By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – Elected leaders in Bloomington celebrated their city manager’s performance Monday night and welcomed a land sale they hope will help area youth.

The council unanimously approved a 3.5 percent pay raise for Tim Gleason, who’s been on the job for just over a year after serving as Decatur’s city manager.

Gleason’s annual salary is now $191,475, plus he gets an extra week of vacation.

Council member Scott Black said he was initially skeptical about hiring an outsider, but Gleason won him over.

“The number gets thrown around every year, how the Governor of Illinois makes less money than the city manager. I don’t think the Governor of Illinois does even a quarter of the work that you do,” said Black.

Member Kimberly Bray said the council did “some good work hiring this guy.”

“I thought at the time that this was probably the most important decision that I would be making as a council member, and boy was I right,” said member Mboka Mwilambwe.

“I think your performance has been excellent,” Mwilambwe said.

Also, the council unanimously agreed to sell about 3.34 acres of Sunnyside Park on the west side to the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal. The organization plans to build a $12 million to $15 million clubhouse there.

The sale price is only $1.

“We know that there are more kids in our community that need a safe place to be after school,” said Boys and Girls Club CEO Tony Morstatter.

“There are families that need to know that their kids are safe after school, and that’s what we’re here for,” Morstatter also said.

The local Boys and Girls Club said it served more than 800 kids during the first six months of the year, with 90 percent of them coming from low-income families.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]