OP_100616

18 | October 6, 2016 | The orland park prairie Sound Off
opprairie.com
Letters to the Editor
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Good candidates needed for three OPPL
Board seats
Good people are needed to run for
three Orland Park Public Library Board
seats that will be up for election in
April 2017.
Candidates’ petition paperwork
should be filed between Dec. 12-19,
2016. The State of Illinois Local Election
Handbook must be followed precisely,
because candidates who do not
complete their paperwork exactly as
mandated will be disqualified from the
ballot.
It is worth emphasizing that last part,
because the last time that OPPL Board
seats were up for election, three good
people who wanted to run for seats in
the 2015 election were unable to do so
because they did not read the rules carefully
enough, and they did not properly
follow the specific instructions for
completing their petitions and submitting
them to the Village Clerk’s Office.
One candidate last time turned in his
petition with missing pages and had
to withdraw when the Clerk’s Office
would not allow him to go home and
get the missing paperwork he forgot.
Two other candidates were disqualified
when Joanna Liotine Leafblad,
who was herself running for an OPPL
Board seat, challenged their petitions
for not precisely following the stated
rules, [one of them regarding] how the
petitions were to be bound (and not
stapled).
The end result was that two seats
were up for election but only two candidates
ultimately were allowed to be
on the ballot (instead of the five candidates
who would have been in the race
if none of them were forced to withdraw
or were disqualified on technicalities).
Voters then had no choice or say
in the matter, since the two candidates
left standing were automatically awarded
the two OPPL Board seats in what
became an uncontested “election.”
To me, this is not how democracy is
supposed to work, and it all felt more
like how sham “elections” were held in
the Soviet Union. It was a disgrace.
In my opinion, anyone who wants
to run for a seat on the OPPL Board
should approach the process assuming
that technicalities will be used to disqualify
anyone that the Powers That Be
do not want to run.
The OPPL’s monthly receipts often
show questionable spending, and the
Library Board recently voted again to
give staff yet another round of generous
raises. The OPPL is a public body
in desperate need of strong public oversight,
starting with board members who
are committed to fiscal responsibility
and ending bad management practices.
Kevin DuJan
OPPL Patron
Hopefully Cook County passed its sick
leave ordinance
One of the joys of being pastor of St.
Elizabeth Seton Parish is greeting parishioners
after the weekend Masses.
Little ones run at me with hugs and
high-fives, adults come over to me
smiling and with out-stretched hands
for handshakes. We have a friendly
congregation.
As cold and flu season hits, at times
I have to turn down the handshakes
and high-fives, telling my parishioners
that I have a bad cold and “that they
do not want what I am selling.” They
are grateful for this precaution, as they
are grateful that we use hand sanitizer
before transferring consecrated hosts
to communion distribution plates, and
before ministers distribute communion.
All this is common sense, and good
sanitary sense.
I have come to believe that employers
similarly have good sense in their work
places, as I do in my parish church.
That is why I am strongly advocating
the Cook County [Board of] Commissioners
to pass the Cook County sick
time ordinance that is coming before
them for a vote.
Worldwide, 146 nations provide paid
sick leave for all workers. The proposed
Cook County ordinance has the
same provisions as the one passed by
the City of Chicago. It allows workers
one hour of paid sick time for every 40
hours worked, accumulating as many
as five paid sick days per year for a
full-time worker. The ordinance would
also allow 20 unused sick time hours
to carry over into the following year.
It also allows taking paid time off for
care of one‘s family members illness or
preventive care, or if a child’s school
were closed. This is a wise and familyfriendly
ordinance.
This whole issue was recently
brought home to me by a close friend of
mine who was part of the working poor.
He worked a 50-hour week at two parttime
jobs, which offered no benefits.
For the past two years, he was dying of
a number of lung diseases. He worked
on one recent Monday, entered the hospital
on Tuesday and was dead within a
week. He died as he wanted, “with his
boots on,” working hard to the end.
But he had to do this. If he did not
work, he was not paid. He lived out,
like so many others, a fierce work ethic.
If this ordinance was in effect, perhaps
his last days might have been a slight
bit easier.
The Rev. William T. Corcoran
St. Elizabeth Seton Pastor
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