By: Diane Benjamin
The Bloomington City Council did vote to buy the former Owens Nursery location but not before Alderman Sheila Montney revealed what Tim Gleason did.
In January he made a verbal agreement with a realtor in Decatur to look for somewhere to relocate Public Works. He sent an email to the Council in April with more details. Gleason was acquainted with this realtor, he ignored “buy local” and bypassed local realtors. Montney mentioned Gleason gave local realtors the impression he didn’t trust them to keep the plan confidential.
Worse is the fact this realtor in Decatur raked in a 5% commission when it likely could have been negotiated lower. He collected $271,250 while serving as a dual agent for both the buyer and seller. Of course that increased the purchase price to cover the fee.
The meeting was much shorter than this video shows, the City played commercials before the meeting started. Sheila Montney stated all of the above and more – then City Manager Jeff Jurgens responded. Click play below to listen. Public Works needs a larger facility because many of their vehicles won’t fit inside the current location which forces employees to work on vehicles outside regardless of the weather. The current location was also identified as the best place for a retention pond to prevent flooding. When you know the details of this transaction it is obvious Gleason badly mishandled this transaction and handed tax dollars to a guy he knew which sent your money out of town.
Of course no one will investigate.
Graft looking? Should this go forward and council members or city taff with knowledge of this should be investigated.
No surprise…any “deals” and projects with Decatur and Springfield et. al. partners are a big kick back money funnel. I pat your back- you pat mine kinda thing. Seen is in every industry and public service organization in B-N and McLean County and other local counties.
Does anyone speak out? – NO
Does anyone investigate the conflicts of interest or pay to play scams? NO
Too bad for local taxpayers and citizens.
We wouldn’t know if Sheila Montney hadn’t spoke out.
Shouldn’t most politicians be investigated for abuse of power…..
Montney is a class person!
UNREAL!
Gleason claimed it was a “coincidence” that he happened to use his realtor buddy from Decatur for a Bloomington transaction???? COME ON!!! (On the Vieweg Realty website, it states that the Broker = Tim Vieweg is a lifelong Decatur resident, so why would we want to use someone who is an expert on Decatur for a Bloomington transaction? Makes ZERO sense!!
Gleason clearly thinks we are all stupid! Well, I guess we ARE stupid because Gleason and his buddy/Tim Vieweg are both laughing all the way to the bank with our tax money! UGH!!
There is probably nothing that can be done if the city has no policy against this.
I agree it is unethical to do that. The city needs a policy against it with consequences.
This is probably paranoid, but does it seem like the city manaager and their staff are the keepers of the castle and maybe we are the serfs? And the state is the princeling and the feds are the kings. Oh how we have improved ourselves! And we keep adding serfs.
Not paranoid. Elect socialists you get socialism