Orland Park ignores Open Meetings Act request from Illinois Attorney General

Orland Park mayor snubs Illinois Attorney General's request to answer Illinois Open Meetings Act violation at the Feb. 5, 2024 meeting which the mayor cleared when some members criticized his response

-- Village of Orland Park fails to respond to Open Meeting Act violation inquiry from the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul regarding the Feb. 5, 2024 meeting in which Pekau told taxpayers and residents to "go to another country" after he booted the 75 to 100 audience members out of the board meeting.

-- The Attorney General sent a "Second Request" for Pekau to explain what happened. A violation of the Open Meetings Act is a Class C Misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,500 and 30 days in jail.

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapterID=2&Print=True

-- The issue in Orland Park is not whether the board should pass or reject a ceasefire resolution regarding Gaza, but rather the disrespectful manner in which Pekau and fellow Trustee William Healy bullied and scolded the taxpayer residents who attended, suggesting they were not American like he was and telling them to "go to another country," an embarrassment that brought national coverage and shame for the board

By Ray Hanania

FREE/politics/Friday March 1, 2024

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau violated many things when he shut down a meeting so he could recite his flawed historical perspective on the Middle East at a meeting of the board on Monday Feb. 5, 2024.

Between 75 and 100 Orland Park residents attended the meeting and during the public participation period respectfully asked the board to consider a resolution that would call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages. As the five residents and taxpayers spoke during their 3 minutes allowed, Pekau snickered, moaned and refused to look at them.

Pekau was very disrespectful.

When they were done, instead of thanking the taxpayers for attending a board meeting and expressing their concerns, he began bullying and scolding them, reading a 10-page prepared rebuttal about the history of the middle East beginning with the "Bronze Era."

When some residents in the audience -- five or six out of 75 to 100 -- vocally objected as he spoke, Pekau yelled at them three times. And when several continued demanding he be respectful, the mayor ordered the village board room cleared.

Pekau was gunning for a fight with his prepared speech and by ordering police to increase their presence at the board meeting to 10 officers. The police were ordered to remove everyone.

A complaint was filed with the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who Pekau has blasted in the past, asserting that the meeting was improperly recessed, the audience was improperly forced to leave, and the meeting was improperly reconvened without the public's participation.

Michael Henry, an Orland Park resident who previously worked for Pekau's election campaign overseeing robocalls but was pushed out by Pekau when he refused to submit to his campaign extremes, filed an Open Meetings Act complaint with Raoul's office on Feb. 17, 2024, 12 days ago.

The complaint addresses Pekau's violation of the Open Meetings Act when he angrily cleared the village board room on Feb. 5, 2024 of between 75 and 100 residents and taxpayers before returning after more than 25 minutes to continue his berating and diatribe of the residents.

After five members of the audience spoke during the 3-minute public participation period, Pekau began a 20 minute rant that he had pre-written in anticipation of the expected large audience attendance. Pekau also ordered the police to bolster their presence from two officers at most board meetings to 10, a clear act of audience intimidation.

During his disrespectful rant, in which he asserted he was expressing his personal views and not speaking as the Village President -- a ridiculous assertion since he made his remarks from his bully pulpit and from the village president's chair. If he really were speaking as a private citizen, he would have gotten up off of his chair, walked down to the public access microphone and, limiting his remarks to the same 3 minutes limited to everyone else who pays taxes in Orland Park, spoke and addressed the board.

He did not speak as a private citizen though because several minutes into his ridiculous pre-written speech that twisted history "from the beginning of the Bronze age" through the most recent events in the Middle East, he yelled at the audience when several members openly criticized him and threatened to clear the room.

While the majority were respectful, several continued and instead of escorting the disruptive individuals out of the building, he slammed the gavel and ordered the meeting recessed.

The room was cleared and more than25 minutes later, Pekau and his rubberstamp board returned so he could continue reading his "personal opinions" from the president's board chair to an empty room.

Here are some of the remarks he made that were vicious and disrespectful to tax paying residents.

He said he was an American and said they were not. He said that the Gaza issue had nothing to do with Orland Park, and then uncomfortably explained why the Ukraine war had everything to do with Orland Park -- a resolution was passed denouncing the neo-Soviet invasion of Ukraine.

Here's what Pekau said after the board room was cleared:

(Time Stamp under edited video 0:54:46)

"Clearly I am the mayor of Orland Park. This is the board of Orland Park. ... this is an incredibly complicated ... have zero impact on foreign policy ... no bearing on the governance of the village of Orland Park

(Time Stamp under edited video 0:55:30)

"We talked about how Chicago and San Francisco are somewhat to uphold. I will tell you what, I am in Orland Park, I don't want to look anything like [Chicago] and San Francisco. If that is how you want to live, go live there because Orland Park ain't it."

(Time Stamp under edited video: 1:01:38)

"First and foremost I am an American. I am not a German American. I am an American. That's where my allegiances lie. Period. Dot. End of story. And if you are an American citizen and you don't feel that way, then in my opinion, you are entitled to that opinion, but you can certainly go and fight, and go to another country and support that country and all the power to you if you chose to do that," Pekau told the audience-emptied room which was video recorded and broadcast live on Youtube.

"But as long as I am an American, and I am, I have taken several oaths to support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. I will always support America's interests."

Pekau then asked other board members if they would like to respond or comment to the empty room, and that is when Trustee William Healy unleashed a racist-tinged rant blasting the residents.

(Time Stamp under edited video: 1:05:15)

"This unruly crowd that was here tonight of Palestinians will not bully me into copying any opinion I do not believe in. One of America's fundamental tenets is tolerance. Tolerance. You are supposed to be able to disagree with people but do it in an agreeable fashion. You have to be tolerant of other people's opinions. I didn't detect any tolerance in these opinions. I didn't hear any claims of compassion. We were accused of not being compassionate. I took offense to that.

(Time Stamp under edited video: 1:06:32)

"But what further  bothers me about some of the people who showed up is that they claim to be educated in the Orland Park grammar schools and high schools. And I don't detect one bit of patriotism or understanding of our American values with them. They seem to twist and turn some of those values. And I have doubts whether the Palestinian community wants to participate in this American experiment."

Government officials have every right to remove individuals who are disruptive during board meetings. But what Pekau did was to remove everyone, including those who were not disruptive. All of the audience was cleared. And they were not permitted to return to the meeting in which Pekau continued his ugly and inaccurate historical comments.

Pekau did not respond to the Open Meetings Act inquiry from the Illinois Attorney General's office, which sent a second letter demanding a response date March 1, 2024.

There are many questions here. One is: Is Kwame Raoul a pencil pushing bureaucrat, or is he an effective Illinois Attorney General who has the courage to represent the rule of law?

That's the question people in Orland Park are asking tonight, as Orland Park's rightwing Mayor arrogantly thumbs his disrespectful nose at the rule of law in Illinois.

It's not the first time. In the past week, village crews drove up and down LaGrange Road tearing down campaign signs posted by several candidates including Paul O'Grady who is running in the March 19 election for Circuit Court Judge. When Pekau's candidates ran, they placed their signs illegally along the roadway and only removed those of his foes.

If you can get away with that, I guess you can get away with anything and snub your nose at the state's highest legal prosecutor.