OP_110719

10 | November 7, 2019 | the orland Park Prairie news
OPPrairiedaily.com
Orland Park Village Board
Officials back to bickering over pension regulations
Dodge asks
for repeal of
ordinance; mayor
goes on offensive
Jon DePaolis
Freelance Reporter
The Orland Park Village
Board did more than
just revisit an old issue the
evening of Oct. 21; it rehashed
old arguments.
On the agenda for the
Oct. 21 meeting was a
resolution to repeal Resolution
No. 1908, which
eliminated the ability for
trustees and the Village
clerk to participate in the
Illinois Municipal Retirement
Fund as of July 1.
It also eliminated the Village
president from being
able participate in IMRF
as of May 3, 2021.
To Mayor Keith Pekau,
the item — which was
placed under the Officials
portion of the meeting
agenda — was a political
move by Trustee James
Dodge.
“Trustee Dodge, you
announced your run for
mayor almost a year ago in
November 2018,” Pekau
alleged. “This action is
meant to sneak in a provision
to make that position
eligible for a pension for
you. If you want to make
this part of your platform,
run on it. Don’t sneak it
in like the $150,000 pay
increase you voted for in
2016.
“You want to make this
seem like it is about me.
I’ve said it before, and
I’ll say it again: I’m not
taking a pension now or
ever for being mayor of
Orland Park. We’ve lowered
the salary to $40,000
annually and made the
mayor’s position ineligible
for a pension at the
next term.
“If these actions are
reversed and if you are
elected mayor, you stand
to gain $2.9 million in
pension benefits for a
measly $22,400 in contributions
if you are elected.
A vote to rescind this resolution
makes the mayor’s
position pension-eligible
at the next election.”
Pekau said it is a “privilege”
to serve the residents,
“not a right” or a
mechanism “to vote for
policies that serve your
own financial and political
interests.”
“This resolution is about
an elected official trying
to line his own pockets at
the expense of the citizens
of Orland Park,” Pekau
said. “Shame on you.”
Dodge responded by
asking Village Attorney
Dennis Walsh what the
rules were in Robert’s
Rules of Order regarding
Village Board members
openly questioning the
motives of other board
members at a public meeting.
He said the attorney
could get back to him on
that but wondered out
loud if an apology would
be in order from the mayor.
Dodge said his character
was “impugned” and
that the running for mayor
comment was a joke.
“Apparently, that [joke]
is now going to drive policy,”
Dodge said.
But Trustee Michael
Milani also took issue
with the item being placed
on the agenda.
“Here we go once again,
wasting more and more
time on the board floor
about things we don’t
need to worry about,” Milani
said.
Trustee William Healy
agreed, saying he felt revisiting
the pension issue
was “a waste of time.”
After a lengthy discussion,
Dodge made a motion
to amend the item
to also repeal Resolution
1722. Milani asked Walsh
for an explanation of what
the amendment would do
to the ordinance on the
floor.
Walsh said he did not
have Ordinance No. 1722
in front of him.
“So, I don’t know what
the consequences of that
amendment would be as I
sit here,” Walsh said.
Dodge said that because
there were some questions
that would need to be answered
in writing by the
attorneys, he suggested
tabling the item.
But the vote to table
failed 4-3, with Pekau,
Healy, Milani and Trustee
Cynthia Nelson Katsenes
voting against the motion.
During discussion of
the amendment pitched
by Dodge, Trustee Kathleen
Fenton said she had
not had a chance to read
more about what she was
expected to vote on and
therefore wanted to abstain
from the vote on the
amended motion.
“I think it is pretty illinformed
of people to vote
on things they don’t have
in front of [them],” she
said. “That’d be like voting
on a budget, and you
never saw it.”
Trustee Dan Calandriello
also took issue with
voting on the item without
having enough time to research
the issue fully. He
asked if it was possible
to just withdraw the item
from the floor, because
there were too many questions
about it.
“I can’t make an educated
vote either way on
this,” he said.
Walsh said that because
the motion to table the
item failed, it needed to
be voted on by the board
members.
Calandriello and Fenton
both initially voted to
abstain; however, Milani
asked for a point of order.
Milani stated that he
thought the trustees had to
vote on the issue. It was
determined that unless
the board members had a
conflict of interest — or if
the majority of the Village
Board voted to allow the
abstention — they would
need to vote for or against
the amendment.
The vote to allow abstentions
failed 3-3, with
Dodge, Milani and Katsenes
voting against allowing
them.
The vote on the amendment
ultimately failed
5-1, with Dodge being the
only one to vote in favor
of the amendment. During
the vote, Fenton abstained,
citing conflict of
interest regarding her being
a trustee and voting on
trustee pension eligibility.
Calandriello voted against
the amendment but said
his vote came “under duress.”
Finally, the vote on the
original motion to repeal
Resolution 1908 failed
5-2, with Dodge and Fenton
casting the votes in favor
of the repeal.
The discussion continues
During his comments
to the rest of the Village
Board at the end of the
meeting, Dodge continued
the conversation on
pensions. In particular, he
called out the mayor’s allegation
that Dodge could
earn up to $2.9 million in
pension benefits.
“I think someone used
the number $2.9 million
in pension, [and] I will
call IMRF tomorrow and
make sure they do a calculation,
and I will bring
it back to this full board,”
Dodge said. “I think there
will be an apology due,
not the least of which is
that I just think the math
is wrong — including
probably not accounting
for the seven years
that I served up here for
free. I didn’t take a paycheck
from the Village of
Orland Park, so by definition,
there’s no pension
credit.”
Dodge also said he
would anxiously await the
legal opinion from Klein,
Thorpe and Jenkins on a
few things, such as the language
in Robert’s Rules of
Order on not attacking the
motives of another board
member’s vote, and on the
intersection of all of the
Village’s ordinances regarding
IMRF.
Dodge said he would
apologize if he was
wrong, but he stated that
because the current ordinance
eliminates pension
eligibility in May
2021, the opportunity
still exists that the Village
Board members can
vote to allow pension eligibility
immediately after
the April 2021 election.
This would mean, in his
eyes, that the mayor could
be eligible for pension
credit from his first term,
a second term if re-elected
and buy into military
credit.
“There is no opt-out
provision under Illinois
law,” Dodge said. “You
are pension-eligible. A
piece of paper and a signature
would make you,
on my math, a pension
worth $1 million.”
During her comments,
Katsenes asked, “With
all this talk of pensions,
where was the concern a
few years back?”
Milani also revisited the
topic.
“How foolish would
it be for us to sit up here
[after running] on a platform
saying we’re going
to eliminate pensions and
then a year later or two
years later turn around
and change our mind and
make the mayor eligible
for a pension or turn
around and make ourselves
eligible?” he said.
Reached by phone Oct.
23, Dodge confirmed
that he was the one to
place the IMRF item on
the agenda.
“That majority said
they wanted to end public
officials’ participation in
pensions going forward,”
Dodge said. “They did the
exact opposite by allowing
[the mayor] to stay
pension-eligible. That’s
the central policy question.
That’s why I put it
on the table.”
Seritage granted specialuse
permit
In a 6-1 vote, the Village
Board approved a
special use permit for Seritage
Growth Properties to
allow for a 24-hour fitness
facility to occupy part
of the Sears redevelopment
property at Orland
Square. Trustee Kathleen
Fenton voted against it.