Exclusive interview with Orland Mayor Jim Dodge says former mayor left huge debt

Newly elected Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge detailed the problems that former Mayor Keith Pekau left to the taxpayers of the village he controlled for the past six years including an impending financial debt of $200 million. You can read the entire interview by visiting this link at Hanania.com

By Ray Hanania

Just over 60 days in office, newly elected Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge sat down with me to review some of the challenges the village faces as a result of the “toxic” administrative style of his controversial predecessor, Keith Pekau.

Pekau had Orland Park in his political grip for six years until Dodge easily ousted him in the April 1 elections in a landslide vote that reflected the growing voter disapproval with Pekau’s bullying style.

Dodge has been in government more than 30 years, serving the taxpayers of Orland Park. And he now has a chance to rebuild the village which for many years was the jewel of the southwest suburbs, the fastest growing community and most influential between Chicago and Joliet.

During his six years in control of the Village, Pekau dragged Orland Park through a reign of political terror, bullying and personally attacking his critics, and refusing to acknowledge any of his mistakes.

Now shifting his political bullying from his taxpayer funded bully pulpit to the very social media he often castigated as rumor-filled, inaccurate and “wild,” Pekau is doing everything possible to remake his legacy, which is one of the worst of any municipal leader in the suburbs.

In the interview, Dodge says he discovered that the Village is facing a growing and massive debt resulting from Pekau’s excessive and wasteful spending.

When he was in office, the debt was about $100 million but has grown to more than $120 million and is on a trajectory that Dodge hopes to stop towards $200 million.

The debt comes from Pekau’s poor governance of Orland Park and his excessive spending on projects that seemed to be designed to make himself look good rather than to provide a needed service for Orland Park residents.

Read the entire interview by visiting this link at Hanania.com

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

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.

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