Kudos to St. Cloud’s longtime mayor

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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If it were possible to calculate the percentage of St. Cloud residents who have personally met their mayor, and compare it to the percentage of residents of other medium-sized Minnesota cities who have met theirs, it’s likely that St. Cloud would come out on top. The same would be true if you could measure the percentage of residents who have been to the mayor’s house for dinner. Or who have the mayor’s cellphone number.

The people of St. Cloud have enjoyed exceptionally easy access to their top elected official for nearly 20 years, which says less about them than it does about Dave Kleis, their mayor. By his own count, Kleis has held 987 town hall meetings since becoming mayor in 2005, and he figures to break 1,000 sometime this summer. Then in January, he plans to swear in his replacement.

After a string of successful re-election campaigns, Kleis announced last month that he does not plan to seek another term. It’s a safe bet that the next mayor will find his example tough to follow.

Kleis, the longest-serving mayor in St. Cloud’s history, told an editorial writer this week that the key to his governing style is the making and nurturing of relationships. That’s an approach he learned when he served as a Republican in the state Senate, from 1995 to 2005. “I had really good friendships with folks on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “It was all about policy, but you built relationships.”

“Relationships were part of the key to success, so when I became mayor, it was even more important in an executive role to build relationships,” he said. “You really can’t govern unless you know people. … That’s why I do all the town-hall meetings. That’s why I do the dinners with strangers.”

For an example of how such relationships can prove useful, he pointed to the aftermath of stabbings at the Crossroads Center mall in 2016, when a young Somali-American wounded at least 10 people before being killed by an off-duty police officer. “Anywhere in the country, you could take that same situation and it would have created a riot,” Kleis said.

“I had the cellphone numbers of all the individuals I needed to talk to. They had my number. I spent hours on the phone that night, talking to folks from the East African community, the NAACP, our community policing folks,” he recalled. “That was because of the relationships, that we didn’t have a riot and a breakdown. … You build trust with relationships.”

There is a downside, though, to being perpetually available to his constituents: It’s been decades since Kleis has had a real break. He has traveled, he says, but because of technology he has never been able to disconnect fully from his job.

“In mid-January, as soon as my official duties are done and the new mayor is settled in and comfortable in that position — and I’ll do everything I can to help with a great transition, whoever that may be — I’ll be taking a very long vacation,” he said, laughing. “Without a cellphone, or at least without a cellphone that’s connected to email.”

Although he will be leaving the mayor’s office, he is not retiring. Kleis, 60, still runs a driver’s education business. He has in mind a book that he’d like to write. And though he said he has “no thought” of running for elective office again, he wants to remain involved in serving the public in some way.