Star Tribune
Dave Kleis says he won’t run for sixth term as St. Cloud mayor
ST. CLOUD — For the first time in three decades, Dave Kleis won’t be on the ballot in November.
The five-term mayor, who also represented the area for a decade in the Minnesota Senate before that, made the decision this week to not run for a sixth term.
“I almost made that decision four years ago but COVID hit and there was so much uncertainty — it would have been hard for anyone to step in,” Kleis said. “I think it’s important to have new leadership, and I’m confident there will be a lot of folks who will run.”
Kleis made the announcement publicly Friday at a press conference where he also unveiled two proposals to change the city’s charter: to move city elections to odd years so they don’t compete with national and state elections, and to eliminate the three at-large council seats in favor of seven ward seats.
Kleis, 60, is the city’s longest-serving mayor. First elected in 2005, he was re-elected while running unopposed in 2008, 2012 and 2016, and in the last election, he handily defeated his challenger with more than 63% of the vote.
“He’s the real deal. Dave should do mayor schools — mayor workshops — simply because he gets it. Period,” former St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said Friday.
Kleis’ first stint in office started in 1995 after he won a special Senate election following the election of Sen. Joanne Bensonas lieutenant governor.
Kleis credits Benson as his inspiration for running for state office some five years after a failed mayoral campaign as a college student: Kleis handed out 750 lawn signs and had 120 people at his campaign party but somehow only received 96 votes, he said with a laugh.
“Frankly, I wasn’t ready to be CEO of St. Cloud, so the voters made the right decision in 1989,” he said.
But Kleis has always been civic-minded, first enlisting in the U.S. Air Force while he was a high school student in Litchfield. He credits Benson for encouraging him to give running for office another try in 1994, which led to his three decades in leadership.
“I won’t ever step away from service and I will continue strongly advocating for people to be engaged,” said Kleis, who noted he has no plans to run for other elected offices but plans to continue being active in the community, especially in veterans groups. Four years ago, Kleis’ brother Tom died by suicide, spurring Kleis to advocate for more mental health programming for veterans.
Kleis also owns a driving school in St. Cloud, something he’ll continue to do after election season comes and goes.
“I’m very proud of and love this town,” he said.
Kleis said he feels the city is in a strong position financially and has good administrative leaders in place — something that’s important for continuity as a new mayor comes in. St. Cloud is one of just four cities in the state with a strong-mayor system, where the mayor acts as a chief executive and the council as a legislative body.
City Administrator Matt Staehling said Friday the city has a long history of smooth transitions with incoming mayors, though Kleis leaves big shoes to fill. He called Kleis the “Energizer bunny” who has likely been the mayor most involved in the city’s day-to-day operations, in addition to his multiple engagement efforts such as weekly town halls and resident dinners at his home.
Anderson, who worked with Kleis until his retirement in 2022, lauded Kleis for his accessibility, which includes sharing his personal cell number widely in the community and online — a rarity among elected officials today. He also praised Kleis for his steadfast encouragement of others to also get involved.
“One of my favorite lines from Dave about people who would come and challenge him and say, ‘Well, what are you going to do about [this]?” Anderson said. “And Dave’s response was always, ‘What are you going to do to help me fix this issue?’ Because we are all in this community.”
The candidate filing period for the November election runs from May 21 to June 4. In St. Cloud, the mayor and three at-large seats on the St. Cloud City Council are up for election. If three or more candidates file to run for mayor, a primary election will be held in August. All seats are nonpartisan. So far, Anne Buckvold is the only candidate to announce a run for mayor.
As for the proposed charter changes, Kleis said he plans to propose the charter committee consider moving city elections to odd years, similar to how it’s done in Duluth and Minneapolis, and how it used to be done in St. Cloud.
“I was the last mayor elected in an odd year. My first term was three years because of the charter change. I know why they did it — to save money — but what happens is the city election is so overshadowed by national and statewide elections,” he said. “But the people you elect locally have the biggest impact on your day-to-day life.”
If the charter commission recommends the change, it would need to be unanimously approved by the City Council or by citizen ballot measure. Kleis said he isn’t sure when the change would go into effect, but said if it was approved before November, the next election for the at-large seats could be in 2027.
Moving from the current council system — four ward seats with an equal number of residents and three at-large seats that represent the whole city — to seven ward seats would have to happen after the next census in 2030. Having seven wards would make the council more representative of the community, Kleis said.
Regardless, after a new mayor is sworn in this January, Kleis plans to commit more time to traveling in his effort to visit 150 countries in his life. So far, he’s at 130.
“I’m missing one continent. It’s really hard to get to Antarctica if you’re mayor,” Kleis said. “I tell people I haven’t had a vacation in 30 years because I travel — but I continue to work. The phone calls and emails don’t stop.”
“She didn’t always lie, but she didn’t always tell the truth,” Bauer said. “And she had secret truths, and that’s OK. And her friends, in an effort to change this, have told a great deal of revisionist history that’s not supported by [the] evidence.”
Kingsbury’s disappearance from her Winona home on March 31, 2023, sparked nationwide interest and spurred more than 2,000 volunteers to search for her along Hwy. 43 south of Winona over more than two months. A Fillmore County deputy found her body in a culvert on June 7 that year.
Both lawyers rarely agreed on evidence as they picked apart each others’ arguments throughout Wednesday morning and early afternoon.
Law enforcement testified Kingsbury’s home with Fravel on Kerry Drive didn’t show signs of a struggle and appeared to be intact. Bauer said that testimony shows Fravel couldn’t have killed Kingsbury by smothering her with a towel the way prosecutors suggest, arguing there would have been broken furniture or marks. The defense attorney also pointed out a neighbor who shares a wall with the home said she had never heard Fravel and Kingsbury argue.
Prokopowicz argued Fravel, at 240 pounds, was much heavier than Kingsbury and could have subdued her quickly. The prosecutor also pointed out that no locks or windows were damaged, saying it was unlikely someone could have snuck into the house, smothered Kingsbury, wrapped her body in the gray fitted sheet she was found in and duct taped it without Fravel’s knowledge.
Fravel told police he was home for much of that morning, then left for more than two hours to drive items to his parents’ home in Mabel, Minn., before turning back because he had packed the wrong items in Kingsbury’s van. Prokopowicz pointed out Fravel had switched the license plates on Kingsbury’s van with his own car and pointed out a 44-minute gap where Fravel would have had time to hide Kingsbury’s body.
The next time St. Paul voters cast their votes for the White House, they will select the city’s elected leadership as well. With 60% voting yes, St. Paul voters Tuesday opted to move city elections from odd-year elections to coinciding with electing the next U.S. president.
Proponents of the plan said it will increase voter turnout for city races. In 2016, more than 140,000 St. Paul residents cast votes. And in 2020, more than 150,000 voted. Those numbers were about three times greater than the people who decided St. Paul’s mayor and City Council elections in 2021 and 2023.
In transition, all seven members of the St. Paul City Council, who were elected in 2023, will now serve 5-year terms.
Then, on Nov. 4, 2025, St. Paul voters will vote for mayor to serve a one-time, 3-year term.
Voters will select the mayor and all seven members of the City Council at the same time they vote for president and vice president.
How will the city ballot, which uses ranked-choice voting and provides for an unlimited number of initial candidates, be merged with the ballot for president and other federal, state and local elections? In Portland, Ore., which blends ranked choice-voting with more standard ballots for state and federal races, voters receive two ballots — one with local candidates and one for president, federal and state offices.
Star Tribune
Jackson Gatlin pleads guilty to sexually assaulting teenage girl in Vineyard Church youth group
DULUTH – Jackson Gatlin, dressed in a dark suit with his hands cuffed behind his back, was led by authorities from the courtroom Wednesday morning after pleading guilty to felony-level criminal sexual conduct in a case where numerous women have come forward with similar stories of being sexually assaulted as girls when he was their youth leader here at The Vineyard Church.
As part of a deal, Gatlin pleaded guilty to one count and on four others entered an Alford plea — in which he maintains innocence, but admits there is sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty during a trial. The third-floor courtroom at the St. Louis County courthouse was at capacity for the hearing, with several of his victims sitting together in a row. Gatlin, 36, will be sentenced during separate hearings November 25-26, with all the impact statements during the first.
He will likely serve 13 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender.
Civil charges are expected to be filed soon against Gatlin — in addition to his father Michael Gatlin, who was a senior pastor at the church, his mother Brenda who was also in a position of power, The Vineyard Church in Duluth and Vineyard USA, according to Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney who has represented victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Cosby. There will be 10 complaints against each entity, nine from victims and one from a mother whose daughter died by suicide.
“The church should be a place where people feel secure — a sanctuary to find God, practice your faith and find support within your community,” Kuvin said during a press conference after the hearing, sitting alongside the victims in a conference room at a downtown law office. “Unfortunately, the church became a living hell for these young girls.”
Neither of Gatlin’s parents were in the courtroom on Wednesday.
As part of the Alford plea, the prosecutors went through each victim’s allegations and the testimony that would have occurred during a trial. It showed a pattern of Gatlin, then in his early 20s, establishing closeness with 11 to 16 year old girls that extended beyond just the church.
His text messages went from friendly to flirty to sexual. He brought them to his bedroom in his family home or drove them in his car or made them sit next to him on a bus ride. He touched them or made them touch him. He bound their wrists or otherwise restrained them. He raped them and at least in one case laughed when they told him to stop.