Two Arab Americans who can help make Orland Park a better community in Pekau's destructive wake

DIstrict 230 school board member Mohammed Jaber and Orland Park activist Yousif Zegar are two Arab Americans rising in Orland Park who are committed to the best interests of the community

By Ray Hanania

FREE/Politics Orland Park/Thursday, July 18, 2024

Once again, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau used the Village Board meeting for his personal bully pulpit to attack his critics and promote his political agenda. This time he gave a platform to one of his allies, Sean Kampas, to assert that the poor mayor is the victim of biased and continued negative criticism that lacks civility.

That’s untrue, of course. Pekau always accuses residents who demand that he be accountable as being negativists who attack him personally.

Like Pekau, Kampas apparently doesn’t believe Orland Park taxpayers have a right to question the actions of their elected, taxpayer funded mayor, suggesting the critics are unpatriotic, unfair and driven by ulterior motives. At the recent board meeting, Kampas called taxpayers who questions Pekau’s disrespectful and their actions “self-interested exaggerations.” He says he questions “the motivations behind such rhetoric.” He called them “biased” and questioned their lack of “civility.”

Of course, Kampas is paid for by the taxpayers, too, and clearly a little thinned skinned.

Pekau has been making that same false allegation for years in response to criticism and to avoid being held accountable. He has accused taxpayers who question his poor leadership as lacking “civility.” Pekau attacks his critics with slander and lies, but it hasn’t worked, so he needs someone else to do it for him. Pekau’s credibility as a responsible mayor is woefully lacking.

There is a growing movement to oust Pekau and his board minionsamong the taxpayers and residents and we have seen Pekau’s popularity slide building over the past four years as his “achievements” fail to meet his claims.

Taxpayers are tired of Pekau lying and hiding his spending habits.

Pekau failed to file the village audit now for two years in a row. The audit outlines what is really happening with revenues, debts, spending and taxation, things that Pekau is afraid to detail, given his excessive spending ($13 million) on the”Pekau Concert Hall,” a waste of taxpayer money that is losing money and only serves to give the mayor a platform for him and cronies to enjoy.

Failing to file the audits, criticized by the Office of State Comptroller’s Suzana Mendoza, continues to bring disrepute to the village.

Worse is Pekau’s abuse of state laws like the Open Meetings Act. Remember that meeting on Feb. 5, 2024 where Orland Park residents and taxpayers politely asked Pekau to do for Gaza what the board previously did for Ukraine? You ddn’t have to agree with them but they certainly had a right to ask without being bullied, which is what Pekau then did to them after they spoke.

Pekau was upset when a few audience members were provoked by his tirade and inaccurate recitation of Middle East history. Pekau angrily cleared the board room of all of the people in the audience, some 40 people, only to reconvene the meeting 30 minutes later when no one was around so he could continue his rant unchallenged, which was being videotaped. This week (July 17, 2024), Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raul issued a ruling concluding that Pekau violated the OMA law and the rights of the public and taxpayers.

It’s not easy to challenge Pekau when Pekau responds with personal attacks, lies about the intentions of the critics and falsely blames them for things like “robocalls’ and anonymous text messaging. But in the subsequent weeks, two members of the community in Orland Park have rallied to empower their voting base, which has in the past been dormant.

They are Mohammed Jaber, an elected member of High School DIstrict 230 and Yousif Zegar, who led an effective campaign challenging Pekau at the Feb. 5 meeting that Pekau adjourned in order to silence community residents. At that meeting, Pekau also told Zegar and his supporters to “go to another country” to make their arguments before adjourning the meeting.

Jaber and Zegar are a part of a growing citizen’s coalition that seeks to protect the interests of taxpayers in Orland Park from Pekau’s mismanagement and to stop Pekau’s efforts to silence diversity. That rising voice against Pekau’s tyranny includes the citizen’s group “Inform Orland Park” which successfully prevented Pekau from consolidating power further by defeating Pekau’s measure to eliminate the Village Manager system, by a huge margin.

Jaber is well known to voters who supported his election to the High School District 230 Board of Trustees.

Mohammed Jaber, School District 230 trustee

Jaber was elected to the School District 230 Board of Trustees in April of 2023,. He currently serves as a Special Education teacher with Chicago Public Schools.

He holds a Masters of Education degree from Saint Xavier University and has extensive experience working with students who require social and emotional support on an individual level to ensure their ability and success to participate in extracurricular activities and other courses.

As a faculty member of the Moraine Valley Community College for over a decade teaching Intensive English Language, he serves beyond the role of an educator and advises students regarding lifelong decisions, such as choosing a subject major, pursuing a higher degree, as well as collaborating with colleagues.

Jaber has a simple, straightforward agenda:

Bring integrity and honesty to public service;

2. Be responsive, communicative, accessible, and respectful with the residents and taxpayers of Orland Park;

3. Work towards Economic Growth, keeping partisan politics out of Orland Park, and fiscal responsibility;

4. Strive for an open and public balanced budget for the Village;

5. Encourage families and parents to be actively involved with their children’s education;

Jaber is the kind of person who can champion the rights of Orland Park and at the same time be accountable to the taxpayers, something that Pekau and Kampas refuse to be as evidenced by their attacks to silence their critics.

Zegar is also a resident of Orland Park and a taxpayer, too. Zegar’s reasoned remarks delivered at the Feb. 5 board meeting that Pekau shut down resonated with many Orland Park residents. He was very articulate, clam and reasoned, a contrast to Pekau who was angry and punitive.

Pekau told Zegar and the other Orland Park residents who attended the taxpayer funded public board meeting to “go to another country.” Pekau’s caustic, xenophobic and disrespectful remarks only reflected Pekau’s horrible tendency to heap abuse on anyone who questions his failed actions, or who try to make him accountable.

Zegar is one of the founders of Orland United for Civic Responsibility, which supports strengthening Orland Park for the benefit of all of the village’s residents, not just those who support Pekau and his minions.

Yousif Zegar is at the forefront of “Orland United For Civic Responsibility,” steering the mission to invigorate the Orland Park community through proactive engagement, advocacy, and educational endeavors.

In parallel to his civic engagement, he owns an international logistics company, specializing in the transportation of life-saving, highly sensitive materials across the globe. This distinctive expertise highlights his leadership, cultivating partnerships that boost the organization’s reach, spearheading inclusive events, and championing policies aimed at fostering peace and justice.

Zegar’s comprehensive approach has been crucial in forging a resilient, unified community that respects the dignity and rights of every individual. His unwavering commitment to the organization’s aims, coupled with a belief in the power of collective effort, continues to motivate and enact positive transformation within Orland Park.

He is also one of the founders and board members of The Sanctity Project, a humanitarian 5013c that advocates for the rights of all.

Jaber and Zegar are inclusive and each are working with many village residents who question the village’s errant policies.

Notice that Kampas didn’t speak about the real issues, like: the giveaway of tickets to recent concerts; the exorbitant costs paid by taxpayers to fund the unnecessary concert venue where Pekau and Kampas enjoy privileged seating; the rising village fees and property taxes; and the reductions in public services. He said nothing about Pekau’s responsibility to be accountable.

Community leaders like Zegar and Jaber are working with many good Orland Park leaders who are trying to build a more representative leadership who will make the citizens and taxpayers the priority of village government. They want to end the politically self-serving conduct of Pekau and the board who are more concerned about politics than about people.

There are a lot of good leaders like Zegar and Jaber, and I will be showcasing them in future columns to ensure that Orland Park residents and taxpayers see that they have far better choices than what the undeserving Pekau minions offer.