| Prior to updating you on Monday’s board meeting, I wanted to give you an update of a few other things first. Tomorrow we will host a free concert at Centennial Park West. The gates open at 3:30 with 4Cast starting at 4:30, Cowboy Jukebox at 6:30 and The Chicago Experience at 8:30. There will also be an option for watching from the Metra Parking lot to the North of the venue. If you plan on attending in the park, please park on the East side of the railroad tracks to allow room for those that want to watch from their cars. For those of you who are unsure due to COVID, I also want to update you on the Taste of Orland which was hosted 3 weeks ago. Orland Park had an average of 9.21 cases per day for the 14 days preceding the start of the Taste of Orland. Sixteen days later (after the 2-week period expired) Orland Park had an average of 8.71 cases per day for the preceding 14 days. This is proof that events can be held safely with good planning and the right procedures put in place! I look forward to seeing you at the concerts, where I will be collecting cash donations for the Crisis Center (women’s shelter) and food donations for the Orland Township Food Pantry. Like many of you I have watched what is happening with the COVID related decisions in the school district, because our schools and the quality of the education our children receive are critical to the residents and to the success of the village. Late last week the District 135 board voted to go to a fully remote schedule due to new IDPH guidelines that were just issued the day before. I feel their pain. Like District 135, the Village of Orland Park and the residents of the state of Illinois have been dealing with last second guidance from IDPH. Additionally, the guidance IDPH gives is often logically inconsistent and not based on the latest data and information. We all know kids go back to school in August, yet the State of Illinois was somehow surprised and didn’t provide guidance until the last minute. From day one, the Village of Orland Park has assumed that the state would drop the ball and prepared to be on our own. That has allowed us to help the businesses and residents in the village. Additionally, it has allowed the village to move forward with our pre-school program with the required safety protocols. We would have been happy to help District 135 with their PPE needs had they informed us of the potential need. At the District 135 board meeting, four board members spent 40 minutes attacking me over the village’s resolution to lower property taxes and asking other taxing bodies to do the same. What concerns me is that these four board members took over a half an hour attacking me because the village passed a resolution to lower property taxes in the upcoming budget and asked other taxing bodies to do the same to help our residents. How dare I? They stated that they are already in the red (that is fiscal mismanagement) and that they don’t know where to cut. I have a few ideas. The following services have not been received by taxpayers and their families, so expenses should not have occurred: Bussing is over $7M a year (about 750K per month during the school year). By my count they have not been needed for 2.5 months and likely for another 2.5 months. That’s approximately $3.5M in savings.Teachers should not be paid for extra-curriculars and other work (e.g. lunch monitoring) they are not performing.Staff that is not working (e.g. lunchroom staff) should be furloughed and not paid for work not performed. I understand paying them for the first few weeks after schools were closed when everyone was trying to understand the path forward. After that, however, those not working should not be paid with our tax dollars. Food and lunch services are not being provided so those expenses are not incurred.As a taxpayer, I want to know what is happening to this money. This money should be returned to the taxpayers. While Monday’s village board meeting agenda was short there were a couple of important items of note. First, we passed a resolution that allows us to collect approximately $450,000 in COVID funds from Cook County. While passing this resolution we discussed the COVID funds that the federal government has given the State of Illinois and Cook County. Chicago received money directly. Cook County received over $428 million for the remainder of its residents. If it were allocated on a per capita basis, we would receive $9,735,540.50 (quite a bit more than $450,000). The State of Illinois received $3.5 billion and the federal government requires the state to distribute 45% to government entities with less than 500,000 population (nearly $1.6 billion). The state has yet to distribute one penny and has allotted only $250 million to be allocated across the state. Additionally, they specifically stated they will distribute nothing to Cook, Will, DuPage, Lake or Will County. If the $1.6 billion was distributed on a per capita basis the Village of Orland Park would receive $9 million. Instead we are getting nothing. The residents of Orland Park, and of every other community in the state, are getting ripped off! At the board meeting we also approved the selection of 18 different engineering firms across multiple areas of expertise that will be allowed to bid for each of our projects. This will allow for much more competitive bidding and better pricing and services for village residents. We also approved the selection of a village prosecutor that was chosen through a Request For Proposal (RFP) process. Both these actions are significant because it professionalizes our organization and are good government practices. This is yet another positive step taken to ensure that the patronage problems that plague the State of Illinois do not happen here in Orland Park. It has taken over three years, three new trustees and new leadership on the village staff to make this happen. This week, we also had two new businesses open, Voda Car Wash on 159th Street and Duluth Trading Company on LaGrange Road. Even with the current crisis, businesses continue to come to and thrive in Orland Park. I look forward to making more announcements in the months to come. I also want to remind everyone of our upcoming events. My first annual golf outing on August 31st. Golf is sold out, but spaces for dinner and sponsorships are still available. http://www.keithpekau.com/Golf/?fbclid=IwAR0Cf0V2D12CIu9Q5upfsqB45ITm3gYzhAmbAUARFRKZfC2js433zsEf39IConcerts at Centennial Park West tomorrow night and on September 12th.Concert in the Park on September 6th at Crescent Park.Brewfest on September 19th.The Veterans Golf Outing at Silver Lake Golf Course on September 29th.I look forward to seeing you at these events. |
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