By Sean Copeland/Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington aldermen are expected to announce their choice for an interim city manager later this week, and it will likely be the top assistant to departing city manager David Hales.
The council is scheduled to meet in special session Thursday afternoon to elevate Steve Rasmussen to the post, effective November 8th, a day after Hales officially relinquishes his job. Hales takes over as Joliet’s city manager in late November.
A city spokeswoman said Rasmussen’s salary will be raised to just over $170,000 up from his current salary of about $142,000.
He’s been Bloomington’s assistant city manager for the past three years, and was chief city administrator in Jefferson, Missouri.
Since 2011, Rasmussen has been Vice President of Interim Solutions, a company that uses interim executives and directors to fill vacant executive positions until permanent replacements are found.
With the city, Rasmussen is expected to run city government until next spring, when the city council hopes to find Hales’ permanent replacement.
Mayor Tari Renner seemed at odds with the city council over the hiring an interim manager. He complained as recently as last night (Monday night) that the process dragged on for too long, requiring three executive or closed-door sessions to discuss the matter.
Rasmussen served 28 years in the military, retiring as an army colonel. During that time, Rasmussen served as Garrison Commander of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he was responsible for the infrastructure of of the 165-square mile installation, and managed nearly one-thousand unionized workers.
Mayor Renner said of Rasmussen that he “will provide the stability needed during this critical interim period.”
Sean Copeland can be reached at [email protected].
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected].
