Update from Orland Park Mayor Pekau

I wanted to update everyone on the Monday night board meeting.  The background on this meeting is that Carole Ruzich and her slate, the so-called Orland Integrity Party have been attacking me relentlessly for taking the $150,000 salary that she not only voted to approve, but led the effort to put in place.  Additionally, Trustees Gira and Carroll have been attacking me on Facebook and Trustee Dodge created a fake newspaper and website to provide Trustee Ruzich a news article for “cover”. Since the People Over Politics slate, comprised of my friends Bill Healy, Mike Milani and Cindy Katsenes, are such outstanding citizens and leaders they feel that attacking me is the only way they can win the election and keep control of the board so they can continue their two-year long obstruction tactics.

I decided to take the opportunity to keep another campaign promise and place the salary reduction ordinance on the agenda Monday night. Mind you, this is the exact ordinance that these same Trustees, including Carole Ruzich, did not move to vote on in May of 2018.  Any ordinance requires that it be motioned and seconded to be voted on and they refused to do that last May or any time since. They thought it would be better for them to just try to use it against me in a series of negative mailers. What a profile in courage.

So, I placed it on the agenda with the proper notice in the board packet everyone gets 72 hours prior to the meeting. Trustee Gira motioned it, as she did last May, and after having to ask a couple of times for a second, Trustee Dodge said, “I guess I will second it so that we can talk about it.”

During the discussion Trustee Gira stated that she fully expected that I would make the motion.  After almost 16 years on the board, she still doesn’t know that the chairperson of a meeting cannot make a motion for an ordinance.  She also stated that she wasn’t prepared to discuss this because she didn’t know about it until she received her board packet – on Friday!  Moreover, it was the same ordinance she had drafted back in May.  I guess 72 hours is not enough time to prepare for a 2-page ordinance that she had previously introduced.

Then Trustee Ruzich stated  “When Trustee Gira brought this up less than a year into your term, I was not in favor of it, because I did not think there had been enough time and so I think at this point, and you and I haven’t talked about it recently that if you, having sat in that seat, are of the opinion that there has been enough time that has passed and you are in a position to say that you think this is the appropriate time, I would be in favor of this ordinance”.   This is not what her mailers say, and most of you have seen then.  Her mailers call me a hypocrite say that the taxpayers cannot afford me and my cronies anymore.

So, let me understand this correctly. She led the effort to raise the pay to $150,000, did not vote to decrease it, felt that it should stay at $150,000 last year, but calls me a hypocrite for taking the salary that she agreed with — until yesterday!  I have cronies on the board?  Which cronies? As I stated above, the entire board is united against me!  I wish Carole Ruzich would decide what she stands for.

Then she did an interview yesterday stating she was in favor of the change because she was not seeing the results she expected from having the mayor do economic development work.  She said, “Our retail vacancy rate is higher than it was.  There’s not been any new development in the I-80 corridor, so I was good with repealing it.”

• First, that’s not what she said at the meeting.  I guess she had 12 hours to come up with a statement to try to dig herself out of the hypocritical hole she dug for herself.  That or she talked to someone who told her what to stand for. Another profile in courage.
• Second, regarding our retail vacancy.  Last February, we had 5 stores close totaling approximately 500,000 square feet.
  • Within two weeks of Sears announcing its closing, AMC and Seritage committed to redevelopment that is expected to be complete in Summer of 2020.
  • Within 6 weeks of Carson’s vacating Orland Square, Von Maur committed to the space with an expected opening this November.
  • The revamped Carson’s has signed a lease for the Carson’s Home goods space
  • Toys’ R Us has been purchased for redevelopment.
  • The only remaining space from these closures is Baby’s R Us
  • Hobby Lobby just opened and Ashley Furniture opened last summer.
  • Bar Louie is being remodeled and will open as White Sheep breakfast and lunch diner
  • Champ’s has been purchased and is being redeveloped as a new restaurant
  • Fat Ricky’s has been purchased and is being redeveloped as medical offices
  • There have been too many restaurant openings to name

I guess Carole Ruzich is used to developments sitting empty for nearly 20 years like the Triangle so she doesn’t understand that construction takes a little bit of time.Vacancies aren’t filled until construction is complete, but that doesn’t mean that the problem has not been solved.

Speaking of the Triangle, she continued to support a subsidy to a movie theater in that area, delaying the RFQ process by over 6 months.Finally, I was able to fulfill another campaign promise and get the entire site to the marketplace for plans to re-develop.We should sign an agreement within the next month with an expected completion date of 2024.Better progress in a little over 18 months that we saw in 18 years.

• Third, regarding the I-80 corridor.  Trustee Ruzich is well aware of what we were trying to do there in conjunction with Mokena and Tinley Park as she was the designated trustee on the CSIA group.  However, she has missed the last 2 meetings so she is now completely unaware of the progress being made in the last 4 months.  Showing up would help her a lot.  Additionally, she expects successful development of the I-80 corridor in 22 months when there are 9 acres remaining in the Triangle that has been worked on for 18 years.  How disingenuous, considering it has been neglected for almost a decade.  Moreover, she apparently forgot that we are now regularly contacted for projects in the corridor by Illinois Intersect.  Currently we are one of Illinois’ submittals for 160,000 square feet of office space for the USDA.  Her memory lapses are convenient.

Additionally, here is just some of the other development that we have had in the last 20 months.

• Loyola Cancer Center expansion
• Orland Ridge – 70-acre mixed use on LaGrange road
• Sertoma
• Filling the vacated St. Xavier campus on the I-80 corridor
• Bluff Point
• Two-acre green space project at the mall

The truth is we have had a phenomenal run of Economic Development in spite of the board’s actions and obstruction.  I would challenge Trustee Ruzich to find one other mall in the United States that filled two anchors in a mall within months.

I stand proudly behind my Economic Development record.  I am proud that I have been able to set the Triangle (which to date has lost approximately $70 million) on a path forward to completion.  I am proud of the record of cooperation with our neighbors that was previously non-existent.  I am proud of the redevelopment efforts at the mall.  I am proud of the medical expansions that we have seen.  I am proud of the restaurants we have added.  I am also proud of all that I know is on the horizon and cannot yet share due to confidentiality.

One more accomplishment that I am proud of – reducing the Mayor’s salary and making the position part-time starting in 2021, just like I campaigned on.  Just like term limits and opting out of the pension, it is another PROMISE MADE AND KEPT.
However, most of all, I am proud of Orland Park, because the development that we see and progress we have made speaks volumes about our Village and the people that live here!

I want to remind everyone that the candidates that I support William Healy, Michael Milani and Cynthia Nelson Katsenes are having a fundraiser with special guest George Wendt (from Cheers and Saturday night live) on March 14^th at Crystal Tree Country Club.  Please come out and support them, as they are committed to working together for the people of Orland Park.  VIP reception at 5:30 pm with the main doors opening at 6:00 pm.