McLaughlin blasts Pekau for using board meetings to promote his political campaign
Former Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin accused Mayor Keith Pekau of using taxpayer-funded village board meetings and staff to unleash a series of vicious political accusations. McLaughlin said the Village board should be used to champion the rights of taxpayers not to fund the mayor’s political re-election campaign. McLaughlin called Pekau’s abuse of power “shameful” and disgusting.”
Here is Dan McLaughlin’s statement on the “Culture of Misinformation” in Orland Park’s Current Leadership
“What an incredible sadness I feel about how Mayor Pekau used time owed to Orland Park residents to campaign with a made-up scandal when he could have been providing answers on issues that matter to the community,” McLaughlin said.
In response to false accusations made by Mayor Keith Pekau and two trustees at a recent village board meeting, mayoral candidate Dan McLaughlin released the following statement:
“I am appalled that my opponent would bring a ridiculous accusation into a village hall meeting that could have been used to address the pressing issues that Orland Park citizens are facing. Using taxpayer time and money to fling false allegations and out of context stories while threatening investigations for political advancement is disgusting and not what Orland Park residents deserve. It makes me sad to see local government used like this.
This type of lying and attacking started four years ago, and it’s a disservice to the residents of Orland Park. This is not what politics at the local level should look like – we should be united, we should be transparent and open, and leaders should be in constant service to their residents.
Our community will see through Mayor Pekau’s political game of using false stories and a sham investigation started by him and paid for by the citizens of Orland Park. It’s not right, and I’m frustrated on behalf of residents that village meetings are being used for campaigning instead of dealing with issues facing residents — which should be the whole job.
Orland Park needs to move forward. We need to put these political games behind us and get back to work. I am proud of the way my team and I have always put our community first, and I look forward to being in a position to offer that leadership to them again.
There are much better things for the village staff to do than spend hours and hours looking through 20-year-old documents to help the Mayor start a phony political charge.”
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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Mayor Pekau’s use of the Village Board meetings to promote his political agenda is a disgrace to every taxpayer in Orland Park that he was elected to represent. He has no right to abuse his authority and waste taxpayer dollars by using the Village Board meetings as his political forum to buy, name call and spout accusations for political purposes. It’s another example of why he is a terrible public official and unrepresentative of the public’s interests.