It has come to my attention that there has been a series of coordinated political attacks regarding the Secretary of State making the decision to leave our village hall.
This began with the spokesperson for the Secretary of State reaching out to local reporter stating that we asked the SOS to leave. That is simply not true and we gave that information to the reporter who reported both sides of this – no problem with that (after this was reported we issued this press release https://orlandpark.org/news/press-release/secretary-of-state).
Then on Wednesday, former Mayor Dan McLaughlin went on Facebook to write a post asking us to bring the Secretary State back. In my time as mayor, the former mayor has spent a total of 5 minutes talking to me, all during the transition period, and spoke at a board meeting to insinuate that I was behind the robocall attacks. Now suddenly he reappears to attack on this issue in the middle of a pandemic and during an immediate threat of violence and vandalism never before seen in Orland Park. As I have said many times, character is not developed in times of crisis, it is revealed.
Then on Friday, the spokesman for the Secretary of State went on WGN with a clearly staged caller asking about the SOS leaving Orland Park. The spokesman said that the mayor didn’t like them and asked them to leave. Interestingly, I have never spoken to the Secretary of State’s office. The host said to take it up with the village manager—for some reason he immediately knew our form of government. Nothing fishy there, huh?
The facts of our discussion with the Secretary of State can be found here https://orlandpark.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_14039774/File/Secretary%20of%20State%20Letter%20-%206-2-20%20final.pdf. Also, I want to point out that the SOS has been here rent free since the 90’s. The exact date is unknown because there is NO PAPER TRAIL WHATSOEVER. No transparency, no lease, no indemnification, NOTHING! There is only one reason for a completely covert arrangement, and it’s some sort of quid pro quo. Unfortunately, this is not a surprise to me. I have uncovered a lot of garbage since I have been in office but have focused on moving forward rather than investigating the past. It is better for the Village of Orland Park to turn the page.
This was clearly a coordinated political attack. The governor doesn’t like that we are pushing back on his completely capricious decision making with no science and data to support it. Maybe he should focus on the state that is falling apart financially and has now given into lawlessness, particularly with the criminals he released from jail.
The Secretary of State is clearly trying to divert attention from their woeful mismanagement. They indicated they wanted to expand in 2001 (https://orlandpark.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_14039774/File/Jesse%20White%20Feb%206%202001%20News%20Release.pdf), yet can’t afford rent in a facility in Orland Park because they hired a thief who stole $350K from them (https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/former-illinois-secretary-of-state-official-accused-of-fraud-and-theft-totaling-350-000/article_d073f50a-a69c-11ea-97f4-5f440c75a9ab.html). They can’t do Real ID at an express facility, so their previous presence in Orland Park was inadequate for our residents’ needs. Now they’re so far behind on their services that they will never catch up, yet they’ve paid their people with taxpayer money for the past two months to stay home and do nothing.
Then there is the former mayor, who doesn’t like that he lost. His first act, after he lost, was hiring a village manager who was his Deputy Committeeman (and used to work for the Secretary of State). Starting to see the picture here?
As for me, I’m not going to play their political games. I will continue to focus on what you elected me to do. Even when I had a board composed of the former mayor’s allies, I was able to:
- Not take a pension.
- Get the mayor’s salary reduced to $40K.
- Bring transparency to the village by getting meetings onto video and audio.
- Reduce the operating budget by 7.5% and staffing by over 5% through an early retirement program.
- Stop efforts to institute a restaurant tax.
- Keep our veteran’s programs in spite of efforts to eliminate them.
- Bring Von Maur to Orland Square Mall.
- Fill Sears site with AMC (yes the project is still on at this time).
- Choose a developer to complete the triangle that had been mismanaged for nearly 2 decades.
- Reduce subsidy to Civic Center.
Since getting three independent trustees on the board, we have been able to:
- Expand our road program (we are now 3 years ahead of what the plan was a year ago).
- Get 159th Street opened.
- Make further reductions in staff and operational spending.
- Expand investment in our parks.
- Bring a concert series to Orland Park.
- Make Taste of Orland revenue positive for the first time ever.
- Fill the Toys R’ Us site.
- Navigate a pandemic.
- Keep the village safe during unprecedented threats of violence and vandalism.
- Pass an incentive package to help small businesses recover from the economic shutdown.
- Pass an incentive package to encourage economic development.
As always, I will remain focused on what is important for the people of Orland Park. I will continue to focus on keeping people safe, being fiscally responsible, growing good-paying local jobs and keeping Orland Park a livable community.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Keith
