Orland Park Village Board back to bickering over pension regulations

Jon DePaolis, Freelance Reporter
4:24 pm CDT October 24, 2019
   
The Orland Park Village Board did more than just revisit an old issue the evening of Oct. 21; it rehashed old arguments.

On the agenda for the Oct. 21 meeting was a resolution to repeal Resolution No. 1908, which eliminated the ability for trustees and the Village clerk to participate in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund as of July 1. It also eliminated the Village president from being able participate in IMRF as of May 3, 2021.

To Mayor Keith Pekau, the item — which was placed under the Officials portion of the meeting agenda — was a political move by Trustee James Dodge.

“Trustee Dodge, you announced your run for mayor almost a year ago in November 2018,” Pekau alleged. “This action is meant to sneak in a provision to make that position eligible for a pension for you. If you want to make this part of your platform, run on it. Don’t sneak it in like the $150,000 pay increase you voted for in 2016.

“You want to make this seem like it is about me. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not taking a pension now or ever for being mayor of Orland Park. We’ve lowered the salary to $40,000 annually and made the mayor’s position ineligible for a pension at the next term.

“If these actions are reversed and if you are elected mayor, you stand to gain $2.9 million in pension benefits for a measly $22,400 in contributions if you are elected. A vote to rescind this resolution makes the mayor’s position pension-eligible at the next election.”

Pekau said it is a “privilege” to serve the residents, “not a right” or a mechanism “to vote for policies that serve your own financial and political interests.”

“This resolution is about an elected official trying to line his own pockets at the expense of the citizens of Orland Park,” Pekau said. “Shame on you.”
Dodge responded by asking Village Attorney Dennis Walsh what the rules were in Robert’s Rules of Order regarding Village Board members openly questioning the motives of other board members at a public meeting. He said the attorney could get back to him on that but wondered out loud if an apology would be in order from the mayor.

Dodge said his character was “impugned” and that the running for mayor comment was a joke.

“Apparently, that [joke] is now going to drive policy,” Dodge said.
But Trustee Michael Milani also took issue with the item being placed on the agenda.

“Here we go once again, wasting more and more time on the board floor about things we don’t need to worry about,” Milani said.

Trustee William Healy agreed, saying he felt revisiting the pension issue was “a waste of time.”

After a lengthy discussion, Dodge made a motion to amend the item to also repeal Resolution 1722. Milani asked Walsh for an explanation of what the amendment would do to the ordinance on the floor.

Walsh said he did not have Ordinance No. 1722 in front of him.

“So, I don’t know what the consequences of that amendment would be as I sit here,” Walsh said.

Dodge said that because there were some questions that would need to be answered in writing by the attorneys, he suggested tabling the item.
But the vote to table failed 4-3, with Pekau, Healy, Milani and Trustee Cynthia Nelson Katsenes voting against the motion.

During discussion of the amendment pitched by Dodge, Trustee Kathleen Fenton said she had not had a chance to read more about what she was expected to vote on and therefore wanted to abstain from the vote on the amended motion.

“I think it is pretty ill-informed of people to vote on things they don’t have in front of [them],” she said. “That’d be like voting on a budget, and you never saw it.”

Trustee Dan Calandriello also took issue with voting on the item without having enough time to research the issue fully. He asked if it was possible to just withdraw the item from the floor, because there were too many questions about it.

“I can’t make an educated vote either way on this,” he said.

Walsh said that because the motion to table the item failed, it needed to be voted on by the board members.

Calandriello and Fenton both initially voted to abstain; however, Milani asked for a point of order. Milani stated that he thought the trustees had to vote on the issue. It was determined that unless the board members had a conflict of interest — or if the majority of the Village Board voted to allow the abstention — they would need to vote for or against the amendment.

The vote to allow abstentions failed 3-3, with Dodge, Milani and Katsenes voting against allowing them.

The vote on the amendment ultimately failed 5-1, with Dodge being the only one to vote in favor of the amendment. During the vote, Fenton abstained, citing conflict of interest regarding her being a trustee and voting on trustee pension eligibility. Calandriello voted against the amendment but said his vote came “under duress.”

Finally, the vote on the original motion to repeal Resolution 1908 failed 5-2, with Dodge and Fenton casting the votes in favor of the repeal.

The discussion continues
During his comments to the rest of the Village Board at the end of the meeting, Dodge continued the conversation on pensions. In particular, he called out the mayor’s allegation that Dodge could earn up to $2.9 million in pension benefits.

“I think someone used the number $2.9 million in pension, [and] I will call IMRF tomorrow and make sure they do a calculation, and I will bring it back to this full board,” Dodge said. “I think there will be an apology due, not the least of which is that I just think the math is wrong — including probably not accounting for the seven years that I served up here for free. I didn’t take a paycheck from the Village of Orland Park, so by definition, there’s no pension credit.”

Dodge also said he would anxiously await the legal opinion from Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins on a few things, such as the language in Robert’s Rules of Order on not attacking the motives of another board member’s vote, and on the intersection of all of the Village’s ordinances regarding IMRF.
Dodge said he would apologize if he was wrong, but he stated that because the current ordinance eliminates pension eligibility in May 2021, the opportunity still exists that the Village Board members can vote to allow pension eligibility immediately after the April 2021 election. This would mean, in his eyes, that the mayor could be eligible for pension credit from his first term, a second term if re-elected and buy into military credit.

“There is no opt-out provision under Illinois law,” Dodge said. “You are pension-eligible. A piece of paper and a signature would make you, on my math, a pension worth $1 million.”

During her comments, Katsenes asked, “With all this talk of pensions, where was the concern a few years back?”

Milani also revisited the topic.
“How foolish would it be for us to sit up here [after running] on a platform saying we’re going to eliminate pensions and then a year later or two years later turn around and change our mind and make the mayor eligible for a pension or turn around and make ourselves eligible?” he said
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Reached by phone Oct. 23, Dodge confirmed that he was the one to place the IMRF item on the agenda.

“That majority said they wanted to end public officials’ participation in pensions going forward,” Dodge said. “They did the exact opposite by allowing [the mayor] to stay pension-eligible. That’s the central policy question. That’s why I put it on the table.”

Seritage granted special-use permit
In a 6-1 vote, the Village Board approved a special use permit for Seritage Growth Properties to allow for a 24-hour fitness facility to occupy part of the Sears redevelopment property at Orland Square. Trustee Kathleen Fenton voted against it.