An update from the last board meeting. It was fairly uneventful and routine.
I had the pleasure of honoring our Special Olympians! What a fun group. A great job from our Special Recreation Program led by Nick Harvey.
We approved some vehicle purchases including some replacement police interceptors. Unfortunately, we had to up it by one due to the recent accident where are officers were rear ended by a DUI driver. They were injured, but thankfully not life threatening. We had a discussion about alternative fuels and buying vs. leasing. We are continuing to investigate both options. The Board of Trustees and I are committed to doing whatever is the most cost efficient in the long-term.
There was also a discussion about bringing concerts to Centennial Park West. I have had several meetings about this with Mayor Baldermann of New Lenox. They have a 3-concert series and we are working with them to see if some of those acts would like to do a concert on back to back nights and do one in Orland Park. It would like to see us get more use out of that Park and the ticket prices would be reasonable. Staff has done the background work to get us ready in the event we can book an act. Based on our conservative analysis these concerts will actually generate positive income for the Village.
Trustee Calandriello expressed a significant amount of concern about this because of the budget impacts. I really appreciate that he is now concerned about our spending and is becoming a deficit hawk. This will be helpful through the next budget cycle. However, I can assure you that we are working hard to make this a budget positive event. (New Lenox runs at a small profit with tickets @ $25 and 5,000 tickets sold only to New Lenox residents). We will adjust our pricing and number of tickets sold to ensure that we do the same. I anticipate that given the size of Orland Park and our venue we will sell 7,000 to 9,000 tickets and price them at $25 to $40 depending on the act. I am very hopeful that we can pull at least one or two concerts off this year. If not, we will be ahead of the game for next year.
Lastly, Cook County is looking to pass yet another disastrous bill and The Village of Orland Park, our neighbors to the East and the rest of Cook County can use your help. The negative impacts of this will be higher than the sugary beverage tax. The Chicago Southland region stands at the crossroads of being devastated with the loss of potential future economic development opportunities and major job losses! The proposed Cook County prevailing wage and apprenticeship ordinance (18-1604) could devastate the Chicago Southland. This needs to be turned around now, and I am asking for your help OPPOSE, and STOP the passage of this ordinance. The Southland Mayors and Economic Development Directors, including myself, have been testifying at Cook County, but the commissioners need to hear your voice expressing strong opposition to proposed ordinance (18-1604) that would trigger major economic challenges to the Chicago Southland. Our Commissioner is against this issue, in particular calls to Commissioners Deer, Fritchey, Moody and Daley will be helpful. Their numbers follow:
Gregg Goslin: commissioner.goslin@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-4932 or 847-729-9300 . . . Richard Boykin: richard.boykin@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-4932 or 202-230-8578 . . .
Ed Moody: Edward.moody@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-4216 or 708-389-2125 . . .
Stanley Moore: Stanley@commissionermoore.com phone: 312-603-2065 or 773-783-2412 . . .
Dennis Deer: DennisDeer@cookcountyil.gov Phone: 312-603-3019 . . .
John Fritchey: commish@fritchey.com phone: 312-603-6380 . . .
Bridget Gainer: Office@bridgetgainer.com phone: 312-603-4210 & 773-561-1010 . . .
Jesus Garcia: Jesus.Garcia@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-5443 . . .
Peter Silvestri: cookcty9@aol.com phone: 312-603-4393 or 312-603-8130 . . .
Robert Steele: r.steele@robertsteele.org phone 773-7220140 . . .
Deborah Sims: Deborah.sims@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-6381 . . .
Larry Suffredin: larry.suffredin@cookcounty.gov phone: 312-603-6383 . . .
Luis Arroyo, Jr: luis.arroyojr@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-6386 . . .
Jerry Butler: jerry.butler@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-6391 . . .
John Daley: john.daley@cookcountyil.gov phone:312-603-4400 .
Jeffery Tobolski: Jeffery.tobolski@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312-603-6384 . . .
and President Toni Preckwinkle: Samira.Jali@cookcountyil.gov phone: 312 603-6400. THESE COMMISSIONERS NEED TO HEAR YOUR VOICE, AND YOU CAN DO THAT NOW - WITH A QUICK EMAIL MESSAGE USING THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS ABOVE! . . .
The Key Points:
- This legislation will substantially increase the cost of doing business in Cook County, and drive business to neighboring counties (Will) and other states - primarily Indiana where the environment is more business friendly and less red tape.
- Prevailing wages and benefits are HIGHER than union scale! Prevailing Wages are contributing to our governments’ fiscal problems. Businesses will not absorb this cost, they will go elsewhere.
- This proposal would adversely affect our ability to recruit and maintain job growth for in our communities.
- Without the current tax Incentive programs (now in place) “that work”, we will no longer have the ability to compete with neighboring Will County or Indiana where its less costly and easier to navigate the process.
The question to our Cook County Commissioners . . . “Do you want to promote and encourage economic developments and job growth or impede it and crush the south suburbs.” The Cook County Prevailing Wage and Mandated Apprentice Requirement (proposed legislation 18-1604) will NOT ADD JOBS – it will hurt growth and investment opportunities.
Time is running out – the vote on the Prevailing Wage and Mandated Apprentice Requirement Amendment is scheduled for Wednesday, March 14th9:00 A.M. Cook County Office, 118 S. Clark, Chicago.
Please email or call the above commissioners regarding this issue. I will be there to testify on behalf of Orland Park.
Thank you for the help!
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