Monday night was the first meeting post-election and the last meeting for Trustees Fenton, Dodge and Calandriello as well as Clerk Mehalek. A draft of my comments are below, but first there were a few things on the agenda of importance.
I made several replacements to our commissions that the board approved. These were for a variety of reasons including resignations, some commission members being elected to the new village board and other trustees leaving the village board. Additionally, I replaced the entire Open Lands Commission. This commission was put in place to acquire and maintain our open lands and given $20 million with which to do so due to a bond referendum two decades ago. This commission has done a good job of acquiring open lands but the maintenance was pushed onto the village and there is very little money left from the original bond proceeds. I feel that the new commissioners I appointed will better advise the board during the strategic planning process and on maintenance of these lands. Trustee Fenton was very upset, as this was her pet commission. However, this is my sole prerogative, provided a majority of the board agrees, which they did.
We unanimously passed a municipal ordinance penalty if someone with a Concealed Carry License mistakenly carries in a prohibited location. This allows our officer to use discretion and make it a municipal violation rather than jeopardizing their CCL license for the mistake of carrying in the wrong location. Given the ever-growing list of prohibited locations it is good to give our officers discretion for an honest mistake.
Additionally, the board voted to restart the investigation into the land purchases. The vote was 4 to 2 with Trustees Dodge and Fenton voting against investigating and Trustee Calandriello abstaining because his family’s house was involved in these purchases.
Lastly, we voted 6 to 1 (Trustee Fenton voting against) to add a third concert. It was nice to get more than 4 votes for such a popular event. This was a first! The concert we added will be on September 3rd and consists of a Prince cover band, a George Michael tribute band and Marc Martel (the voice of Freddie Mercury in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody) with his Queen tribute. I applaud staff for this great addition.
We also honored all of the exiting trustees and the clerk. My comments were as follows:
I appreciate their help in taking Orland Park into a better direction over the last 4 years compared to the previous 2 decades.
In my first meeting four years ago, immediately upon my arrival, the board agreed to:
- stop the $23 Million land purchase of Silver Lakes that had no due diligence or appraisal.
- renegotiate the exit of 9750 saving us $7.5 million and reducing our loss to only $7M.
- stop an $8M incentive to a movie theater chain with only 12 theaters nationwide that was not performance based.
Together we invested in our neglected infrastructure:
- Increased investment in our local roads program advancing it at least 4 years from plan.
- Increased and improved our investments in our parks, from one park every two years to 7 refurbished parks last year plus 18 tennis & basketball courts.
- Refurbished the John Humphrey Complex which was built over 30 years ago.
We instituted good government reforms:
- Enacted term limits – which passed 89% to 11%.
- Eliminated pensions for elected officials.
- Lowered the mayor’s, trustees’ and clerk’s pay back to 2004 levels.
- Passed an ethics ordinance that is the best in the state.
- Increased transparency by broadcasting meetings live.
- Revamped and improved our commission structure to enhance citizen involvement.
We pulled Orland Park back from the brink of fiscal disaster:
- Reduced our debt by over $37 million.
- Reduced operating expenditures by 14% and staff by 10%.
- Stopped acquiring properties and focused on our core services.
- This allowed us to keep our bond ratings, restore our projected reserves to healthy levels, and manage through COVID without taking drastic actions.
We also moved economic development forward in the face of some significant challenges, including national bankruptcies of Sears, Carson’s and Toys ‘R Us as well as the global pandemic:
- Opened over 530 businesses in the last 4 years including Von Maur, Stan’s Donuts, Duluth Trading, Northwestern and Moran’s Family of Brands.
- Supported expansions including University of Chicago, Palos/Loyola, Whole Foods and the Apple Store.
- Approved several other businesses that are also opening including Pete’s Fresh Market, Caputo’s Markets, REI, AMC, an Oncology Group and multiple restaurants at the former Toys ‘R Us site.
- Construction permits in 2020 were more than in 2019 and the first quarter of 2021 are higher than in the previous 5 years.
- Approved agreement at the Triangle with a developer to develop the remainder of the Triangle project that has been ongoing for over two decades.
We led the village through COVID:
- Supported our businesses, fought to keep them open and gave them guidance to open safely.
- Helped our community keep a sense of normalcy by finding safe ways to continue doing our events throughout COVID.
- Opened our pre-school in early September and it has remained open and is operating safely.
And we worked together to improve quality of life in Orland Park:
- Took action to keep Orland Park safe when riots and looting were exploding throughout the region and nation.
- Supported our policed department and their efforts to keep us safe, and the results speak for themselves:
- Lower index crimes each of the last 4 years to the lowest number of index crimes in 26 years.
- Lowest violent crimes for towns over 50,000 in Illinois the last 2 years.
- Orland Square is the safest mall in Chicagoland.
- Safest City in Illinois in 2020.
- Approved and implemented concert series for the first time since Centennial Park West was built for this purpose over 15 years ago.
None of these things got done in a vacuum. It took a team of people with different ideas but the same goal – to put our citizens first and do the right thing. I want to thank Trustees Dodge, Fenton and Calandriello for their efforts to implement all these improvements during the last 4 years.
I also do not want to forget to thank Clerk Mehalek for his efforts to streamline the Clerk’s office and improve efficiencies. The improvements we have implemented in the Clerk’s office over the last 4 years thanks to the village board and the clerk have reduced our staffing needs in that department by 71%.
The next meeting will include the swearing in of Trustees Elect Kampas, Riordan and Radaszewski as well as Clerk Elect O’Sullivan. Please join me in congratulating them on their election!
