OP_030917

opprairie.com election
The orland park prairie | March 9, 2017 | 5
The Titleholder: Daniel J. McLaughlin
Part 1 of the The
Orland Park Prairie’s
discussion with the
incumbent
Bill Jones, Editor
Daniel J. McLaughlin is set to run for re-election this April. 22nd Century Media File Photo
When Daniel J. McLaughlin
talks of a vision for the
village, of ongoing business
developments and of the
challenges posed to his initiatives,
it is clear he takes
these things personally.
How could he not?
McLaughlin, 63, has
spent, quite literally, the majority
of his life in service to
the Village of Orland Park.
So, when people question
the Village, the developments
and the initiatives —
at least those that have come
about over the past few decades
— they are, by and
large, questioning him.
“In my position, do you
know how easy it would
be to sit on my hands, how
easy my job would be?”
McLaughlin said while discussing
projects like the
Main Street Triangle, which
has entertained controversy
over the course of its development.
“To be aggressive
and take all the [criticism]
that comes with it is pretty
wearing, for whatever that’s
worth. ... To be aggressive
on the right types of developments,
you need to if we’re
going to make Orland Park
successful in the future.”
Those projects, despite
the criticisms, are why
McLaughlin said he wants
another term.
“First of all, I like it,”
he said of being mayor. “I
like getting things done and
making Orland Park a better
place. We’re in the middle of
so many neat projects that
I started, that I want to see
completed, that I really never
gave it a second thought,
just expected I’d be running
again to keep working on
these majors projects.”
McLaughlin, running for
re-election under the First
Orland Party — a slate that
includes unchallenged incumbents
Village Clerk John
Mehalek, and Village Trustees
Jim Dodge, Kathy Fenton
and Dan Calandriello —
has been mayor since 1993.
Before that, he served as a
Village trustee from 1983-
1991.
He grew up in Oak Lawn,
got married and moved to
Crestwood. In 1979, he
moved to Orland Park. For
21 years, he served as the
executive director of the
Plumbing Contractors Association
of Chicago, and he
currently works as the executive
director of the Builders
Association.
If re-elected, McLaughlin
said he will be giving up that
job, a move necessitated by
the Village Board’s recent
decision to make the position
of Village president a
full-time one, albeit with the
perk of a $150,000 salary.
McLaughlin’s opponent and
some residents have challenged
the change as a deliberate
move to increase the
mayor’s municipal pension
before retirement. While the
numbers support the idea
that his pension through the
Illinois Municipal Retirement
Fund would increase
significantly with the salary,
McLaughlin denies that the
salary or pension were motivators
for him or factored
into the board’s decision.
“I think people are comparing
this to the occasional
story, where you hear about
a superintendent of schools
that gets his salary jacked
up for a year, just before he
retires, just for that reason,”
McLaughlin said. “I’ve never
talked about retiring. I’m
not jacking up my salary in a
couple of years just to retire.
I don’t know when I’m going
to retire. Even if I only
stayed this one term, that’s
four years away.
“I like being mayor and I
like getting things done. My
plans right now are not to
retire. I’m not going to say
never, but I don’t have plans
to retire, and this certainly
isn’t a move just to jack up
my salary.”
McLaughlin said the idea
has been discussed since the
previous mayor’s time, and
that growth in the village finally
necessitated the move.
He cited a recent study that
suggested the Village hire
two people to focus on economic
development and a
second assistant Village manager,
and noted he thought
this was a better alternative.
“I’m excited about the potential,
and I do think it’s the
right thing to do,” he said.
“The Village Board saw this
as a strictly business decision.
We’re making business
decisions at every meeting;
this is one more business
decision. Do you hire two of
these new bureaucrats that
are going to cost this much,
or do you make the mayor’s
job from part-time to fulltime?
It was a business decision
that saves somewhere
between $700,000 and
$750,000 over four years.”
And McLaughlin actually
has similar ideas to his challenger
concerning how the
system plays out in practice.
“We don’t want to get rid
of the Village manager form
of government; that’s still a
good form of government,”
McLaughlin said. “The way
I see the Village manager’s
job is, he’s managing the internal
operations. What the
mayor is doing is managing
the external operations
— in other words, dealing
with the public, constituent
problems and issues, legislation
in Springfield or county,
going down and lobbying
for issues or against stuff,
against things that are potentially
harmful, courting
the right businesses for the
[Interstate] 80 corridor or
downtown.”
McLaughlin not only
thinks the move makes sense
from an operational perspective,
but also that he is the
right person to do the job.
“I definitely think I can,”
he said. “I’ve had two businesses
of my own. I have
21 years as the executive
director of the [Plumbing
Contractors] Association
downtown, last four years
executive director of the
Builders Association. I deal
with some of the biggest developers
and builders in the
Chicago area. ... I have the
people to call, if I have the
time to do it, to call them and
bring them out here.”
That is the problem, in the
eyes of some, who have contended
that the very nature
of making mayor a full-time
job with specific qualifications
could make it prohibitive
for others to run or,
worse, end up with someone
in office who is not fit to perform
those duties.
McLaughlin said at least
one trustee brought up those
very concerns, which is
why the Village Board has
the option every four years
to switch the spot back to
part-time. And he thinks the
qualifications are a call to
better candidates, rather than
prohibitory.
“Hopefully, by making it
a full-time job, you start attracting
some people,” he
said. “Orland Park is loaded
with big CEOs, people
that potentially are nearing
the end of their careers that
might want to do something
like run for mayor and use
their experience like I’m using
my experience. Orland
Park is loaded with some
top-notch talent. I think it
just opens the door to attract
more talented candidates.”
McLaughlin said he is
not in favor of term limits,
primarily because he thinks
local elections serve as their
own term limits.
“You watch what’s going
on, you decide if the guy’s
doing the job, every four
years there’s term limits,”
he said. “I get why people
say it, because you get some
knuckleheads that are in office
forever and they just
don’t do the job.
“On a local level, I think
people know when you’re
doing the job. When you’re
not doing the job, you
shouldn’t get re-elected. It
would be hard for me to say
I’m in favor of term limits,
because I feel every four
years there are term limits,
if people got out and did the
job and researched who’s
doing what. I think people in
Orland Park think I’m doing
the job.”
A major portion of The Prairie’s
interview with Mayor Dan
McLaughlin focused on the
Main Street Triangle project
and the Interstate 80 corridor.
Next week’s follow-up article
is to delve deeper into those
projects and the challenges
presented to them.