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Unincorporated Orland homeowners blast mayor’s annexation move
Residents of Unincorporated Orland Township blast Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau for trying to grab their land and violate their rights. Residents say Mayor Pekau failed to properly notify them of his plans that began quietly in 2022 and continued to 2023 before residents could address the board at a meeting on August 19, 2024. The village asserts there is a Memorandum of Understanding, that most residents have not seen. Pekau’s assertion that he “must act” before Oak Forest and Palos annex area is a fantasy. Homeowners say they are concerned about Orland’s increased taxes and fees, failure to file financial audits, and Pekau’s constant bullying of residents who question his actions
By Ray Hanania
Nearly 100 homeowners from unincorporated Orland Township said they oppose Mayor Keith Pekau’s plans to annex their properties into the village. (NOTE: Watch full video interview below with unincorporated homeowner Vince Kelly.)
Pekau quietly proposed annexing their homes, located in unincorporated Orland Township, a land area between 151st Street and 143rd Street, east of Silver Lakes Country Club and 82nd Avenue to Harlem Avenue and in some areas further east.
The proposal was first proposed quietly in 2022, and then again in 2023. Pekau moved this year to quietly secure the annexation but faced homeowner opposition when the hushed plans became public. Homeowners called Pekau’s assertions that he is doing it to prevent Oak Forest and Palos from seeking the annexation “ridiculous.” No officials in either community have ever expressed interest in annexing that area and those homes.
When dozens of homeowners confronted the mayor at a meeting on Monday, August 19, 2024 meeting, Pekau, in his usual bullying manner, threatened them with expulsion for clapping and making noises, lectured them, and made claims that they had all been sent notification letters.
Many residents said they never received notification letters Pekau claimed he delivered to them. There was also confusion among Pekau, the trustees, and the three new acting village managers about a so-called “Memorandum of Understanding” with the homeowners. No such MOU had been completed, delivered or signed, Pekau was forced to acknowledge during the meeting.
One of the homeowners at the meeting, Vince Kelly, braved through Pekau’s infamous habit of bullying anyone who questions his actions and joined others in expressing his concerns. When a couple of residents clapped, Pekau threatened to have them thrown out. (At a prior meeting in May, Pekau Illegally threw out the entire audience for clapping and booing, and then reconvened the board secretly without public notice. Pekau was censored for that illagl action.)
When he attended the prior meeting, Kelly said Pekau “never looked me in the eye once. He didn’t look at any of my neighbors in the eye.” At the August 19 meeting, Kelly addressed the trustees, instead, which resulted in provoking Pekau’s typically scornful response, “Well, a pro-tip. Next time, you might want to try some respect.”
Kelly responded, “He doesn’t understand that a title doesn’t grant you respect. You still have to give respect to get respect. He thinks some kind of title makes it so that you can treat people however you want, and they still have to come kiss your ring, and I think that is ridiculous.”
Pekau has used Village and taxpayer resources to scorn, bully and demonize anyone who dares to question his actions. Since becoming mayor, Pekau has eliminated the independent committees and consolidated all decisions under his direct control. He has vilified any Orland Park taxpayer who questions his actions and has failed to provide important information including withholding two village audits for 2022 and 2023 which show the village’s fragile economic conditions. Pekau has been censured by the state for hiding those audit documents and not sharing them with the public.
Through the village’s broken FOIA system — many FOIAs have been ignored by Pekau in violation of the law — homeowners obtained an internal memo in which Pekau’s advisers described the annexation area as “not desirable” and said it “would be extremely expensive” and “very difficult.”
“We are happy the way we are. There is nothing they can say to make us want to be part of Orland Park, especially after they just missed two audits for the first time in their 138-year history and then lied about it. I’m quite convinced Orland Park is losing money through the nose and Keith doesn’t want anyone to know about it until after the election,” Kelly told me, noting the village even under-estimated home sizes in order to keep the total area of the annexation under 60 acres to make it easier to forcibly annex.
“This is about our homes. this is where we live. We purchased our homes here for a reason. We don’t want to pay outrageous Orland Park taxes. We don’t want to be governed by a shady board that lies about their actions.”
Kelly said the issue is not about partisan politics.
“The first time I saw his true face was in 2021, when my son was out of school for a year with COVID. They were out of classrooms for a year. And he has asthma and so it is just that more scary. When they went back to school they had the mask mandate. As you know, Keith ran and tried to push to remove the mask mandate for kids in schools. I wrote him an email saying listen, I know it is not ideal and I am not crazy about it either, however, the inconvenience of masks, to me, outweighs the risks of kids having to come out of classrooms again because my son suffered terribly, mentally from that,” Kelly told me in an interview.
“I sent him a link regarding a peer-reviewed study regarding masks in close proximity. And he responded with something to regards as, ‘listen dumbass. If you want to talk to me, I am easy to find. Come get me.’ He is friendly until you disagree with him. He lacks the respect or the spine to talk to critics.”
Pekau has twice failed to file the village’s financial audits with the state for 2022 and 2023, leading many to believe the village’s finances are in a shambles or in deep debt because of misspent funds on concerts and non-essential government services. Property taxes and fees have increased. Services have been delayed, such as the processing of permits for some 800 homeowners whose homes were damaged by May’s severe hailstorm.
Pekau’s trustee minions passed a motion to move ahead with annexation but tabled it to a future meeting, a strategy that could stymie public awareness.
Read more on this, the failure to file audits and watch the video interview with Kelly at hanania.com.
Click this link to watch a video interview with Unincorporated Orland Township homeowner Vince Kelly or use the widget below.
Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter who has lived in Orland Park since 1986. He writes for many suburban newspapers including The Regional News. For more information on this and other topics visit his website at hanania.com, to get information on subscribing to his columns and video podcasts below. email him at [email protected].
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