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Orland Park mayor defends school district 230 chief who scolded colleague for raising TIF concerns
Mayor Keith Pekau used his eNewsletter to defend School District 230 President Lynn Zeder who attacked a school colleague for raising concerns about the impact Pekau’s 3 new TIFs will have on schools and property taxes
By Ray Hanania
Mayor Bully-in-Chief Keith Pekau unleashed another misleading and typical bullying attack this morning in his eNewsletter, but it only reinforces the fact that School District 230 President Lynn Zeder has been working like Pekau to keep the TIF district impact on the schools as quiet as possible …
There have NEVER been any hearings on the Three New TIFs, as Pekau asserts … only on the Triangle TIF, this past summer.
Zeder knew about the new TIFs and their impact on the schools and instead of speaking out on them and doing her job to make the public aware of what was happening, she used them as a platform to attack a FELLOW School District 230 Board Trustee who DARED TO raise questions about them — which is the responsibility of every Trustee on the District 230 board — not to be silent rubber stamps for Zeder or Pekau.
Trustee Mohammed Jaber is legitimately concerned about how the TIFs’ will negatively impact property taxes and the schools. The new TIFs will deny hundreds of millions of property tax dollars to cover the costs for new students who will come from the continually growing number of new homes that will be built on the old Andrew Site, 600 homes.
All government property taxes in a TIF District go directly to the local government and TIF administrators (Pekau and his realtor colleagues and contractors) to do with as they please with minimal public transparency or accountability.
The fact that Pekau and Zeder didn’t want to publicly discuss the impact of the 3 NEW TIFs on the schools is evidence of that complicity and their failed duties.
Pekau asserts that I don’t know about TIFs — I only covered TIFs for 30 years in Chicago and the City Council.
There are two kinds of TIFs, one that is transparent and created with the concerns for the impact on the schools in mind. Those TIFs are presented to the public in full BEFORE they are approved so the public understands what is happening to their property taxes.
The other is favored by bullying elected officials like Pekau and is irresponsible. It’s 3 TIFs by: A mayor who has apparently overspent and created huge debt for the village and needs the money; A Mayor who has FAILED in his duties by not filing two mandatory Village Financial Audits (for 2022, and 2023); And, a poor village leader who has more concern for his donors, contractors and real estate developer pals than he does for the needs of the “People.”
Do some reading, people. Your property taxes are about to be teed up by Mayor Golfer to increase more than you would want to believe.
1 – Lynn Zeder should resign from District 230 Board for failing to show concern for the impact 3 new TIFs will have on the schools and their students:
https://suburbanchicagoland.com/…/high-school-district…/
2 – Realtor Katsenes and Mayor Pekau are angry because I blew the whistle on their secret 3 TIFs they hoped to push through with minimal public impact
https://suburbanchicagoland.com/…/katsenes-and-pekau…/
3 – Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau failed to file the Annual FInancial Audits for the village for 2022 and 2023. Is he hiding accumulating debt driven by his reckless spending?
https://hanania.substack.com/…/pekau-fails-to-file…
4 – A video with TIF expert Tom Tresser on understanding TIFs and their impact on schools and local governments
Mohammed Jaber’s press release that he sent to all the news media (which I proudly published
5 – Press release distributed to local media by Mohammed Jaber expressing concerns for Pekau’s 3 New TIFs, released as a longtime Orland Park homeowner, taxpayer and education leader who now serves on the District 230 School board
https://suburbanchicagoland.com/…/press-release-orland…/
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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