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High School District 230’s President Lynn Zeder should resign from the board
Opinion: District 230 President Lynn Zeder was aware of plans involving three TIF districts that will siphon hundreds of millions in property taxes from the district’s three high schools, but she has been publicly silent about it. Instead of addressing these TIFs, which will siphon hundreds of millions of property taxes for the schools, she instead bullied trustee Mohammed Jaber for questioning the creation of TIFs by the village in light of the village failing to file the last two financial audits for 2022 and 2023
By Ray Hanania
Where has School District 230’s Lynn Zeder been during the past three months as Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau has floated plans to designate three TIFs that will siphon millions of tax dollars away from the schools?
She has been silent about the TIFs and their negative impact on District 230 schools in part because she isn’t much of a leader. TIFs are “Tax Increment Financing” plans that governments can use to divert taxpayer monies away from all local government and instead pay for a development, without having to be subject to transparency and public disclosure. They can last 23 years or more.
Zeder is a Pekau minion, held in place by the overly cautious former District 230 Vice President Patrick O’Sullivan, who also served as Pekau’s Village Clerk before resigning.
While Pekau has tried to keep the focus on the “Triangle” TIF district, holding four public hearings on it during the summer, he was silent on three more TIF districts that will build hundreds of residential homes and will certainly thrust more students int the three high schools. Under a TIF district, property taxes do not go to the schools to cover student costs. They go to the developers and are controlled by the Village.
It wasn’t until this week that Zeder decided to speak out on the TIFs. But instead of addressing the negative impact TIFs have on schools, she tore into District 230 Trustee Mohammed Jaber, who weeks ago expressed concerns as a private citizen on the TIFs.
A Taxpayer, homeowner and parent in Orland Park, Jaber issued a press release on August 29 urging Pekau to suspend the TIFs until residents of the village could get a clearer financial picture.
He was attacked in a story published in The Regional News Newspaper, which falsely claimed the three TIF districts had been discussed in public hearings.
Pekau failed to file the village Financial Audits for 2022 and 2023, which would spell out the village’s financial health.
Does Orland Park have huge debts because of Pekau’s excessive spending on concert parks, fields, and gun ranges? We don’t know.
Worse, creating a TIF takes all property taxes from all of the local governments (the Village, District 230, District 135, the Library and the Fire District) and puts it in a fund with no public transparency controlled by Pekau and the developer.
Pekau doesn’t understand a TIF. When asked about the Orland Triangle TIF, to be developed by his election campaign donor, Edward’s Realty, he said, “It’s an economic development tool that uses its own money to fund it.”
Worse for the taxpayers is, there is no transparency reporting on how the money is spent. The village could release info on the TIF spending if they wanted. Pekau won’t release the audits (until after the election.) Why would you expect him to release TIF spending details?
Anyone who represents the schools should be screaming at the top of their lungs, demanding information on future TIFs and how they will impact the schools.
Instead, Zeder read a political statement at the District 230 board meeting on Thursday (Sept. 19, 2024) attacking Jaber for asking the questions that Zeder apparently is afraid to ask.
Or maybe, Zeder is being bullied into silence by her political pals?
How much money will Districts 135 & 230 lose? What impact will they have on the schools during the life of the TIFs, which can run as long as 23 or more years?
The only reason to attack Jaber was to silence him to protect Pekau and others, politically.
Instead of caring about the interests of District 230’s students, the parents and homeowners, and the taxpayers, Zeder is apparently more concerned about protecting Pekau and keeping his TIFs in the dark.
Speaking as an Orland Park and District 230 homeowner, resident, and taxpayer, Jaber made a strong point: Don’t implement the TIFs until the audits are released.
If you remember, Jaber called on the Village of Orland Park to waive the permit fees for the nearly 1,000 homes that were damaged during this past May’s massive hailstorm.
Instead, the permit process are months behind and damaged homes have been forced to wait to repair home damage. When Dan McLaughlin was mayor, he immediately waived permit fees and even provided support to homeowners during the massive floods that damaged 300 homes in 1997.
By the way, once the audits are done, who do you think is supposed to file those audits with the Illinois Comptroller’s Office? Usually, the Village Clerk, of course.
If you want to help the school children, Zeder, try stepping down.
As an Orland Park and District 230 taxpayer for the past 39 years, and who put two children through Sandburg, I never thought I would be so embarrassed by a public official’s stupidity.
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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