Councilmember Mike Conway becomes third mayoral candidate in 2024 election

ST. CLOUD — While Councilmember Mike Conway admires the way Mayor Dave Kleis runs the city, he said things could be done differently. This desire for change sparked the long-time St. Cloud resident to announce his mayoral campaign on May 7.

“Kleis did a good job as mayor and I support most of the things he's wanted to do,” Conway said. “At the same time, I also realized there are things I would do a little differently. I'd like to set the tone for the next direction St. Cloud wants to go.”

Conway’s announcement increases the mayoral candidate pool to three, putting a primary election on voters’ minds. The city requires a mayoral race with three or more candidates to hold a primary election, which will be on Aug. 13. The top two candidates will go head-to-head on Nov. 5.

Fellow St. Cloud Councilmember Carol Lewis and former St. Joseph Councilmember Anne Buckvold join Conway in the race for mayor.

More: Councilmember Carol Lewis announces mayoral bid

More: Buckvold’s mayoral campaign announces initial plans for St. Cloud

Conway joined the City Council in 2018 to represent the city’s fourth ward. If elected mayor, he said he’ll focus on public safety, enhancing public infrastructure, development and city finances.

Managing the city’s finances won’t be much of a challenge, Conway told the St. Cloud Times, considering the city has maintained its revenue source. Conway said his plan is to remember city money isn’t his money and only spend it when absolutely necessary, highlighting his self-proclaimed “fiscally conservative” ideology.

This ideology bleeds into another priority — development. Conway said he would not use public tax dollars toward developing downtown or other neighborhoods. The councilmember also said his focus doesn’t revolve solely around downtown, but also on finding where to put St. Cloud’s next neighborhood. He said St. Cloud has a lack of single-family homes for prospective homeowners and expanding the city’s housing stock could be done by developing a new neighborhood.

“I don’t like the idea of the city going in and spending tax dollars on renovating buildings or anything like that,” Conway said. “Working with the businesses and the developments downtown, that's a different story.”

Kleis is currently in the process of securing $100 million from the state for the project, and the next mayor’s financial decisions about downtown will likely depend on whether he succeeds. Buckvold said she plans on rehabilitating historic buildings to be more business-friendly, in order to reduce the cost of revitalizing downtown. Lewis said she plans to build a baseball field downtown.

However, Conway is conscious of development when thinking about infrastructure. He said St. Cloud needs to better strategize its roadways in an effort to welcome new developments both downtown and beyond. County Road 74 and 322nd Street are two roadways he plans to consider.

“It’s not roads people look at as being critical today, but the roads and the infrastructure that are going to be critical for future growth,” Conway said. “Sometimes you have to build the road how you want it so development can come.”

Despite his desire to enhance public infrastructure to welcome development, public transportation isn’t among Conway’s top priorities.

Conway’s remaining priority is public safety. The councilmember said he has a working relationship with both the police and fire chiefs. He hopes to grow upon that if elected. Conway said St. Cloud’s safety problem is really a perception issue, claiming the city’s crime rate isn’t bad statistically.

St. Cloud has a property crime rate of 35.76 per 1,000 people, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The rate for theft is 29.92 and 1.07 for rape. Rochester — another Minnesota regional center with a population 57% larger than St. Cloud — reported less property, theft and rape crimes.

However, the statistics are shifting. In Kleis’ State of the City address, he said robberies went down 51% in 2023 and property crimes were down 15%, however, proactive traffic stops went up 18%. This is after several years of crime increasing in St. Cloud.

Conway said he is going to continue 2023’s trends by adding more police and fire staffing. He also wants to expand beyond the Community OutPost program, also known as the COP house, with more locations. The effort brings police and other community services to a house in a residential community.

Beyond the campaign, Conway said he is excited to explore new ways to serve the community. He currently holds posts on the St. Cloud Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board of Commissioners, Central Region Emergency Services Board and the Visit Greater St. Cloud Board. However, one of his first instances of service was coaching youth hockey in the area.

“I realized those young men and women I coached in youth hockey are now the 30 to 40-year-olds being the new generation of St. Cloud leaders,” Conway said. “It's fun interacting with them on a different level now.” Mayoral candidates can officially file candidacy from May 21 to June 4, according to the city’s website.

— Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter for the St. Cloud Times

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Mike Conway is now the third candidate running for mayor in St. Cloud