OP_030917

4 | March 9, 2017 | The orland park prairie election
opprairie.com
No. 1 Contender: Keith I. Pekau
The first part of The
Orland Park Prairie’s
look at the mayoral
challenger
Bill Jones, Editor
Fiscal responsibility. Economic
development. A livable
community.
Those are the three core issues
on which Keith I. Pekau
is running his campaign for
mayor. But when it comes to
his motivations for running,
it really comes down to just
one thing.
“It was the pay raise and
the associated pension increase,
which I find unacceptable,”
Pekau said, referring
to a recent move by the
Orland Park Village Board
to make Village president a
full-time job, with a salary of
$150,000. “My first inclination
was to find out who was
running and support them.
Nobody was. People pointed
out I had a strong resume.”
Though, that initial reaction
led Pekau to find a second
reason to run.
“I did some more due
diligence and I realized how
much debt we have in town
— up to $158 million in
long-term debt,” he said, referring
to the Village’s own
2015 Comprehensive Annual
Financial Report, which
shows liabilities of that number
due in more than one
year. “I said, ‘This just can’t
keep going on. It’s time for
some ordinary citizens like
myself to step up and run.’”
Pekau, 50, grew up in
Orland Park and attended
Sandburg High School until
the end of his junior year,
when his family relocated
to Arizona. He finished high
school and college, and then
joined the United States Air
Force, ultimately serving for
Keith I. Pekau is running this April to be mayor of Orland Park. Photo submitted
nine-and-a-half years, flying
McDonnell Douglas F-15E
Strike Eagles in three tours
over southern Iraq, in support
of Desert Storm and
Southern Watch.
“My degree’s in aerospace
engineering,” Pekau
said. “Toward the end of my
stint at Arizona State, the Air
Force was looking for navigators,
so I applied for Officer
Training School and was
accepted with a navigator
slot. ... Like a lot of people
that signed up at that time, I
wanted to fly. That was the
big motivator, but I quickly
learned that being an Air
Force officer was so much
more than flying.”
Following his service, Pekau
got a job offer back in
the Chicago area and moved
back to Orland Park. He said
the schools are what drew
him home.
“The school systems here
accommodated me, pushed
me ahead in subjects,” he
said. “When they didn’t
have programs for me, they
pushed me ahead. Some of
the programs they have today,
with AP Calculus and all
those, they didn’t have then.
I was actually taught one-onone
by some of the teachers
there at that time. I knew I
had some kids that were pretty
bright, and I knew that the
school system would accommodate
them. Plus, it’s home.
It’s where I grew up.”
Pekau has since become
the owner of GroundsKeeper
Landscape Care in Mokena.
He also serves as a partner
in Fahrenheit Consulting
Group in Wheaton.
But despite his protests,
if elected, Pekau — who is
running in the election as a
Republican and identifies
himself as fiscally conservative
— would earn the
increased salary and be required
to serve full-time
for at the least the next four
years.
“I’ve already hired someone
to run my business,” he
said of potentially taking on
the new role. “Hopefully, I
hired the right person and
they’ll do a good job running
that. As far as the partnership
in the consulting business, I
would pretty much become
an inactive partner in that
business.”
He said his goal is to make
the best of the position, make
some changes and then reassess
in four years, if elected.
“As far as the position of
mayor, two things I really
want to see happen,” he said.
“I want to see all elected
positions be term limited,
which stops the ability to
generate that big pension.
Then, I’d like to see the position
go back to part-time.”
Pekau said beyond the
money he thinks there are
inherent problems with the
structure of the new system.
“Our form of government
is a Village manager-council
form of government, which
means the council — which
includes the trustees and the
Village president — hires the
Village manager, who is a
professional Village manager
who runs the Village,” Pekau
explained. “He or she implements
the policies for the
board and the Village president.
If you will, the Village
president, you’re chairman
of the board, if you want to
compare it to the business
world. You’re not the CEO;
you’re the chairman of the
board. Now, if the CEO, the
Village manager, is not doing
the job you want, they’re not
implementing the policies,
you replace that individual.
That’s the role, as it should
be. I don’t believe it’s functional
to have two CEOs or
have two Village managers.
“Recognizing this is going
to be a full-time position for
four years, and there’s nothing
I can do about that, what
I’d like to do is work with
the Village manager to help
improve the cost structure
of the Village, help us work
within our budget. Then, I
want to spend a lot of time
working on the economic
development things that are
going to drive the engines of
the Village. On top of that,
performing the mayor’s role,
which is to provide guidance
to the Village manager on
which direction we want to
go.”
Pekau added he thinks the
Village has problems when
it comes to getting diverse
viewpoints, and that is exactly
what he intends to deliver.
“Frankly, the mayor has
been pretty much unopposed
most of his career,”
Pekau said. “He’s been opposed
by the same person
twice since his first election.
[The challenger] was a nice
guy [but] I don’t even remember
him ever reaching
out to me on a campaign, so
I don’t know how good of
a campaign he actually ran
against the mayor. When
there’s no opposition, and
that seems to be the case
every year, there’s just not a
whole lot of [viewpoints].”
That creates a potential
problem should he win the
election. The Village Board
has three trustees up for reelection,
but all three are
uncontested, meaning Pekau
would face six trustees
who often vote unanimously
along with the current mayor.
“That’s a potential challenge,
for sure,” he said. “I
knew that going in … recognizing
that, yes, I could be
outnumbered 6-1.
“However, I’d like to think
that the board wants to work
together to improve Orland
Park. I will bring ideas to
the table that haven’t been
brought to the table before.
Hopefully, they’ll work with
me. Certainly, they could
work to stop me and say,
‘We’re not going to let you
do anything. We’re going
to continue doing things the
way we’ve been doing it.’
“If that’s the case, I still
have the ability as the mayor
to appoint commissioners
and do those types of things;
so, I do have some impact on
that. I’ll make sure the voters
stay informed of what’s
going on, and in two years
they’ll have another choice
to make. We should be able
to get some citizens to step
up and have elections for the
board members who are up.
“I hope that they would like
to work with me and improve
Orland Park. I think one of
the things we’re missing and
have been missing for a long
time is diversity of opinion
on the boards, on the commissions.
We’re not getting
alternative ideas, and when
you get alternative ideas and
you have alternative viewpoints,
you’re going to come
to better conclusions.”
A major portion of Keith
Pekau’s campaign focuses on
financial responsibility and
economic development. The
Prairie intends to delve deeper
into those topics in the second
article featuring the challenger
in next week’s paper.