OP_0606

6 | June 6, 2019 | the orland Park Prairie news
OPPrairie.com
Orland Park Village Board
Officials rescind, reapprove roadwork additions after facing potential State violation
Jon DePaolis
Freelance Reporter
The Village of Orland
Park Board of Trustees
acted quickly Thursday,
May 30, to reverse a decision
regarding its 2019
Neighborhood Road Improvement
Program that
could have put the Village
in violation of State statutes.
At a short special meeting,
the board members
voted 6-0 to rescind the
approval of a proposal
originally passed on May
6 regarding additional
roadwork for the 2019
road program. The action
called for $3.5 million in
improvements, to be performed
by Austin Tyler
Construction Inc., of Elwood.
Then, in a subsequent
move, the board members
voted 4-2 to approve
waiving the bid process
and authorizing a new
proposal for Phase 2 of
the 2019 Neighborhood
Road Improvement Project
Program in an amount
of $3.5 million to be performed
by Austin Tyler
Construction.
Trustees James Dodge
and Kathleen Fenton cast
the dissenting ballots.
Trustee Dan Calandriello
was absent.
No comments were
made from the public, and
none of the board members
spoke on either motion
during open discussion.
How it happened
The reason the Village
Board members were
forced to rescind the original
approval of the additional
work was because
the way the project was
approved would have violated
a State law regarding
change orders.
In a May 23 email from
Village Attorney E. Kenneth
Friker to Village staff
and Trustee James Dodge
— obtained by The Orland
Park Prairie — Friker
stated that he needed
to “amend” his opinion
on the road improvement
project change order that
was approved on May 6
by the Village Board.
“An Illinois statute (50
IL CS 525/5) requires bidding
(in the same manner
as the original contract
was bid) of a change order
when the amount of the
change order is 50 percent
or more of the original
contract price,” Friker’s
email read. “The statute
pre-empts home rule.
Thus, any Austin Tyler
change order cannot equal
50 perent or more of the
original contract prices of
[$1.92 million] without
rebidding. I apologize for
this necessary amendment
to my opinion.”
The change order that
was approved as a result
of the May 6 board action
amounted to roughly 200
percent over the original
amount.
The Prairie reached out
to Mayor Keith Pekau by
phone on May 28 — two
days prior to the special
meeting — to find out how
the mistake was made regarding
the way the item
was passed, as well as the
background on when and
why the Village decided
to add additional streets
to its road improvement
program, well past the
approval of the project as
part of the budget for the
fiscal year.
Pekau said the additional
roads were discussed
during the budget process
but that because of the
other revenue- and expense-related
issues, trying
to get a consensus on
roads did not make sense
at the time.
But after the April election,
Pekau said he began
taking the temperature of
the Village Board to see if
more work could be added.
He said Public Works
Director John Ingram
worked with Finance Director
Annmarie Mampe
and the chairman of the
Public Works Committee,
Fenton, to come up with
a plan to get more roads
done.
Pekau said he did not
pressure Ingram or anyone
else to move along
the process of adding extra
roads to the program.
“After going through
the campaign and [hearing]
the new trustees saying
that the roads were
horrible and we needed to
do something, I reached
out to all of the trustees to
see if they had an appetite
for doing [more] roads,”
Pekau said. “My direction
to John Ingram was …
that we’d like to do more
roads this year.”
Pekau said he told Ingram
that the desire was
there to do as many roads
as staff felt it could handle.
He also said he asked Ingram
for his expertise in
coming up with the best
way to get the project
done.
“He came to me and
said that the best way forward
with this is to expand
the project [with Austin
Tyler], because we’ve got
good unit pricing that is
going to be higher if we
bid it out now, because of
the time of the year,” Pekau
said. “He talked to the
contractor, and they had
enough room to expand
the project right now. But
if we wait, they’ll start
to get other projects and
they won’t be able to do
as much.”
Pekau said the next step
was to determine how the
Village would pay for the
extra roadwork. He said
they went to Mampe and
asked her for her opinion.
“In our budget meetings
… we’ve said over the last
two years that fixing roads
and borrowing for that at
our rate saves us money
in the long run,” Pekau
said. “That’s a good use
of debt.”
Pekau said it was the
opinion of Mampe that the
Village should fund the
extra roads through the
Village’s line of credit at
around 2 percent interest.
“And we had plenty in
our line of credit to do it,”
Pekau said.
Since there were no
committee meetings in
May, Pekau said the item
was brought directly to
the Village Board at the
regular meeting. But he
said he thinks it was discussed
in at least three
staff meetings prior to
the May 6 Village Board
meeting.
“No one had any issues
going forward [with it],
and they understood why
we were doing it and understood
that it was good
public policy and good for
the Village,” Pekau said.
After the May 6 meeting,
questions were raised
about the legality of how
the extra roads were added.
“There is a clause in the
contract, as I’m understanding,
that references
any changes being done
by change order — which
is not in every contract,”
Pekau said. “But it was
in this one. There is a
State statute that [change
orders] can’t exceed 50
percent. Therefore, how
we passed it was a mistake.
What we did was
not wrong; it was the right
thing to do for the Village.
But there was a technical
mistake that we’re going
to correct.”
Luckily for the Village,
the approved contract with
Austin Tyler Construction
via change order had not
yet been signed.
“No one caught it until
after the fact,” Pekau said.
“The attorneys didn’t
catch it in any of the
staff meetings, and [they]
didn’t catch it that night.
They caught it after the
fact, before we executed
the contract.”
Pekau said an opinion
from attorney led to the
corrective measures at the
special meeting, and the
Village is already having
internal discussions about
how to ensure something
like this does not happen
again.
“Obviously, we need to
tighten up that process,”
Pekau said.
Dodge — who was
reached by phone on May
24 — cited process as the
reason he did not support
the project on May 6 and
again at the May 30 meeting.
“I would have been
more than happy to support
an expansion in our
neighborhood road program
for this year, but I
would have raised concerns
about doing 100
percent debt financing to
do it,” Dodge said. “That
has long-range implications
on the budget. I
would have wanted staff
to have gone out and did
it properly per the bids.
Those are my objections.”
Dodge said he thinks
that if the Village went to
the market with a project
calling for $5 million in
road improvements, there
may have been more bids
received, possibly at better
pricing.
Fenton said she voted
against the Phase 2 improvement
plan because
of the process by which
the road expansion was
handled and she questioned
if the work can actually
be completed this
year. Fenton said she is for
improving as many roads
as possible but thinks the
expanded program should
go through the budget
process and have an increased
financial commitment
in fiscal year 2020.
‘Baseless’ accusations?
The additional project
areas for the 2019 program
are: Brentwood
North, Arbor Pointe
(including Grandview
Drive), the Golfview Condos
area (which includes
Foxbend Court, Sunset
Ridge Court, Deerfield
Court and Brassie Court),
the Persimmons and Ashford
Court, Seton Place,
and Teebrook.
In addition to the complications
regarding the
change order, Pekau also
fielded accusations from
some claiming that the extra
roads were being done
as political favors for
trustees and other allies.
“We have a long-range
plan for our streets,” Pekau
said. “They look at all
the streets and rate them.”
Pekau used Persimmons
as an example, as
those were two of the next
roads listed as being most
in need of repairs. A third
Persimmons street was
farther down on the list,
but that road was sandwiched
between the other
two roads, so it made
sense to include the road
in the additional work, he
said.
Pekau called the allegations
“completely baseless.”