A lot has happened in the last two weeks. This includes our most recent board meeting as well as more actions from the state that can only leave us shaking our heads in disgust.
First, an update on the board meeting. Trustee Milani brought forth an idea for a BBQ competition which we all agreed was a good idea. However, there is one already coming to Orland Park thanks to the American Legion this summer. We will assess this event and work with the American Legion to make this a mainstay in Orland Park in the future.
We approved the 6th phase of the Fernway subdivision street reconstruction. There are three more years after this and we requested that staff determine how we can finish this a little faster than 2024 for the sake of the residents in the subdivision. Because these streets were originally in an unincorporated area they were built differently than those in the rest of the village, and require a lot more money and time to completely reconstruct.
We tabled an engineering approval for a bike bath that goes around McGinnis Slough in the ComEd easement from LaGrange Road to Will-Cook Road. Engineering the project, even though it is in Cook County jurisdiction, helps us get funding, so it will likely be approved at the next meeting. There was good discussion started by Trustee Kampas and echoed by others about the various bids. Staff is bringing more information to the next meeting, where it will likely be approved. For background, there are four bike path sections in the village that are not completed. Two of these are engineered and awaiting funding. We found out this past week that the most important of these (104th avenue from 159th St to 163rd St) was just funded for construction by a State of Illinois program. The two remaining will likely be engineered in the coming year.
We also amended the budget for next year with some minor adjustments. We did not approve a budget amendment for an internship program as the board agreed that we wanted more information about the program (hiring process, training process, goals, etc.) before approving it. Trustee Katsenes pointed out that we need to consider prioritizing Orland Park residents and we also need to ensure that we have safeguards against patronage and nepotism, something she personally witnessed while on another elected board and felt was unacceptable. Trustees Healy, Milani and Riordan also had good comments for staff to consider regarding these internships.
Lastly, we tabled a change order request on our annual audit. Trustee Healy, who has a lot of experience with this had many questions on the request, and did not think the additional charges are warranted. The board agreed to table this item until Trustee Healy’s questions were addressed. This was year of three of what is potentially a five-year contract for the auditor. I directed staff to put together a new RFP for auditing services going forward given the concerns identified.
Also, a few days prior the board meeting, I was informed that AMC backed out of the lease at the Sears property. After previously seeing AMC’s strategy announcement of acquiring distressed properties, I was concerned this may happen. While this is a setback, the good news is that the theater construction had not been started because of COVID and their previous commitment helped us land Von Maur. Unfortunately, COVID had a huge negative impact on the movie and theater industry and this project was similarly impacted. We will go back to the drawing board and work with Seritage and Simon to reimagine that space.
However, in spite of this we continued to receive good development news with positive developments in the Triangle, properties on the ring road and a final restaurant for the former Toys R’ Us site. We will make the specifics public as soon as we are able. Also, at the end of June there will be a meeting for the public on the Triangle site. I encourage you to attend to give feedback to Edwards Realty.
Last week, the traffic light at 179th Street and Southwest Highway was finally turned on. The construction on this IDOT project was completed last fall installing a traffic light and reconfiguring the intersection. Do you know why it has taken about 8 months to energize the signal? Traffic signals need electricity and that little detail was forgotten by IDOT —– really, you can’t make this up.
In the most recent legislative session, the state legislature passed several bills including HB 3653 which prioritizes criminals over our police and law-abiding citizens. They also passed a budget that includes:
- A pay raise of $1,200 per year for legislators as a reward for working just 4 days, not 4 days a week, 4 days for the whole year, during COVID
- More than doubled the budget for their legislative staffs from 70,000 to 160,000 – which is nothing but a slush fund. Many states don’t even have district legislative offices.
- Added 2 more state holidays for state workers at a cost to taxpayers of roughly $22 Million. Soon, we will be paying them for the whole year for not working.
On the bright side, they did not cut the Local Government Distributive Fund any further. They expect us to give them credit for this. I will not. They need to restore the LGDF to the 10% it was for four decades before the started raiding municipality coffers in 2011. These raids continued in this budget where they diverted $350 million from the Personal Property Replacement Tax away from municipalities and continue to charge an administrative fee of 1.5% of sales tax for collecting sales tax that they collect for themselves.
But the worst of it was the gerrymandered redistricting map that Governor Pritzker signed into law. It fails to follow the law, does not use census data as required and further disenfranchises the residents of Orland Park and Illinois.
Look no further than the State Supreme Court map that hadn’t been changed since before I was born. However, this year, voter’s spoke and voted a judge out of office that the corrupt politicians in Springfield relied on to provide air cover for their horrible decisions. The voter’s spoke, but the corrupt politicians spoke back with this changed map, saying, “how dare you upset our apple cart, we will show you and gerrymander the districts so your votes can’t upset our carefully built machine.”
They have done this with Orland Park previously. We were broken into 4 reps and 3 senators in 2010. With the new map Orland Park now has 4 representatives and 4 state senators – dividing our vote even further. They also placed even more of Orland Park into districts with representatives who have had no interest in serving our interests in the last four years. Also, you simply need to look at an Orland Park neighboring town to observe what may be the most glaring example of gerrymandering nepotism that the United States let alone Illinois has ever seen.
An example of this poor representation is the 2019 capital bill where we received nothing in the bill. However, there were two towns that stood out in the South Suburbs. Orland Hills received $8.6M and Harvey $9.1M. The next highest in the South Suburbs was Richton Park at $1.9 Million. The bill gave neighboring Tinley Park a paltry $750,000 and Mokena only $335,000.
To put this in perspective, Tinley got $13 per resident, Mokena received $16 per resident, Richton Park, $141 per resident, Harvey $341 per resident and Orland Hills a whopping $1,214 per resident. The answer that we get is that this was based on “equity” and need. It appears that from the state’s perspective, Tinley Park and Orland Park and the combined 38 square miles of our towns and infrastructure that completely surround the ONE SQUARE MILE in Orland Hills, simply are not nearly as important an economic driver for the State of Illinois.
Just last week in the most recent bill, the State of Illinois took $15 million that was being used to cleanup the mental health center away from Tinley Park and added $43 million for “construction projects” at Moraine Valley Community College. It doesn’t take much research to identify that this is cronyism from the roots of the same poisonous tree. The region, the residents of Orland Park and Tinley Park deserve better.
Lastly, I want to thank our Police Department for their continued good work and our Public Works, Veterans Commission and Recreation Departments for their efforts that have included the Pool Opening with normal operations, the largest Memorial Day event we have ever had and an inaugural Veterans night.
Please join us for more upcoming events, including Market on the Park on the 17th and 24th, our Drive in Movie, the Avengers on the 12th, Veteran’s night (don’t need to be a vet to attend) on the 15th, Concert in the Park on the 20th and tickets are on sale for the Centennial Park West Concert Series with the first concert on the 26th.
