This week there were two nasty (and false) attack mailers which I will address today
Let’s start with the attacks on me. The so-called Orland Integrity Party (OIP) call me a hypocrite for taking the full $150,000 salary. They believe if they say something enough times it will be true. The facts from 2 years ago as I pointed out, and as did the former Mayor, are that whomever wins will receive that salary because STATE LAW requires that the salaries be set 180 days prior to the term. Here is exactly what I said when interviewed on AM 560 — “First and foremost I’m not going to take a pension. The salary has been set in law for the next 4 years so there nothing I can do about it for 4 years, however I am going to push it back to be a part time position like it should be and bring the salary back commensurate to what it was before which was $40,000.”
You can link to that radio interview here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jT3SAp7vTk&feature=youtu.be&t=333 — my interview starts at 3:50. To hear the comments above you can start listening at about 5:20.
You can also link to multiple news articles here –
https://patch.com/illinois/orlandpark/pekau-take-mayoral-salary-pass-pension
https://www.opprairie.com/village/mayoral-election-no-1-contender-keith-i-pekau
The fact is, this was a PENSION GRAB. By winning, and OPTING OUT of the pension system I saved taxpayers $2.1 Million.
The OIP also state that on their first day in office they will pass a resolution to reduce the mayor’s salary back to $40,000. Let’s discuss this obfuscation:
- The pay for the position is set for the full term by State Law and CANNOT be changed for this term. (see the link to minutes below).
- A resolution is not an ordinance. It simply is a statement that this is what we should do in the future.
- The ordinance was written to “sunset” for the next term. This means it won’t apply unless the board chooses to put it in place for another term.
However, the real hypocrites are Trustee Carole Ruzich and her accomplice Trustee Pat Gira.
- CAROLE RUZICH LED THE EFFORT FOR THE PAY RAISE! At the time this was passed, Carole Ruzich had a lot to say in the October 17, 2016 board meeting where SHE led the effort to increase the pay. The minutes (pages 15 -21) are here file:///C:/Users/Authorized%20User/Downloads/Minutes%20(2).pdf — Included in these minutes are Trustee Ruzich’s comments that it is STATE LAW that in order to make a change an ordinance has to be passed 180 days before the election and will be in effect for the entire term.
- Also, here is the Prairie’s article on this meeting: https://screenshots.firefox.com/FHNbafdvbKjgVIS1/www.opprairie.com
- Carole Ruzich also has stated numerous times, in my first year, that she still thought it was a good idea because of all the progress being made. In fact, when Trustee Gira tried to evaluate my performance relating to the full-time position, no other Trustee seconded this. Including Trustee Ruzich
Now she’s behind mailers like this, as the Chairperson of the Orland Integrity PAC because she wants to retain power.
- At the time this was passed, Trustee Gira said the following: “It was stated earlier in this meeting that there is a need for the Village to work on the existing business parks to modernize and market them properly. That is why there is a need for an Economic Development Coordinator and she believes that President McLaughlin is the best person.”
Now she’s on Facebook demanding that I give the salary back and work for free. Clearly, she was interested in giving $2.1 million of your money to the former mayor. Fortunately, for everyone my election stopped that from happening.
Orland Integrity Party??? Integrity? Between these attacks and their effort to rig an election, I hardly think so.
As if these attacks weren’t bad enough, on the other side of the mailers they decided to attack both our biggest income generator and our fine police department. They wrote:
“(We) Will force Orland Mall to improve security”
This should scare everyone. The government is going to “force” a private business to add people. I have spent the last week handling phone calls from Seritage (the developer bringing in AMC), Simon Properties (the owner of the mall), Von Maur and others concerning these political attacks. This behavior can drive business out of Orland Park very quickly. Just ask New York about Amazon. Additionally, Trustee Ruzich is well aware that Simon Properties reached out to us and agreed to do several things to help improve the perception problem at the mall. The only thing I can talk about (for obvious strategy reasons) is that they agreed to strengthen their code of conduct. There is no excuse for this behavior that politicizes a murder.
But the OIP didn’t stop there. They had the audacity to attack our police department. They wrote:
“(We) Will invest resources into more effective anti-crime strategies and support a staffing study to ensure we have enough police.”
How insulting to our police department, its officers, its commanders and our Chief of Police. We have a highly decorated department that is also extremely effective. The crimes statistics that will soon be released that our crime was down another 8% in 2018 after a 17% drop in 2017. An overall 25% crime reduction since I took office, which I credit to our great police department. Additionally, the number of violent crimes was reduced to 20 in 2017. Our crime rate and violent crime rate are the lowest in 25 years! Trustee Ruzich has no excuse for putting this in two mailers. She has been fully briefed about this and is using the tried and true Chicago Machine playbook of trying to scare the electorate.
Attack our biggest taxpayer, attack our police department and flip flop on their positions – The Orland LACK OF INTEGRITY Party, and specifically Carole Ruzich will do ANYTHING to keep power.
It is up to us to stand up and say enough is enough. Don’t stand for the Chicago political machine and their games. Send the message for them to stay OUT of Orland Park and vote for William Healy, Michael Milani and Cynthia Nelson Katsenes on April 2nd. (Early voting starts on March 18th).
Mayor Pekau |
