By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Filling all the vacant spaces in Downtown Bloomington will be one of the challenges for the next city manager.
The three finalists, all from Central Illinois, met the media and then the public at a ‘meet and greet’ event at City Hall Tuesday night.
Decatur City Manager Tim Gleason, 53, said having a new person in charge creates new opportunities, and he wants to instill a ‘can-do’ attitude in economic development.
“When you’ve got somebody that’s even considering developing in your community, it’s critical to find that way to make it happen,” said Gleason.
Washington City Administrator Jim Culotta, 45, wants to eliminate economic barriers, and said the city has to invest in its people.
“Part of that is developing a strong entrepreneurial type of culture,” Culotta said.
“Maybe there (are) things that the city can do to help foster that kind of a culture that I’ve seen successful in communities across the country,” Culotta also said.
Interim Bloomington City Manager Steve Rasmussen said there are tremendous challenges downtown, but he’s enthusiastic about its future.
“We can’t tax our way to success, and we can cut our way to success,” said Rasmussen.
“We’ve got to develop our way to success, and so we need to take every opportunity from many different ways to do economic development in the downtown and the near-downtown,” Rasmussen also said.
Culotta and Gleason said they each want Rasmussen, 69, to remain on the staff if either becomes David Hales’ permanent replacement.
Aldermen are set to discuss the hiring in a closed session Monday night.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at howard.packowitz@cumulus.com
