 |
| At this week’s board meeting we passed a resolution directing staff to prepare a budget that reduces the property tax levy for the Village of Orland Park and we approved two free concerts for Centennial Park West. At the beginning of the meeting we unanimously passed an RFP to have consultants do an assessment of our entire fleet. I worked with our village manager to develop this RFP so that we will have a 10 to 15 year plan for our fleet. This will drive significant savings when it is completed and executed. The big news of the night was that we passed a resolution to reduce property taxes in next year’s budget. The resolution called for the following:The Village President and Board of Trustees hereby direct the Village Manager and Village staff to produce a fiscal year 2021 budget that includes a reduction in the Village’s property tax levy.The Village President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Orland Park requests that other governmental entities that levy property taxes, including the School Districts 135 and 146, Consolidated High School District 230, the Moraine Valley School District, the Orland Park Fire Protection District, the Orland Park Public Library and all Cook County related entities also lower their property tax levies in 2021 in order to provide economic relief to their constituents.The Village President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Orland Park demand that the State of Illinois fully restore the LGDF and the PPRT to all municipalities in the State of Illinois.The Village President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Orland Park demand that the State of Illinois fully distribute the COVID-19 funds earmarked to government entities less than 500,000 residents on a per capita basis immediately.You can read the whole resolution here: http://www.keithpekau.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2040.pdf I supported this for several reasons, including but not limited to:This provides more help to residents and property owners during this challenging year. We have implemented a number of programs to help businesses and residents including the Small Business Tax Sharing program and the Shop Orland and Shop Orland Autos programs. This is another one.We continue to hear elected officials pay lip service on property taxes. It’s time that we do something about it.I have found that when expectations are set people find ways to achieve them. This is how we found 7.5% in operating savings in my first two budgets.  I also think that other governmental bodies should be looking to do the same.The schools and fire district are 79% of the tax bill. They have taken much less (if any) revenue hit compared to the village, so if we can do this, so can they. If every taxing body does their part, it will have a significant positive impact for our property taxpayers.The vote was 4 to 3, with Trustees Healy, Katsenes and Milani joining me in passing this resolution. Trustees Dodge, Fenton and Calandriello not only voted against the resolution to reduce property taxes, they made several procedural attempts to change and/or table the resolution so that they would not have to vote on it. It makes perfect sense to me why they would not want to vote on it. Since my campaign, I have heard the three of them repeat over and over again that Orland Park is only 7% of the tax bill. They have also said repeatedly that the Village of Orland Park has kept the levy flat for several years. That is true for the last 9 years. But did you know that 20 years ago, the village represented only 4.8% of your tax bill? How did Orland Park increase from less than 5% to 7% of the tax bill? Because from 2000 to 2010 Trustee Fenton and Trustee Dodge voted to raise the village’s taxes regularly. Instead of bragging about keeping the levy flat in the past, during these challenging times we should find a way to provide tax relief to our residents now. Any relief at this time is helpful. The other positive development was the passing of free concerts on August 22nd and September 12th at Centennial Park West. These will include a walk up and drive up option. Lineups will be announced soon. Safety and social distancing measures will be in place. As you are aware, the August 22nd concert was cancelled as bands were concerned about the quarantine in Cook County. Rather than risk this for the September 12th bands, we elected to reschedule them to next year. If you recall, in April when many were demanding that we cancel the concerts, the cost to cancel would have been $211,000. By keeping our options, we projected the costs to be $70,000 if concerts were cancelled a later date. Instead, we are going to host two free concerts with a drive-in option (and video screens) for approximately $76,000. To me, that is a lot better than just cancelling and getting nothing for three times the cost. It is important that we bring back a sense of normalcy for our families and provide positive recreational events. Residents have suffered through a lot in the last several months and continued to pay taxes. They deserve something in return. Additionally, we have proven that we can host events safely. We have done so with Market in the Park, July 4th, and just recently Taste of Orland. Of course, this also passed by a vote of 4 to 3 with the same trustees joining me in supporting these events. It is also very important to note that the Taste of Orland was held this past weekend and was a tremendous success. I want to thank staff for developing and executing an outstanding plan for the Taste of Orland. There were a lot of happy people at the Taste every day. Every vendor that I talked to was thrilled. Every attendee was thrilled. The performers were ecstatic and couldn’t thank us enough for having them come play. The BOTTOM LINE is everyone was having fun. Again, it is important to try to safely offer some sense of normalcy. I understand some people are concerned, but I choose to let people make their own educated decisions based on their situation, and if they wish to stay home, they have that option. I also want to thank Trustee Fenton, who joined Trustees Milani, Katsenes, Healy and me in honoring Chief Timothy McCarthy at the Taste on Sunday. While she did not vote for the Taste, she still showed up for this ceremony. While I do not always agree with Kathy, this was an honorable action. On the less than honorable side, we have another of our trustees. The Taste of Orland was passed previously with a vote of 5 to 2. Trustees Dodge, Healy, Katsenes and Milani joined me in voting for it. Unfortunately, since that vote, Trustee Dodge attempted to undermine the Taste of Orland. He called several vendors trying to get them to back out of attending. He sent emails to staff demanding, “I want this [Taste of Orland] cancelled.” When this failed, on Friday, the day of the Taste of Orland, he posted the following:  Only somebody with no financial acumen would want to cancel an event on the morning it was supposed to start “in an effort to save money.” Except for salaries, the set up was done and the expenditures were made. The village would have had to return all of the tent fees and sponsorship fees and likely would have been on the hook for all of the vendor’s expenditures.Regarding his claim about this year’s Taste leading to a $100,000 loss, here are the annual budgets and actuals for the Taste of Orland since 2010.  You will notice that the budgets for 2016 and 2017 (the last two that I was not involved in) were budgeted to lose $100,000 each. Where was Trustee Dodge’s concern for cost before I arrived? I’ll tell you – it didn’t exist. It is only after I arrived that he started to pretend to care. The good news for him is I’ve always cared about making this event more financially successful and have pushed for new ways to conduct the Taste of Orland to achieve that goal, as evidenced by the significant financial improvements over the past two years. I have known Jim Dodge for over 20 years. The best thing I can say about him is he is consistently inconsistent on issues and a career politician. This is precisely why I campaigned on term limits, put a resolution on the board floor, and cast the deciding vote to place term limits on the ballot this November. As an aside, Trustee Dodge was one of the three votes against the term limit referendum, and this was his first meeting after running for State Treasurer. One of his platform items when running for treasurer: TERM LIMITS! You cannot make this up! Term limits will put an end to career politicians here in Orland Park. Compare the behaviors of career politicians to those of Trustees Healy, Katsenes and Milani who voted for the Taste and attended it every day. They talked to vendors and attendees and are great ambassadors for the village. They don’t cut and run when they are personally attacked for their thoughtful positions. Why? Because they are good people, doing this for the right reasons and are not career politicians. I want to thank them for their courage. I said this from the beginning, we can keep people safe and continue to open up. Americans are smart and we can figure these problems out together. At times like this it is easy to say cancel everything. It is easy to say no to everything. What is hard is to take the time to solve the problem and figure out how to host the event and do it safely. We are Orland Park and that is what we do—we do what is right, even when it’s hard. I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming Markets on the Park on August 6th, 13th and 20th; the Special Olympic Bike Ride on August 30th; the drive-in movies August 15th, September 11th and 25th; Orland Park Brewfest on September 19th and our Centennial Park concerts on August 22nd and September 12th. Lastly, I encourage you to attend my first annual golf tournament fundraiser on August 31st. http://www.keithpekau.com/Golf/?fbclid=IwAR2rv8jCGFYvRIc4G0kQuslkdSZABfue_YSZME06fkyQgjPG5s5vTFyQ9aI |
| Copyright © 2020 Keith For Mayor, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted into receiving these by email or through website. Paid for by Keith For Mayor Our mailing address is: Keith For MayorPO Box 526Orland Park, Il 60462 |
