| #Orlandpark #twill #tcot #illinois #Safety |
| I previously sent the update with my comments on the robocalls. This update covers the rest of the latest meeting. First, Kathy Fenton missed the meeting because she was very sick and could not attend. Fortunately, she is feeling better now and I wish her well. That’s why there were only 6 votes on issues. First, students from St. Michael’s Robotics Team presented engineering projects for the First Lego League Challenge. The two teams covered projects on the old Andrew Property and one for Schussler Park. Both project presentations were outstanding. The detailed research, conclusions and recommendations were amazing. The parents and students should be extremely proud of their efforts. Yet another example of the exceptional community that we live in. Next, we had a conversation about the Panera Bread redevelopment on Harlem. It had been unanimously approved by the Planning Commission. Trustee Dodge made comments and asked if we were up against a deadline. He then continued to talk on and on about process. Weeks ago, the staff discussed and the board agreed that unanimous votes from the Planning Commission could go straight to the board. This saves developers two to five weeks depending on the timing of meetings. We then voted for the project and Trustee Dodge voted against the project. Thankfully the rest of us voted on the merits of the project and didn’t try to damage the developer or the village. Next, we discussed the change to Committee of the Whole. A summary of this change is that the existing Committees will be replaced with a Committee of the Whole where instead of 3 trustees, the entire board will discuss an issue before sending it to a board meeting for a final vote. This will happen for several types of issues that were identified. Several items, like those already budgeted, that were put out for bid and within budget will go directly to the Village Board. Regardless, no matter what the issue, the entire Village Board is still the approval authority. Sometimes, however, we may talk about it twice. Of course, Trustee Dodge had process concerns. He pontificated about how he didn’t like the 1 year wait to revisit issues that the board had already decided (unless the board waives that requirement). Also, on how he doesn’t like the Agenda Initiative process and he wanted our attorney to clarify the rules for how it will be conducted. He was very adamant that “in 1989 we had a committee of the whole” and that he had been here for “30 years” and the existing process has worked fine. During all of this grandstanding, he didn’t bother to offer an amendment to the process, which is how motions have been amended for the last 30 years. Trustee Calandriello then stepped in to show him the way by offering an amendment that would have stripped the mayor of the right to put anything on the agenda. Yes, you read that correctly, would have made it so the mayor could not put anything on the agenda. The vote failed 4 to 2, with Trustees Calandriello and Dodge voting to strip the mayor of this right. After being shown how to amend an item by Trustee Calandriello, Trustee Dodge put forward a motion that put any and all business on the committee of the whole. This was done so that he could make the Committee of the Whole meetings ridiculously long. Fortunately, this amendment also failed, but I am sure that going forward he will try filibuster the Committees of the Whole. In the end the board voted 4-2 (Dodge and Calandriello voting against) to move to a Committee of the Whole process. While it requires me to attend 2 more meetings a month, I am looking forward to this change as it will improve efficiency. For my two and a half years on the board, Trustee Dodge has spoke constantly about how he has pushed the village to be more efficient and improve its processes. However, since I have been here, every time an effort is made to make our processes more efficient Trustee Dodge resists the change because it’s “not the way we’ve always done things.” It’s tiresome and boorish. Improving processes requires changing them. I will continue to work to make our government more efficient and streamlined. We will regularly evaluate those changes, and if any of them don’t work we can change them back. Next, we received an update from the Village Manager on Hope Covenant Church. The entire meeting can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J5nnQ_Qt5o, which includes the comments of several citizens that were made after the Village Manager’s comments. The presentation, timeline and all documents can be seen here https://orlandpark.org/Hope-church. All of the trustees spoke on this during board comments. Of course, Trustee Dodge had the most to say. He indicated that he had specific questions on the timeline presented by our Village Manager, but didn’t ask any of those questions. Then he said that he went to the shelter and that he didn’t see the issues that were identified (of course he has no background as a building inspector) and that he didn’t have all of the facts or he would have voted differently. He stated that he saw sprinklers and everything looked fine (no mention of the lack of smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors). Of course, we know that thankfully the judge directed Hope Covenant to put smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and allow the Village to inspect, prior to continuing operations. He also stated that he doesn’t agree with our legal theory (though he is also not a lawyer), but clearly the judge saw merit, since she scheduled the next hearing for December 2nd. I will point out at that he had exactly the same facts 2 weeks ago, when he voted with the rest of the board to take these actions, as were presented at the Village Board Meeting by the Village Manager. I would also like to point out that the board actions that we have subsequently taken on this issue were again unanimous, including Trustee Dodge’s support. What Trustee Dodge did was a public effort to undermine our staff, our attorneys and the rest of our Village Board during an ongoing legal negotiation. This directly contradicts his votes in our executive sessions. He appears more interested in pandering to the crowd that showed up at the meeting than representing the Village of Orland Park and following his oath of office. This isn’t the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. My comments can be found below as they are extensive and part of the record. You may not always agree with me, but you will always know where I stand, and you should know that the things I say in private are the things I say in public. I remain hopeful that we will resolve the Hope Covenant issue soon Before listing my comments, I want to point out several recent positives:A reminder that we are #1 in the entire country for owner occupied homes.The FBI confirmed its statistics that we have the lowest violent crime rate in the state for towns with more than 50,000 people last year. Also, we had the lowest number of violent crimes and all index crimes in 25 years.All 4 lanes of 159th Street are open to Will Cook Road. The remainder from Will Cook to 355 will open in the next couple of weeks.Our remaining roads in the local road program (11 total areas) will be completed this month.The Crystal Tree water main project will be done shortly. Thank you for enduring the inconvenience of having to run water and having lines freeze due to the abnormal cold.Work has begun on the Orland Ridge Project on LaGrange and 171st.Von Maur’s opening has set records for sales following an opening.We have a few upcoming events as well:Tree Lighting on the Sunday following ThanksgivingTurkey Trot the morning of Thanksgiving My Comments at Board Meeting about Hope Covenant Church I want to thank all of you for coming out and speaking tonight. I know there are strong feelings about this issue. Forums like this give everyone an opportunity to be heard. And sometimes the most vocal speak for many, but there are times when those who are less vocal have points of view that need to be considered as well. You had the opportunity to be heard tonight and we welcome everyone’s input. It is important that all of our citizens are heard, which is why Illinois state law requires public hearings for usage changes such as this. If you’re wondering why this is the first opportunity you’ve had to speak up on this issue, it’s because the proper processes were not followed. If they had been, you would have had the opportunity to be heard three times: at the Planning Commission, at Committee and at the Board. Unfortunately, those opportunities were denied to you and to all of our citizens on this issue because Beds Plus and Hope Covenant Church decided not to follow the proper processes. There’s no question that one of government’s most important responsibilities is protecting the most vulnerable among us. We take this responsibility very seriously. As you have heard, there are over 30 different health and safety related violations at this location, some big some small. We cannot allow the lives of anyone to be put at risk. To date, Beds Plus and Hope Covenant have refused to address several of these issues, and in fact they believe that the village does not have the right to enforce them. Recently, we have heard a lot about how Beds Plus and Hope Covenant Church wanted to work with the village. However, the actions of Beds Plus and Pastor Fogel do not engender a spirit of working together. In fact, when we reached out to them to discuss the issue and followed up with an email to the pastor, their first response was from their ATTORNEY. Shortly thereafter, the pastor posted a piece on social media stating that the village had never called him and implied that the Orland Park police department had dropped people off and “approved” of the shelter. None of this is true. Several of the comments tonight as well as emails received in the last two weeks suggest that the law does not apply to Hope Covenant Church or that we should not apply our laws—we should instead bend our laws and disregard our processes. As your Mayor, I will not ignore the law. I take my oath of office and the village’s laws seriously. Ordinances and zoning processes must be followed by everyone and must be enforced equally and fairly. I have not heard anyone suggest that we change our laws, ordinances or processes, which tells me that nobody thinks the laws, ordinances or processes are inappropriate or need changing. Usually, before buying or renting a property, the buyers/lessees check with the village’s Building Department prior to entering into an agreement to see:If the use is permitted?What process would be required to change the use? andWhat changes to the property would be needed to change the use? Instead, Hope Covenant and Beds Plus decided that they would just start using the property however they wanted. In fact, AFTER the village sought relief from the courts, the Beds Plus Executive Director, in her FIRST AND ONLY communication with the village, asked to meet with me so we can, and I quote, “come to a reasonable compromise regarding the safety and health code.” I was clear in my response then that there is no compromising on health and safety issues, but I would be happy to meet. I have not heard back from her. I will reiterate that there will NEVER be any compromise on health and safety issues. EVERYONE in our village, including our most vulnerable citizens, deserve nothing less. Personally, I believe to solve the problem you need to focus on the root causes. I am proud of the fact that the village is proactive in our efforts to help people AVOID homelessness in our community. For example:The village’s Veterans Commission proactively collaborates with the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs (satellite office located in village hall), Orland Park Veterans Center, Illinois Joining Forces, and HUD to assist individuals on the verge of homelessness to help them avoid it.Development Services Department staff work in partnership with the Illinois Affordable Housing agencies and coordinate subsidized housing vouchers if they are notified of a family being evicted from any of the multi-family housing complexes. The Orland Park Police Department currently has a twenty nine member Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) of sworn officers to address the substantial increase of mental health related calls in Orland Park after the depletion of state funding and the closing of the Tinley Park Mental Health Facility. In 2016, we teamed with Trinity Services to provide treatment for those affected by mental illness and addiction, serving both residents and non-residents.The Orland Park Police Department debuted its Crisis Intervention Team in 2015, making us one of the first law enforcement agencies in Chicago’s south suburbs to train officers as certified crisis intervention officers. The Orland Park Police CIT program has been nationally recognized for its efforts to respond to mental health-related incidents.We just applied for and received a $750,000 grant to address mental health issues. These proactive efforts have no doubt kept a number of our residents from experiencing homelessness. Of course, even with the best efforts, we cannot completely prevent homelessness. When it does happen, our police department ALWAYS ensures that those in need have a place to sleep that is safe and warm and that they have food. Our police station is the village’s primary warming center. We have many resources at our disposal and apply the right resources for each individual case. What about those who are not suffering from mental health or addiction issues? Those individuals need jobs and a means to get to the job. Having an income and roots in the community are a requirement for a successful transition into permanent housing. To help solve this problem, the village is setting up a job fair event at the Civic Center on December 9th:Simon Properties, the owners of Orland Square Mall, are reaching out to their tenants to encourage them to participateThe Orland Park Chamber of Commerce is reaching out to its members to do the same.The village is working with Pace Bus to ensure that those people who are hired have transportation to and from their new places of employment for the first month until they have a regular paycheck and can provide for themselves.I hope Beds Plus will ensure that the people they are now serving will attend the event in an effort to address one of the major causes of homelessness and help them achieve independence. The Village of Orland Park, the trustees and I take the health and safety of all of our residents and visitors very seriously. It is why we won’t compromise on health and safety in our building codes. It is also why we work so hard to be proactive and intervene on issues that are known to cause homelessness in an effort to keep people from becoming homeless to begin with. Our responsibility to protect and serve the community is one that we take very seriously – and always will. |
