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State Comptroller Susana Mendoza takes tough action against Orland Park over unfiled audits

Comptroller Mendoza Suspends Payments to the Village of Orland Park for Failure to File Documents. The move aims to motivate Orland Park’s administration to follow the law without penalizing town residents

By Ray Hanania

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza took tough action on Thursday (Oct. 17, 2024) against Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau for failing to file the village’s financial audits for the past two years.

Pekau, who bullies residents who question his incompetent and failed leadership at board meetings, has been clamoring for the state and other agencies to act as they have against Dolton and Mayor Tiffany Henyard

Part of the problem is that the news media has focused more on Dolton, a poor Black community with a low income and revenue base, but has ignored Orland Par,k which is wealthier, Whiter, and has a large revenue base. Most local media has pandered to Mayor Pekau, fearing his wrath, and have ignored his troubles, with the exception ot WGN TV, and this columnist.

To read the latest action that Comptroller Menoza has taken against Orland Park, suspending payments to the village, read my column at www.Hanania.com.

The mainstream and local news media never even reported on Orland Park’s failure to file the two financial audits until long after I exposed the failure in a column on July 15, 2025. Click here to read it.

You can read Mendoza’s full statement in response to my exposing Pekau’s failing to file the audits — a column that fills the vacuum of the sleepy news media and confronting Pekau’s lies — by visiting www.Hanania.com.

Only three community leaders have challenged Pekau’s failure to file the two audits and his plans to impose three NEW Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIFs) that will siphon property taxes away from the schools: Mike Henry, who formerly worked with Pekau before discovering he is a liar; Mohammed Jaber, a longtime education activist and a member of the High School District 230 School Board; and the facebook page Inform Orland.

District 230 President Lynn Zeder criticized Jaber for urging the village to suspend plans to impose three New TIFs in Orland Park until the two delinquent audits are filed, in what appeared to be an attack to defend Pekau and former Village Clerk Patrick O’Sullivan, who was also a District 230 trustee and Zeder pal. Pekau issued a statement in his bully eNewsletter defending Zeder for defending him.

How cozy!

Jaber’s comments had nothing to do with District 230 other than to inform the homeowners and taxpayers that TIFs take money away from ALL of the schools in a community.

Where is everyone else who plans to run for public office in Orland Park, Orland Township, and for local state legislators?????

Click to read the letters between Orland Park and the Comptroller’s office.

Click here to view Mayor Pekau’s arrogance at a recent board meeting regarding the Comptroller’s actions or use the widget below.

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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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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning 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.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

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