End of an era: Mayor Kleis announces he isn't running for another term

ST. CLOUD — A chapter of St. Cloud politics is coming to an end as Mayor Dave Kleis announced Friday that he will not seek reelection after his nearly 20-year tenure.

Kleis’ decision to leave office comes four years later than he originally expected. The long-time politician decided to seek reelection in 2020 to provide the city stability as the COVID-19 pandemic came to the forefront that March.

“This decision might have been made four years ago,” Kleis told the St. Cloud Times. “When COVID hit in 2020 I thought very strongly about having somebody (familiar with processes in office to) deal with that.”

“2020 quickly became more than just COVID (with civil unrest and incoming refugees). It was the most challenging year of my time being mayor. I think it would’ve been the wrong decision to put somebody else in that position, but now we've come out of COVID.”

Kleis, who served in the Minnesota State Senate from 1995 until becoming mayor in 2005, will focus on different ways to serve the community as he moves forward. The politician was previously involved with the Rotary Club but disaffiliated when elected to office to avoid a conflict of interest. He told the St. Cloud Times it’s possible he’ll get involved with the organization again.

However, the Air Force veteran said his focus lies with his involvement in veterans affairs activism and the American Legion. Kleis lost his brother, who served in the Marines to suicide, making the topic personal to him and veteran suicide prevention advocacy a priority.

“When I talk about 2020 being a tough year, it’s important to know I lost my brother that July,” Kleis said. “He took his own life and he was a former Marine so I'll be active in service organizations.”

While Kleis currently has no plans to hold public office again, he said, “I can never say never.” Kleis is approaching 61 years old and plans to focus on his business, Central Minnesota Driving Academy, before retirement.

“I’ve been a small business owner for 33 years,” Kleis said. “My manager might be upset when she sees me around the office too much.”

St. Cloud’s Mayoral Race

The only candidate to officially announce their candidacy to fill Kleis’ position so far is former St. Joseph Councilmember Anne Buckvold. Buckvold is hosting a campaign launch at 11 a.m. on May 4 in the Grand River Regional Library’s Mississippi Room.

Buckvold is a long-time public transportation advocate. She told the St. Cloud Times bringing consistent, accessible train service to St. Cloud and creating an urban, walkable downtown are among her top priorities.

Mayoral candidates can file candidacy from May 21 to June 4, according to the city’s website.

Municipal Election Reform

Kleis’ Friday announcement also includes a proposal to change the city charter. He wants to move municipal elections to occur in odd-numbered years to keep municipal election issues local rather than being caught up with national issues by coinciding with a presidential election.

“Everything is overshadowed by the presidential and statewide elections so there's not a focus on local government,” Kleis said.

National topics have also caused local issues to become more polarized and associated with political parties, Kleis said. He said local politics should be considered by the issue rather than which political ideology a candidate follows.

“It's not political. There is no Republican or Democrat way to plow a street or fill a pothole in Minnesota,” Kleis said. “It does not help in any way to be part of partisan politics at a local level.”

The charter amendment needs to be brought to the City Council by the Charter Commission, which Kleis said he will work with to draft an official proposal this summer. Charter amendments require a unanimous City Council vote.

Revitalizing Downtown

While Kleis isn’t running for mayor again, he will hold the post until January. Kleis told the St. Cloud Times there’s a lot of work to be done until then with revitalizing downtown being a top priority.

“There's been a lot of momentum, more than 27 new businesses have either started or expanded downtown during the last 15 months,” Kleis said. “We're asking the legislature for $100 million to help the effort. I hope to be moving even further in that direction during the next eight months.”

Kleis previously announced his goal to bring 1,000 new housing units to the downtown area within the next five years. He said downtown initiatives come as the conversation changes from attracting jobs to attracting people, considering many workplaces transitioning to a remote style post-pandemic.

Buckvold said if elected she will grow upon Kleis’ downtown efforts, not only with housing in mind but also other amenities.

“There's no full-service grocery store. If you want to have housing downtown, you need a grocery store,” Buckvold said. “You have to have a drug store and other shops people can go to.”

Kleis’ Accomplishments

St. Cloud’s mayor is responsible for proposing its annual budget and Kleis is proud of his track record. He has proposed 19 budgets so far and says the City Council has always approved his proposals with minimal pushback.

Under Kleis’ financial tutelage, St. Cloud saw two bond rating increases as the city made its way to an S&P Global rating of AA+.

“I'm very proud of the people who work for the city and I feel its financial shape is going in the right direction,” Kleis said.

Kleis also said h??e’s happy with his public safety efforts. During his State of the City address, Kleis said robberies went down 51% in 2023 alongside property crimes going down 15%.

Roughly 94% of community survey respondents said they were satisfied with city services.

Kleis’ Unpopular Moves

Kleis also faced challenges during this 20-year tenure. He said there was a learning curve along the way, especially when it came to community input and ensuring all stakeholders are brought into the conversation.

When Kleis first came to office, he faced a controversial proposal for a River Bats — now the St. Cloud Rox — baseball stadium. Kleis said the city failed to bring in key stakeholders when debating the proposal and faced backlash for it.

“We came up with an announcement before we had a good feeling of what all the stakeholders (were thinking),” Kleis said. “I learned right away that it comes down to community engagement and it made me a stronger proponent of it.”

Kleis held roughly 980 town halls since taking office in 2005, according to his State of the City address.

The mayor also came under fire for vetoing a 2017 proposal banning the sale of tobacco to consumers under 21 years old. Kleis said he thought the decision should be up to the state rather than the city, hence, he decided to use his power to overrule City Council. He said this decision was made despite the City Council chamber being filled with supporters asking for the ban. This veto is one of two vetoes the mayor did during his tenure so far, Kleis said, while also saying two of the city’s three all-time vetoes were done by him.

“You could see the crowd cheering, glad the council passed it. There were a lot of well-known heavy health advocate hitters present too,” Kleis said. “At the end of the meeting, as soon as council passed it, I said, ‘Given my position and I hate to disappoint people … but I don't believe it's the city's role to do this and I'm going to veto it.”

At the end of the day, Kleis is both excited and nervous to see what the future brings. He said he hopes to serve as a mentor for those who follow in his footsteps and wants the spirit of service to survive for generations to come.

“There's been such a strong division in our country, state and communities this past decade,” Kleis said. “It's detrimental to our democracy with so many people being turned off by service, especially young people. We can't have a democracy like that so I'll be working very hard to engage people to get involved at all levels, including getting people in an elected office.”

– Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with the St. Cloud Times.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud mayor Dave Kleis announces he won't seek reelection