St. Cloud's Longest Serving Mayor Getting Ready to Pass the Baton

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- St. Cloud's longest-serving mayor is stepping down at the end of this year.

Dave Kleis will have had the job for 20 years when he hands over the reins on January 13th.

He says he was encouraged to run by several community members back in 2005, and he waited to file until there was only an hour left before the deadline.

He says the best part of the job is the relationship-building he's done over the years. And, he's been focused on partnerships and collaborations like working with the Rotary Club on Eastman Park/Lake George.

This is a park that the St. Cloud Rotary Club put $1.6 million into. I remember shortly after I became mayor I had one of the Rotarians say to me, the city's got a 15 year plan for Lake George, could we accelerate that if we put some dollars into it, and I said absolutely.

Kleis says getting state bonding money to expand the River's Edge Convention Center and the St. Cloud Regional Airport are also major accomplishments, as well as a focus on road improvements.

Photo by WJON.com's Jim Maurice

He says a downside of the job as mayor is the emergence of social media and all the misinformation that can be spread quickly.

One of the challenging times during his time as mayor was the mall attack, which he says could have been much worse if the city didn't have relationships in place.

I'm actually thinking of the mayor of Springfield when a city is mentioned in a Presidential debate. If you recall, in 2016 not the city of St. Cloud but the mall attack was mentioned in the debate between Trump and Clinton, they fortunately said a mall in Minnesota so everyone assumed it was the Mall of America and not St. Cloud.

Kleis says the civil unrest and COVID-19 in 2020 were also a huge challenge for the city.

He says that even if he adjusts for inflation, the city's annual budget is $6 million less now than it was in his first full year on the job. He's walking away now because he feels the city is financially stable.

Also, he points to the city's crime rate which has been consistently going down.

He considered retiring in 2020 but decided to run for one more term because of the pandemic.

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He says he will continue to be active in the community when he is no longer the mayor focusing on veterans issues and getting young people involved, he also wants to travel quite a bit, and he will continue to own his business in town.

Two men remain in the race to become St. Cloud's next mayor current city council members Jake Anderson and Mike Conway are on the ballot in the general election.

WJON News has done feature interviews with each of the long time outgoing mayors in the area from St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Waite Park, and St. Joseph.