St. Cloud Mayor Holds 24-Hour Marathon Town Hall, Engages Community in 975th Public Meeting

(KNSI) – St. Cloud’s top official made himself available for anyone in the community for 24 hours over the weekend.

The marathon town hall went from 12:01 a.m. Saturday to 12:01 a.m. Sunday. It was the 975th public meeting Mayor Dave Kleis has held since he was first elected in November of 2005. It’s part of a promise he made to be accessible by holding weekly forums. The city’s longest serving mayor tells KNSI News it was one of the best he’s held. “The discussion was about pretty much anything you can think of. Even things that weren’t necessarily city issues, but we had great dialogue. And it was very productive.”

He says around 85 people made it to the town hall, with the longest person chatting for nearly three hours. Kleis says attendees didn’t have one specific theme to their questions. They ran the gamut from building construction to neighborhood issues to roads and sewer repair.

Kleis stayed awake due to all the stimulating conversations with people consistently flowing through the door. “I brought a few things that I thought maybe I could work on or read. But I never got a chance to open any of that because it was pretty steady all the way through.”

The mayor is planning to hold another 24-hour town hall sometime next year. It was the second time he’s held such a meeting, with the first taking place about a decade ago.

To find out more about the mayor’s 976th town hall, click here.

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