Pekau uses taxpayer monies to fund his re-election propaganda and lies
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau & minion Cindy Katsenes have stepped up their public bullying and name calling of anyone who dares to question their spending of taxpayer monies for their pet projects
By Ray Hanania
FREE/Politics Orland Park/Tuesday Sept. 17, 2024
Beleaguered Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau and realtor and controversial Trustee Cindy Katsenes just can't help themselves constantly making up lies and throwing mud at their critics.
Why the mud and namecalling? Because they can't speak to any of the issues.
Pekau with advice from Katsenes didn't file the Village's last two annual Financial Audits for 2022 and 2023 because they are hiding something.
I can only guess at the financial mess the audits may detail about the reckless Pekau-Katsenes government, and how their three real estate TIF districts will dramatically increase property taxes on local schools and other independent government.
But I am certain they don't know how to run government, except to run it to the ground.
It's one reason why Pekau bullies residents who come to the board to seek answers about his policies and how Katsenes is the “backup bully,” attacking people and slandering other government agencies to help Pekau fight off criticism of his incompetence and failed policies.
Why all that effort? Because they have to distract from their failures. They have driven Orland Park to the precipice of financial disaster. They are doing their best to hold off the financial tsunami until after the election mistakenly believing that village employees would not have called to tip me off about the unfiled, hidden financial audits which I wrote about on July 15 on my online website at www.Hanania.com.
Pekau and Katsenes administration is marked by personal attacks and lies they hope will keep the public's attention off of their governmental incompetence and failings.
Instead of earning their taxpayer salaries by spending time finding ways to solve Orland Park's problems, they add to those problems by spending millions on a failed concert venue and program to bring inn "their" favorite entertainment.
It was never about you, the people who paid for it all. It is all about their love-affair with government mismanagement.
Pekau and Katsenes have increased taxes and fees so much many businesses are worried about whether they can keep their doors open.
Homeowners are suffering under the oppressive property tax hikes driven by the incompetence of Pekau's poltergeist politician, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi's, who shifted the tax burden from north shore businesses and corporations to South and Southwest Side homeowners.
Orland Park is one of the biggest suburban communities in Southwest Cook County, but Pekau and Katsenes don't have their eye on the right ball at all. They should be fighting for the rights of taxpayers, not increasing taxes and fees in Orland Park to new record levels, while cutting back on services and wasting millions on self-serving pet projects.
Pekau used the cover of former Mayor Dan McLaughlin's pension and salary grab. I wrote about it giving Pekau's anorexic candidacy a boost. Just look back at mu columns from 2017. But once in office, Pekau decided to grab everything for himself including eliminating all of the committees to silence community engagement and instead creating one committee that he runs the way tyrant Kim Jong Un runs North Korea.
Suppressing the community's involvement, Pekau turns to his rubberstamp board that "sleeps with its eyes open" during board meetings, allowing the stupidity to spill out occasionally from trustee colleagues like William Healy who twice now has stammered through the most ignorant statements, first about Muslims and recently on September 3 attacking the unions.
And remember how "Iraq Fighter Pilot" Pekau constantly reminds us of how much he loves veterans, casting himself like a modernday "Sergeant Alvin C. York, World War I's most decorated American Soldier? And then he turns around and attacks veterans like myself, and Military veteran Diana Howard in August 2023 who quoted Pekau's insults against veterans who weren't supportive enough of his regime?
At what point do Orland Park taxpayers stand up and say "enough is enough" from the toxic Pekau-Katsenes cabal?
Before they leave government, they will run this community into the ground, giving away millions to his crony land developers and election contributors.
The next thing you know, they'll be accusing his critics of eating cats and dogs, too, because that's how whacky they both are.
No government official in this state, or nearby community (that isn't under a dark cloud of controversy already) is willing to associate themselves with them.
With Pekau and Katsenes running Orland Park like greedy political drunken sailors, it's no wonder we're the laughing stock of this already pathetic state.