items discussed” in the closed session.

“I confirmed with the Village Clerk that no formal action was taken as a result of the closed session that was convened in May,” said RuthAnn Koch, the village’s attorney in response to questions regarding a possible vote taking place. She was not in attendance at either the May 8 or June 13 closed sessions. She noted that no action was needed by the village to allow the contract to expire.

Beckstrand said he learned details about the vote from two village board trustees who told him following the June 13 meeting that the vote to not renew was carried out at the May 8 meeting closed session, and the vote was 2-4, with the two of them voting to renew the contract.

In the June 17 interview, Beckstrand referenced Rib Lake Village code chapter 2.20, which says, “There is created the office of chief of police, which shall be filled by appointment by a majority vote of the village board for an indefinite term, subject to the removal by a three-fourths vote of the members of the board for incompetency, misconduct, inefficiency, cowardice or failure to perform duties.” Beckstrand argued the vote to not renew his contract was a 2/3 majority and was therefore insufficient according to the 3/4 majority requirement. The question becomes whether this ordinance is applicable to Beckstrand as Beckstrand’s contract was not indefinite but rather was for a specific length of time.

Concerning why Beckstrand’s contract will not be renewed, Beckstrand said, “They gave the excuse that the reason for nonrenewal was that people should not have to contact me to report ordinance violations, that I should be on top of everything before it comes in. I asked them if there was anything in my file that they’ve ever said that they’ve told me that needs to be done or if I’d been reprimanded for that. Nope. Nothing in file.”

Beckstrand said there was more to the nonrenewal decision than the enforcement of ordinances. He said, the board is retaliating against him for an incident involving Ben Greiner, the former community service officer in Rib Lake, and George Tesch, village board trustee and head of the police committee. Beckstrand reported, ‘My former employee, the community service officer Ben Greiner, confronted Tesch in the public while off-duty and embarrassed him. From what I’ve heard from people that were there, they were at the Ice Age Pavilion. They were having a gun show there. Ben Greiner walked in, and Trustee Tesch was at a table there. [Greiner] raised his voice and said, “Hey everyone, the village board and trustee Tesch here are looking to get rid of the police department.” That was the extent of what I heard. Again, [Tesch] holds me responsible for that somehow.’

Beckstrand emphasized that he was not present at this incident. Additionally, Beckstrand said that Greiner had resigned from his position as community service officer prior to the incident, so Beckstrand questioned why he would be responsible for Greiner’s action.

Beckstrand said that Tesch blames him for Greiner’s action because Greiner used to work for Beckstrand in the community service officer role. Beckstrand reported that Tesch has brought up the incident 12 times, four of which occurred during the June 13 closed session. Beckstrand played the June 13 recording of him and Tesch discussing the issue.

In it, Beckstrand asks, “And you hold me responsible for what Ben did?”

Tesch says, “Who are we supposed to hold responsible?” Beckstrand replies, “Ben. He’s his own person.” As indicated by Beckstrand, following Greiner’s resignation as community service officer, the board “wouldn’t hire a new [community service officer], and expected me to fill in that extra ten hours a week in ordinance violations. Up until December, the whole ten hour work week [of the community service officer] was enforcing ordinances.” Beckstrand indicated that the board’s decision not to hire someone new to the community service officer position led to people having to report ordinance violations because he was unable to take on the duties of the community officer due to his responsibilities as police chief.

“I’m contracted with the school. I have regular office duties and crime duties,” he said.

Furthermore, Beckstrand said, “There are other portions I think play into [the decision to not renew]. In February, there were complaints filed to me that the village and the fire department were not doing things properly. I forwarded the complaints that were made to me to Chief Deputy Dassow of the Sheriff’s office as there was a clear conflict [of interest] going on with that. I recused myself. I feel they have retaliated about that as well because they got in trouble for that. They still blame me and told me that I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what they expected me to do with it. They didn’t want it sent over there.” In December 2023, Beckstrand was informed of a complaint that human services didn’t feel trusting of him. He stated, “I contacted Kala Thompson who is the head of the division that I work with now. She signed a paper and gave it to the board that she was supportive of me. I’ve worked closely with her. I’ve gone to dozens of calls with Kala, so I think she would have an understanding of everything that goes on there. I’ve never physically seen this complaint that apparently was made to the board. I was just informed that there was a complaint.”

Regarding this complaint, Beckstrand explained, “I was told it was made by the sheriff’s department. The board never showed me or followed up with me. I just had to hear from individual trustees that that’s what they were told. The board had no intentions of investigating and said it’s not their job to investigate complaints on employees, which is absurd I think.”

In reference to the communication Beckstrand has received from the board, he said, “We had three meetings. We had an employee review in April or May. I can’t remember off the top of my head. In that review, they said nothing of unsatisfactory remarks or anything like that. I have requested that employee review and have been denied. They won’t talk to me. I have several texts where I’ve asked to have meetings, talk about the contract, and they won’t respond at all.”

“The board is supposed to be there for the community, but everyone I’ve talked to from the community is not supportive of what they’ve been doing,” Beckstrand said.

“They won’t talk to me. ”

— Derek Beckstrand of the village board members leaving him in the dark.