A St. Paul City Council member on Thursday called on Parks and Recreation Director Mike Hahm to resign in the wake of a lease dispute that ended this week with the third-largest legal settlement in city history.

Hahm touched off the court fight last year after indicating his department would end its 13-year relationship with Black Bear Crossings on the Lake coffee shop and seek a new operator for the Como Lakeside Pavilion.

“I think he should be removed from his position, absolutely,” council member Dan Bostrom said. “Something like this, that gets us into a situation like this, merits some consequences.”

The city council voted 5-1 on Wednesday to approve an $800,000 settlement to the operator of Black Bear Crossings. Bostrom cast the sole dissenting vote; council member Amy Brendmoen, who represents the area, was absent.

Brendmoen had approached Black Bear Crossings owner David Glass in April 2013 and questioned whether the coffee shop was meeting its public purpose. She also suggested partnering with Sea Salt, which operates a busier eatery at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis.

Glass maintains that after 13 years of praise, the Parks and Recreation Department pressured him to move on soon after. Brendmoen, who divorced in February and is dating Hahm, has said she does not need to recuse herself from votes involving the parks department.

Brendmoen has been traveling on a grant-funded tour of Copenhagen, and Hahm is on vacation. Neither could be reached for comment Thursday.

“One of the stories in the newspaper indicated that our colleague said that she wouldn’t have to recuse herself from these things unless they involved personal financial gain,” said Bostrom, just before the council approved the settlement Wednesday.

“I submit that she should probably be here and vote on this, and perhaps she might have some other comments on it.”

“For us to get involved in this, and also for the director of parks and recreation to get us involved in something like this, I just find this totally unacceptable,” Bostrom continued. “We’re the ones sitting around this table who had absolutely nothing to do with this $800,000 settlement … and the folks that got us into that aren’t even here.”

Tonya Tennessen, a spokeswoman for Mayor Chris Coleman, said Hahm has the mayor’s support.

“He’s served within the parks department for 30 years and has been director since 2009, overseeing projects like the Lowertown ballpark, Arlington Hills, the Como campus,” Tennessen said. “He’s been a very good leader for the parks and will continue to be.”

She said the case will be reviewed by the administration “to see if there are areas where we can make improvements, make changes.”

After Wednesday’s vote, John Krenik, who chairs the St. Paul Republican Party, said the romantic relationship between Brendmoen and Hahm influenced the city’s decision to end the lease arrangement with Black Bear Crossings and “put the city at great liability.”

He later continued: “The people need an explanation. This is not how you run government.”

In earlier statements, Brendmoen has said she makes policy decisions based on what is in the best interest of residents and that her “advocacy toward realizing the highest and best use for the Como Lakeside Pavilion is certainly not personal.”

Hahm has said his work is “professional, transparent and performed faithfully and impartially.”

Terms of the new settlement limit public comment for both sides, but members of Coleman’s administration last year described the decision to seek a new pavilion operator as a professional one.

City officials last November said Black Bear Crossings had produced about $250,000 in cafe revenue in the previous 12 months, about one-fourth of what comparable Minneapolis parks operators produced from May to August.

In a letter to Glass at the time, an assistant city attorney said accounting records provided by Black Bear Crossings “have not been complete or accurate.” City officials said the company refused to open its financial books for inspection until August 2013.

Under the terms of its 2009 lease, Black Bear Crossings paid the city between $25,000 and $29,000 annually to operate the pavilion, which includes a wedding and event center and paddle boat rentals.

Glass responded by suing the city, alleging breach of its 2009 lease, which included the option for a five-year extension. In interviews, Glass said the city failed to articulate what improvements it was looking for.

A Ramsey County district judge sided with Glass several months ago and allowed him to sue for damages. The judge, however, said the city did not have to continue to lease the pavilion to Black Bear Crossings.

Glass recently added a defamation claim to his suit, which was scheduled to go to trial early next year. Settlement details became public Friday.

Black Bear Crossings is closing at the end of December, to the disappointment of some fans.

“Black Bear Crossings has been part of the community for a long time, and we’re concerned and disappointed that this dispute ended with such acrimony and at such a high cost to the taxpayer,” Jon Knox, board chairman of the District 10 Como Community Council, said in a statement.

Critics of the coffee shop, though, say it did not offer hot food or affordable prices.

The city will request proposals for a new vendor Tuesday. More details are online at stpaul.gov/comolakesidepavilion.

“We are keeping options open and aren’t putting an exact number on the revenue sharing requirements we expect,” said Brad Meyer, a spokesman for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172. Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.