The big news of the past week is that my opponent and his slate of trustees announced their candidacy via their website and an ad. Here is a link to my press release regarding their announcement. Mayor Keith Pekau Statement on the 2021 Orland Park Mayoral Election – Keith Pekau
The one thing I will point out is the very hearty laugh I had over Dan McLaughlin’s ad and his first statement, “I am not a politician.” He was first elected to office in Orland Park in 1983, when I was junior at Carl Sandburg High School. He did not leave office until I defeated him when I was 52 years old. Only a career politician would think people would believe that 1983 to 2017 (34 years) does not qualify as a career as a politician. You may also remember he ran, and lost, for Illinois State Treasurer in 1998.
Now on to important business. On Monday we had another board and Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting. Most of the discussions were held at the COW. It began with a discussion on a sign moratorium about continuing to give staff discretion on easing sign restrictions on businesses. Trustee Dodge rambled on for a very long time on signs and pressuring staff and against this discretion. I eventually cut off his commentary so other board members could speak. He was out voted 6 to 1 on this and we moved on.
Next, we discussed aid to businesses and residents. We discussed a loan program to small businesses that was put on the agenda by Dan Calandriello. Based on Dan McLaughlin’s website, it is clear that Trustee Calandriello put it on the agenda at his behest. There was a lot of discussion that pointed out several problems with this, including that with over 3,000 businesses, it would mean $170 each costing the village $500,000. Also, we would need to have many staff dedicated to underwriting and collecting on these loans (something for which we don’t have the skill set). At the end of the day, the village should not be a bank and this was voted down 6 to 1.
We also discussed reducing or eliminating business license fees for next year, which would cost approximately $400,000. The entire board agreed that we would like to do this but only to license classes that were severely impacted by the pandemic. I suggested that the remaining amount between those waived fees and $400,000 be used to further reduce property taxes. This will be discussed and voted on at the next board meeting.
We also agreed to get more information on potentially reducing rental property inspection fees as they were doubled a couple of years ago. This will be discussed and voted on at the next board meeting.
The last major discussion item at the COW was Dan Calandriello’s introduction of a mask mandate that would be enforced by our police. This could involve ticketing, fines or arrests. These were my comments: “Staff also has better things to do with regard to COVID. We know there is a vaccine coming out and we are working through the distribution plan that we have in place. We exercised the plan in March and will continue to train appropriately. However, the state’s plan is still unclear and staff needs to spend its time focusing on that – not researching masks. The last thing I am going to support is arresting or ticketing residents and/or visitors to Orland Park for not wearing masks. Police have better things to do and need to focus on keeping people safe from actual crime. Focusing on what is important has driven our crime down to the lowest levels in 26 years.”
You can listen to all the comments on this topic here at the 1 hour and 10-minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjlnpIHdsOw
Not surprisingly, this is Dan McLaughlin’s major campaign issue, so yet another political move by Trustee Calandriello at his behest. To move an issue to the next board meeting requires 3 votes. Trustees Dodge, Fenton and Calandriello voted for these mandates, the other 4 of us voted against.
At the board meeting we voted to make the budget available for citizen review. You can view this year’s budget here. Home – Village of Orland Park
The other exciting news this week was the unveiling of the Mobile Crisis Response Unit to address police calls that are mental health related. This is an example of Orland Park’s leadership on a national issue. I highly recommend you watch this press conference to learn more about this program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cODxeOVyTZ8
Last year our crime was the lowest it has been in 25 years. This year it is down another 31%. Our violent crime is on pace to be the lowest ever in those 25 years as well. This is due to our outstanding police department and our creative solutions to the problems we face. Some of those solutions include the Car Theft Task Force we established with seven neighboring towns to address the rash of car thefts, our 35 CIT trained officers, and now this program using Department of Justice Grants. Job well done!
Lastly, I want to remind everyone of my Bring on 2021 fundraiser on December 16th at Papa Joe’s from 6 to 9. Hope to see you there. I will be speaking and answering questions each hour, from 6 to 7, 7 to 8 and 8 to 9 to encourage social distancing and spacing people out throughout the night. https://www.keithpekau.com/2021-2/
