By: Lynn Tipton, FCCMA Executive Director Emeritus
Friend, colleague, leader, storyteller, innovator, and family man are just some of the many words that come to mind when thinking about Dan Kleman. After a full career and busy retirement, his many friends are remembering Dan, who passed away last week, and reflecting on his legacy within the local government profession.
As a 50-year member of FCCMA, Dan led this association and led ICMA, one of only two Floridians to serve as president of both associations. He served as a Senior Advisor and gave back to the profession in every way possible.
Dan’s story begins in Ohio, where he was born and raised. He earned his undergraduate degree at Bowling Green State University and his master’s at the University of Pennsylvania. He interned with the City of Dayton and progressed to the post of deputy city manager before being lured to Florida to become a city manager.
Tallahassee hired the then-28-year-old at a pivotal moment for the city with newly enacted Home Rule powers and a struggling downtown grappling with suburban sprawl. Dan jumped right in, taking on a capital city with an electric utility and a tax base mostly comprised of exempted state office buildings and two similarly exempt universities. Dan helped his new mayor and commission recognize that utility revenues could fill gaps left by the anemic property tax base, while embracing an aggressive annexation strategy, as the city was the only municipality in the county. He helped revitalize downtown and created strong ‘town and gown’ relations while expanding city services.
I met Dan as a management and budget analyst for the City of Tallahassee, which he managed from 1974 to 1994. He held a monthly orientation session for new employees to share his management philosophy, city goals, and services – and it was one of the best meetings I have ever attended. Dan had come to Tallahassee with youthfully abundant red hair; was it city stress or teenagers that caused his hair to whiten at a young age? He claimed both. During this meeting, he seamlessly wove together the city’s goals, its intergovernmental role as a capital city, the vast utility network, and his own hopes for the team that delivered these services around the clock.
Dan served on FCCMA’s board of directors and was president from 1982 to 1983. He served on many committees as well. During his ICMA leadership roles as a regional vice president and later president (1993-1994), Dan championed the need for credentialing managers and was part of the initial class to place ICMA-CM next to his name. His commitment to ethics led to his serving on the state and ICMA ethics committees and dozens of workshop panels related to ethics instructions, ethics challenges, and updates or changes to the ICMA Code. He traveled the U.S. and internationally to help members understand the importance of promoting professionalism and ethics and embracing changes to the profession through diversity. He fought for the C-M form of government in numerous plan challenge efforts and urged members to donate to the ICMA Fund for the Profession so that future educational campaigns could occur.
After Tallahassee, Dan served in Hillsborough County and Jacksonville’s consolidated city-county structure. These experiences gave him expertise in working with Constitutional officers. In Jacksonville and during his part-time work with Port St. Lucie, he tackled union negotiations for fire and police with a crackling enthusiasm.
As a Senior Advisor, Dan enjoyed presenting the C-M plan to councils and commissions. He moderated seminars and workshops and shared wisdom with FCCMA members, students, and interns. He wanted to ‘pay it back and pay it forward’ in as many ways as possible because he believed the profession and his worldwide colleagues and friends had enriched his life.
Dan also gave back as an educator: he taught many undergraduate and graduate classes in public administration in Florida and Ohio. He encouraged practitioners to give back so that academia had real-world examples in the classrooms.
Dan loved to travel by train. He and his wife Jan took convoluted routes to many conferences because Dan wanted to take the opportunity to ride on an unknown line or type of train – she was a very good sport on some of these journeys!
Whether you knew Dan as an employer, colleague, instructor, facilitator, senior advisor, or friend, I’m sure you treasured his gift for storytelling, dedication to the profession and quest for excellence, innovative spirit, compassion, laugh, the twinkle in his eye during that laughter, and more.
Dan is survived by his partner Jan, four adult children and their partners, 11 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Service and memorial information will be shared soon.
