Mayor Dave Kleis Bids Farewell: Reflecting on 20 Years of Leadership and a World of Adventures Ahead

(KNSI) – The longest-serving mayor in St. Cloud’s history is getting ready to pass the torch, leaving behind a legacy of service.

Mayor Dave Kleis says growing up, he yearned to help others, and his journey began when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a high school junior when he was 17. He graduated from Litchfield High School and, days later, was on his way to basic training. Kleis spent nine years in the Air Force and Air Force Reserves before attending college and graduating from St. Cloud State University. He opened the Central Minnesota Driving Academy in 1991, which he still operates. Kleis was a member of the Minnesota Senate for 11 years and will have spent 20 years as St. Cloud mayor. Over his time, he has appointed everybody at every level to different boards and commissions.

As Kleis prepared for the annual staff holiday party, he met with KNSI News in his office overlooking Eastman Park to reflect on his years as St. Cloud’s highest elected official.

Kleis feels his biggest accomplishment was drafting the city budget each year, with 2025 spending $6 million less than the first budget he presented when accounting for inflation. The city has kept the tax rate flat, and he has never had a budget rejected by the council, but he explained there were times when outside influences made budgeting a big obstacle. Some of the bigger ones that stick out to him are the Great Recession of 2008, caused by the mortgage crisis and crashing home values and COVID-19 in 2020 with the national and statewide shutdowns due to the pandemic.

Other difficult times Mayor Kleis guided the city through included the 2016 stabbing at Crossroads Center Mall, where the suspect slashed ten people before he was shot to death by an off-duty police officer who just happened to be there shopping at the time. Kleis also cited riots following false rumors on social media claiming a St. Cloud police officer had shot and killed two unarmed black teenagers. In fact, an officer had been shot in the hand while struggling with a suspect.

The city’s accomplishments under Kleis include the construction and opening of the Community Outpost, better known as COP House, establishing the St. Cloud Regional Airport Authority, creating the Economic Development Authority, saving the historic portions of Tech High School by turning it into the new city hall, helping to expand the River’s Edge Convention Center, teaming up with the YMCA to establish an aquatics center, getting up to 100 parks in the city, and restoring and improving Eastman Park which is now the home to Summertime by George. Kleis says many of these things have been accomplished by forming public-private partnerships.

His last official duties will be the swearing-in of the new city council and Mayor-elect Jake Anderson on January 13th.

After that last official task, Kleis plans to go out with friends and family for a celebratory dinner. He was also bitten by the travel bug during his nine years in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves, with stints in Germany, Japan and Washington, D.C. So far, he has visited 133 countries and is adding another international trip to kick off his retirement. “I look forward to going to some of those more difficult places to get to. My goal is to start by going to the Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, and those countries in that part of the Pacific, that’s just, those are some beautiful island countries.”

Kleis took a moment to say goodbye, “I’ve been honored, really honored, to be able to serve the citizens of St Cloud. It’s a city I love and will continue to be engaged in but in a different way.”

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