Update from Orland Park Mayor Kieth Pekau

The agenda this week for the Village Board was relatively light, but there still were a few items of interest. There were three items taken off of the consent agenda for further discussion.  Some people may ask, what is a consent agenda?  A consent agenda consists of items that can be passed all at once.  In Orland Park, these are items that have passed their respective committees unanimously.  Many of these items are also routine, such as payroll and accounts payable. On Monday night, Trustee Ruzich took off an item that requested the approval of the Winter and Spring recreation program.  The reason for this was that we typically approve the Spring program as part of the budget and several programs included had little to no historical participation.  The resulting discussion indicated that the Spring approval was tentative pending the budget approval which led to a 7-0 vote. I took two items of the agenda.  One regarding Bluff Pointe subdivision and one regarding a change order to a landscape company for Stellwagen Farm.  The subdivision discussion was to approve a special use with modifications for the Bluff Point subdivision, and included language regarding the required public improvements being complete.  Apparently, this is a fairly standard practice even if public improvements are still in progress.  The vote was 6 -1 and I was the lone dissenting vote.  I was assured that not approving the special use would not impede the project in any way, so I voted no.  While it may be standard, I don’t think we should approve the special uses until the stated public improvements are complete.  However, in defense of the 6 approving votes, we were also assured that we still had leverage to make sure the public improvements are finished. The other item I took off was regarding a change order for a landscape company to grade and seed additional areas for Stellwagen Farm.  Having first hand knowledge of the landscaping industry, I indicated that the price for this work was extremely high, even considering prevailing wage.  The vote again was 6-1.  By Village standards it was a small amount, $4,100 for this work and $2,900 contingency for other work. There is no way I would vote for this knowing that the price was way out of line even if they had been the company doing the rest of the contract.  I understand the 6 votes for it, as the Trustees will tend to trust staff on projects of this size but in good conscience I could not support it. In the main board meeting, the interesting items were the last Village Board meeting and Special Budget meeting minutes.  There were several board members (including me) that had issues with the minutes and their inaccuracies. The board directed the Clerk to fix the minutes and make them accurate. As you are all aware, I have been pointing out these issues since I entered office.  The Clerk has been manipulating the minutes for political purposes since I was elected.  The minutes are the official record of our meetings and should reflect what was actually said and should not be slanted politically.  Up to now, the audio recordings, implemented during my tenure, seemed to have stopped the shenanigans.  However, this week the Clerk was back at it.  Kudos to the board for directing the Clerk to change the minutes and bring them to the next board meeting.  It is time for him to do his job correctly, the first time and quit wasting our time. The executive session had one item of interest that was voted on.  The Village Board voted to extend the contract of our Village Manager by one year and increase his severance pay from 6 months to 9 months.  I cannot disclose what was discussed in executive session.  However, I will explain what I can.  Our Village Manager was given a 3- year contract less than one year ago with 6 months of severance. He is not even one year into the contract and has not had his first annual review.  In the real world (non-government) nobody receives a contract extension in the first year of a three-year contract.  If contract extensions are granted they are due to proven performance over multiple review periods. My second issue with this was the process.  This was brought to the Trustees from the Village Manager and it is my understanding he discussed this with every Trustee.  In other words, he proposed his own extension and 33% severance increase!  He never discussed this with me and I found out about it from another Trustee, 10 minutes before the meeting.  Conveniently the Village Manager was on vacation and not available to address my concern. When we reconvened the public meeting, I was the lone dissenting vote as the extension of one year and three months of additional severance was passed on a 6-1 vote.  In my opinion, extending a three-year contract of anyone in the first year of their contract is unacceptable regardless of performance.  Also, in my opinion, it is unacceptable to extend a contract without a single performance review. During my 15-month tenure many good government initiatives have been implemented: I opted out of the pension system as I believe all elected officials should Audio recordings of Village Board meetings Face book live video of Village Board meetings Sharing of financial projections Several items removed from consent agenda for public discussion Numerous Special Meetings held for our most important issues (budget and gaming) I remain committed to making our Village the model of good government for our residents and businesses.  While a lot has been done, and the Village is well run, clearly more improvements are needed. I also want to remind everyone of our Labor Day Weekend concert on September 2nd starting at 2PM at Centennial Park West.