Mayor Maguire a History in Eagan

Meet Mayor Mike Maguire: The Right Choice for Eagan

In December 1995, five months after getting married, Mike and Janelle Waldock loaded up and left Mankato — where they’d met as students at Mankato State University — and headed to the Twin Cities to start their life together.

Mike had landed his first job teaching at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Janelle was headed to St. Paul to work for the Minnesota Smoke-Free Coalition. They needed somewhere in between — close enough for both commutes, affordable enough for two young professionals just starting out, and somewhere that simply felt right.

Eagan felt right.

They rented an apartment near Pilot Knob and Yankee Doodle — across from a Lockheed Martin facility and a wide open farm field that today is the Eagan Central Commons area. Town Center was there, but Byerly’s and Barnes & Noble were not yet part of Eagan.

Two years later, they bought their first home, a 1960’s split level in the Burr Oaks neighborhood. And Mike, who had been paying close attention to his new community, started paying even closer attention to City Hall.

From Our Neighborhood to City Hall

Mike’s entry into civic life wasn’t ambition — it was concern for his neighbors. 

In their early years in Eagan, Mike & Janelle were members of the St. John Neumann Catholic community, where they joined others at city hall to, literally, stand up for affordable housing in Eagan — a cause that brought them to their first city council meeting. That issue remains one of Mike’s deepest commitments today.

Later, Mike worried about a controversial proposal for an orphaning center nearby his neighborhood.  He believed it was the wrong call for the community. He organized neighbors, made the case, and took on city hall. The proposal was approved — though it ultimately never materialized — but Mike had found his footing as someone who shows up.

In September 2002, one month after his son Ian was born, Mike came in 2nd in an eight-way city council primary and moved on to win one of two open seats. He’s been in office ever since.

A Clarifying Fight

In 2005, Mike was diagnosed with stage-III colon cancer.

He didn’t step away. While undergoing treatment for a year, he kept showing up to council meetings, to community events, and to the work of Eagan. He came through it and is a proud 20-year survivor. Not long after, he went to work for the American Cancer Society, a role that brought his personal experience and his professional background in public health communication into alignment.

Growing Up in Eagan

Shortly after Mike was first elected Mayor in 2007, our family moved into Eagan’s Fairway Hills neighborhood. Ian went to Thomas Lake Elementary and then Blackhawk Middle School. Ian grew up in front of the Eagan community, and being dragged around town to community events — to Ian and Janelle roads, taxes, developments, and parks were never abstractions; they were the stuff of conversations at the dinner table — except of course on Tuesdays.

After attending Eastview High School, Ian transferred to and in 2020 graduated from the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley — a school whose very existence reflects the kind of community investment Eagan and its neighbors have made in the next generation. Janelle and Mike sponsor an annual scholarship through the Eagan Foundation specifically dedicated for an SES student because it was such a special place for Ian and continues to be for others. 

After graduation, Ian went on to Inver Hills Community College and this past year transferred to the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he’s pursuing political science and history. Mike and Janelle couldn’t be prouder — or more aware that the Eagan Ian grew up in shaped the person he’s becoming.

Growing Pains & Hard Choices.

Mike will tell you that the moments that shaped him most as mayor weren’t the ribbon cuttings. They were the close calls, the contested votes, the decisions where there was no easy answer, and people he respected landed on different sides.

Early in his time as a council member, Mike and the city council voted to deny a proposal to put housing on the old Carriage Hills Golf Course in hopes of preserving its natural setting. Following a protracted lawsuit, then Mayor Maguire and the City Council settled the case with an opportunity for Eagan voters to decide whether to purchase and preserve the land or allow development to go forward.  In spite of broad community support for the preservation of open space, the referendum failed, and Mike learned a grounding lesson about balancing the sometimes competing interests of a progressive and growing community.

Two years later in 2010, nearly the same issue landed in his own backyard — literally. The proposed redevelopment of the Parkview Golf Course was in Mike and Janelle’s neighborhood,  where they had made friends, found baby sitters for Ian, and walked their family dog. It was one of the most genuinely difficult decisions of his early tenure as mayor — not because the policy was unclear, but because the community and the neighbors he cared about were divided. The development was ultimately approved. Mike stood by the decision and, though not always comfortable, kept walking the neighborhood and the dog.

Mike understood that representing the interests of all of Eagan sometimes puts you in a difficult and uncomfortable spot with friends and neighbors who have strong and passionate feelings.  That’s a different kind of accountability than most elected officials face.

Still Here. Still Invested.

Mayor Maguire’s career has always reflected what he cares about. Before the council, he worked in tobacco prevention and control at the Minnesota Department of Health. While learning the mayor’s job, he was a media advocacy specialist at the American Cancer Society. Later, he ran his own strategic communications and public affairs practice.

Mike and Janelle are still in the Fairway Hills neighborhood. Ian is at UMD. And Coffee, the family’s beloved beagle for 15 years, passed away in May as candidates lined up and filed.

Thirty years after choosing Eagan, he’d choose it again.