By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington is looking for a police chief for the second straight year, and the mayor said the key hiring comes at a critical time.
Clay Wheeler announced Friday he’s retiring in June after 28 years in the department, but only about a year as chief.
Wheeler decided to put family ahead of work as his wife recovers from cancer.
“If we could possibly clone him, that would be great,” said Mayor Tari Renner.
“Clay Wheeler was an outstanding police chief and I’m sorry to see him go,” said Renner.
“He’s a wonderful human being.”
Renner said he has faith in the city’s three assistant chiefs in the short-run to lead efforts combating gun violence after a shooting Tuesday night that left one man dead and two other people critically wounded.
“The spike in gun violence is, to say the least, extremely troubling, and that’s something the entire police force is working on. We’re going to do this and not skip a beat, and I have the greatest confidence in the assistant chiefs in the short-run, and obviously our city manager as he’s preparing to figure out how to move forward to select a new permanent police chief,” the mayor said.
“We need a police chief that’s aggressive, who’s going to be in touch with the community, who’s going to be a great leader for our department,” Renner added.
City Manager Tim Gleason, who’s conducting the search for Wheeler’s replacement, was himself a police officer for 21 years in Pekin, rising to the rank of Lieutenant.
Gleason said he hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll conduct an internal search, or hire someone not currently on the force.
Wheeler was an assistant chief when he was picked last year to replace Brendan Heffner, who became a U.S. Marshal for the Central District of Illinois.
Currently, the department has three assistant chiefs, Greg Scott, Kenneth Bays, and Dan Donath.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
