State takes first step to censure Orland Park for withholding Finance and TIF audits
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza slaps the wrist of Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau as TIFs, Taxes and Audits continue to plague the Southwest suburban village, but it's just a first step
By Ray Hanania
FREE/Orland Park TIFs Audits Property Taxes/Saturday Oct. 12, 2024
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza suspended the Village of Orland Park from the Local Debt Recovery Program, which helps governments collect outstanding debt due to them.
Mendoza, who has been slow to respond to Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau's financial delinquency, stopped short of imposing the most severe punishment, withholding payment of sales tax revenues to the Village.
But, Mendoza, whose policies I normally enthusiastically support, also gave Pekau one week until Oct. 17 to explain why her office should not step in and conduct a forced audit, an audit the state does itself at village expense.
Although it is welcome news that the State and the news media have finally taken notice of Orland Park's growing financial problems and excessive spending, it’s tragic it has ignored Orland’s financial problems for far too long.
Mendoza did not hesitate to impose tough sanctions on the Village of Dolton and its Mayor Tiffany Henyard for also failing to file two annual financial audits following an avalanche of media coverage there.
Orland Park is a predominantly White community of more than 58,000 residents with a strong financial base and a median household income of $95,000. Dolton, in contrast, is a predominantly Black community of only 21,300 residents with a weak financial base and a near poverty median household income of only $54,700.
I guess the issue for the news media is Orland Park has a larger voter base with a higher voter turnout and is home to many residents who hold important positions with the region's powerful unions.
The regional news media which has failed to monitor wealthy Orland Park but has paid excessive attention to poorer Dolton. Both Henyard and Pekau have faced criticism for their lack of public transparency on their financial “management” practices. But the news media, apparently, only cares about Dolton.
At least Dolton responds to FOIA requests fully providing information to the public. Pekau and Orland Park do not.
In fact, it wasn't until I wrote a column exposing Pekau's audit delinquency in a column that ran on July 15, 2024 that anyone started to pay attention to the issue of financial audit delinquency.
The failure to file the audits suggests many major financial problems exist, including the accumulation of huge debts and problems with Tax Increment Financing districts (TIFs).
Ironically during the six weeks after, very few leaders in Orland Park stood up to challenge the mayor, who has bullied most of his critics into silence. Pekau has attacked anyone who has demanded accountability from him.
The very informative Inform Orland Facebook Page was the only one to pick up the story, showcasing it on their Patch Community Page on July 26, 2024.
Inform Orland is apparently one of the only other places to go to get news on what's happening in Orland Park on a regular basis. You should check it out and follow it.
One local official who did speak out, and did so loudly, was Mohammed Jaber, who happens to be a trustee on the High School District 230. In fact, he is a longtime education professional and activist.
Jaber issued a press release (that I published, click here to read), urging the public to speak out about the un-filed audits and, more importantly, about the impact Pekau's secret new TIFs will have on increasing property taxes and how those property taxes will be redirected AWAY from student needs and the local schools.
Jaber urged the village to halt plans to approve the three questionable new TIF districts, accusing Pekau of failing to hold public hearings on them to educate homeowners, taxpayers and families with school children on the harsh impact TIFs will have on siphoning property taxes away from local schools.
On Sept. 4, 2024, I posted a video interview on Youtube with a TIF and financial expert, Tom Tresser, who explained the dangers of a poorly constructed TIF district.
Basically, a TIF is a district that takes ALL of the taxes that are collected in its boundaries; and instead of using those taxes to pay for the costs of local governments including schools, libraries and fire districts, they are put in a special fund controlled by, guess who? The village mayor, in this case Keith Pekau, the guy who has been accused of mismanaging Orland Park's finances. Pekau has spent millions on entertainment centers (that has lost money) and giving tax breaks to land developers who happen to be among his biggest election campaign donors.
In the case of one of the proposed three new TIF districts, nearly 600 new homes are expected to be built. We don't know the exact number because Pekau is not being transparent or accountable.
New homes mean new families. New families mean new students. New students mean millions in new costs for schools. Instead of collecting property taxes from the new homes, taxpayers outside of the TIF district will be forced to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars needed for the schools through tax increases and higher taxes.
Those tax monies are diverted not just for one year but for between 23 years and 35 years, depending on how the system is set up.
The biggest benefactors of the TIF district tax collections are the developers. In one case, one of Pekau's favorite land developers will get up to $33 million for the 23 year life of the Triangle TIF District, the only one that has had any public hearings.
Can you imagine how many books and education programs $33 million will pay for our students? Pekau certainly can’t. He imagines votes and donations.
Again, very few spoke out against the new TIFs besides Jaber, who has spent his life dedicated to defending local schools, and also Inform Orland Facebook.
Of course, when Jaber urged Pekau to suspend the TIFS until the two delinquent village financial audits could be filed and released, to disclose the true financial situation of the village and the extent of its debts, he was immediately attacked by Pekau's cronies.
First, to attack was Pekau’s most manipulative crony, Trustee and realtor, Cindy Katsenes. Instead of defending property tax owners, Katsenes attacked Jaber (and me) at a board meeting.
Katsenes has been a leaderless, fickle minion who only opens her mouth to tell us how great Pekau is. She is useless!
And then, surprisingly, Jaber was viciously attacked by one of his own colleagues on the School District 230 Board, Lynn Zeder, an education “leader.”
District 230 has three high schools and some 8,000 students who rely on local property taxes to provide high quality education to the students. It has the MOST to lose under Pekau's developer-driven new TIF plans.
The three new TIFs will redirect ALL new property taxes collected in those districts to a fund Mayor Pekau will control. Pekau can spend it as he sees fit including to cover municipal debts he incurred through his irresponsible spending, or to help his developer pals who own the lands being developed and who donate big money to his re-election campaigns.
Ironically, Zeder never even demanded any accountability on what impact the TIFs will have on High School District 230 or on any of the local school districts.
Zeder never called for a public hearing on how the TIFs will undermine the High school district that she is supposed to protect.
Why? Because Zeder's friend is Pekau's former Village Clerk, Pat O'Sullivan, who knew about the three new TIFs.
O'Sullivan served with Zeder on the School District 230 school board. He was the vice president until he resigned after disclosing he had sold his home and had moved outside of the school district.
In response, I called in a column for Zeder to step down for failing to protect the interests of the schools and the taxpayers. Instead of supporting Jaber, some of Zeder's local school pals attacked him.
Even a reporter for a local newspaper published Pekau's misleading claims that he had held hearings on the TIFs. In fact, Pekau held four hearings on the even messier Triangle TIF, which is different from the three new TIFs, but NEVER on the three new TIFs.
Some people just write whatever a crappy unaccountable mayor feeds them, I guess.
Pekau hasn't been fined by Mendoza, although she could do that. Mendoza didn't impose a substantial penalty on Pekau. He got a slap on the wrist and warning, and the state suspended collecting outstanding debt owed to the village. Boo Hoo!
What Mendoza should have done is what she didn't hesitate to do in the Village of Dolton.
But we know why, don't we? Failed media. Failed local school leadership. Failed accountability at the village.
A slap on the wrist is not good enough. The people of Orland Park are fed up with this Mayor and something must be done about it.
High School District 230 Board President LynnN Zeder made false stateemnts in her letter provided to the Chicago Tribune that are unverified by facts:
(Trustee Mohammed) Jaber was chided by District 230 Board President Lynn Zeder, who said he had spoken with media outside of his authority “on a matter in which the board is involved with sensitive proceedings with the village.”
What is that "involvement" and what "sensitive proceedings?" Are they secret? Or might Zeder be referring to discussions she might have had with District 230 Trustee Patrick O'Sullivan who was ALSO the Clerk of the Village of Orland Park, and who had knowledge of the TIFs as a Village of Orland Park official?
Until she attacked Jaber politically, she NEVER made ANY public comments on the TIFs, never notified the board members of any discussions about TIFs and until we raised the issue never had any formal information on the TIFs. That's one reason why Zeder needs to step down from her position. She is an incompetent school official who failed in her duties.