On Monday night we had our first board and committee of the whole meetings of the year. The board meeting covered routine business including approving several pond maintenance contracts, a network infrastructure contract and a GIS contract. We also approved a contract for a specialty truck and garbage collection vehicle to help us pick up trash cans in the park more efficiently and safely.
At the Committee of the Whole, we first honored our police officers in a public ceremony that was previously held annually in a private ceremony. I think this is a great change. First, I want to thank the officer’s families. Family members serve as well and do not have the benefit of the training and seeing the good that they do first hand. We should all be very thankful to the family members of our officers!
I thoroughly enjoyed the swearing in of our new officers. As I told them, and everyone, they are joining an extremely successful team. The leadership team, starting with Chief Mitchell, our officers and our staff all work together and in 2020 had the lowest crime in over 26 years.
Like all of you, I am extremely grateful for all our officers and those who were honored Monday night. Specifically, I want to congratulate our Civilian Employee of The Year, Michael Flannery, and our Police Officer of the Year, Jackie Priede. We are all proud of you both!
Also, on Monday night, Trustee Milani asked us to consider having staff pull together information on several home purchases and sales made by the village over the years to determine if an investigation was needed. He did this because about six weeks ago we had an offer on a property that we rejected. However, it was next door to another property that we learned the village sold before we were elected and gave the buyer an incredible deal. For this reason, Trustee Katsenes asked for a list of all village properties bought and sold in the last 30 years including who it was purchased from or sold to and the price.
Trustee Milani expressed concerns over the purchase prices and far lower sales prices a short time later on single family homes. He asked for staff to provide more information, which is his right. He also noted that the family home of a current trustee was part of this list.
Trustee Calandriello then jumped in with an over 10-minute speech that could be characterized as emotional and angry. He claimed this was a political attack, though nobody named him or accused him of anything. He angrily stated that the trustees should do research on the matter before putting forth an inquiry. He is incorrect. A trustee inquiry is to get board approval to do the research. Of course, he is aware of this, because he has put up several inquiries in recent months asking the staff to do research. But why let the facts get in the way of his scripted speech?
In fairness, he also gave a history, from his perspective, of his family home and the flooding they endured. Nobody on the board disagrees that this was a terrible situation. But Trustee Milani simply asked for more information on ALL of the purchases and sales, which presumably will include information on the Calandriello home purchase.
What Trustee Calandriello did point out in his history was that his house flooded in 1995 and then again 2004 before the village purchased it in 2005. This leads to new questions that I will be asking as we continue this process. First, why didn’t the village, under the previous mayor, do something about the flooding problem over 9 years before it happened again, costing the taxpayers a significant amount of money to purchase these homes? On the face, that appears to be a dereliction of duty. Second, why just his home and a couple of others throughout the village? Why not all the homes that have been subject to flooding? What about those people who just let their homes go into foreclosure instead?
Trustee Calandriello also repeatedly stated that this should have been discussed in secret in Executive Session. I disagree. First, there is no exception to go into Executive Session for anything related to this matter. Second, even if there was, the taxpayers, the former board, and everyone involved deserves a transparent discussion of the facts.
Trustee Fenton jumped in and blamed the attorneys and engineers. After 28 years on the board, I would have thought that she knew that trustees vote on items, not attorneys and engineers.
Trustee Dodge also appeared angry that a previous board’s actions were being questioned and examined. Again, I would point out that a trustee asked for more information and made no accusations, something Trustee Dodge has also done on numerous occasions. He also stated that he wanted all the information that was put together to be put on our website. I absolutely agree and am glad to see that after almost 4 years Trustee Dodge has changed his position on transparency in the village.
In my opinion, this was a legitimate question over a troubling situation for which we don’t currently have enough information. While I don’t like looking backward, based on the spread sheet we were given, it certainly looks bad. Ultimately the people are being well served by the transparency and we all need to see the facts.
I guess that all of the trustees agreed with my take because the vote to gather the facts for the next board meeting was unanimous, 7-0. You can watch the discussion here at the approximately the 42:20 mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlZVI_b-bPU&t=2545s .
I closed the board meeting for thanking our police and our public works department for their outstanding service through the holidays. Our police kept us safe and our public works department did a great job with snow removal. In fact, on New Year Day, Chief Mitchell sent an email thanking our Public Works Department for their great work over New Year’s Eve when we had an ice storm. Their outstanding work resulted in ZERO accidents overnight during the police shift. Great teamwork has positive results for everybody in the village!
As you know, there is an election coming in April 6th and I am proud to be running for Mayor of Orland Park once again. For those of you who would like to volunteer or would like signs, please email me and let me know. Additionally, I am also happy to join any of you if you would like to a host a coffee or other small gathering of your friends. We can do these in person or via zoom (by invitation only).
I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I know 2021 will be much better for all of us than 2020.
