Responsible financial management in Orland Park?

I have received dozens of emails and heard many comments from Orland Park residents who are outraged that the Village finance department and village Manager Paul Grimes, and some of our arrogant village trustees, decided to wait until AFTER their re-elections to disclose that the village was in a financial mess.

I spoke with Mayor McLaughlin and he assured me before the election that things were tough in the village because of the downspiraling economy but we would survive. Now, he looks foolish. And so does the staff of the village, where some of the complaints have originated over the past week.

I am shocked, but not surprised. It is politics as usual in Orland Park. Mislead or even lie to the voters and paint a rosey picture before an election, and then when the election is over and you don't have to worry about repurcussions, casually let the cat out fo the bag.

Pathetic! I think Village Manager Paul Grimes should apologize for this lapse in judgment and failure to make this all public 10 WEEKS AGO! I also think Trustee Kathy Fenton who just ran for re-election should also apologize to the voters for allowing this to sneak past everyone, and she suddenly now shows concerns for the village's financial situation. It's phony!

Over $12 million in capital improvements in the village have been put on hold, we are now being told.

The newspaper reports are sketchy at best and not one reporter has a handle on how bad the situation really is. Is it $2 million or $3 million that had to be cut fromt he budget? How big is the budget deficit?

Mayor McLaughlin owes it to the people of Orland Park to put together a proper and complete statement and tell us precisely how bad things are. Put it in numbers and maybe issue it with the press releases that are always filled with happy talk, good news and events.

That's your job. Don't sit back and let Grimes do all the shuffling and waffling and obfuscation, mayor. Put together a detailed report on how bad things are and distribute it to the residents of the village. You are only making things worse letting it trickle out piecemeal through some incompetent village underlings and colleagues.

Give us the full picture!

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.radiochicagoland.com/

Orland Park has a What? Budget deficit? Since when? TAX Increase on the way!

Mayor McLaughlin broke the bad news to the Village Board Monday night, June 30, at a special meeting of the Village Board called by Clerk David Maher on June 27. The Village of Orland Park has a "budget deficit" of $4.8 Million. Considering the village budget is only $127 million, that's a huge deficit of about 4 percent. Huge!

Here is my prediction: Mayor McLaughlin is setting the stage to RAISE ORLAND PARK TAXES BIG TIME!

Here are some issues I have with the announcement:

I -- The first is a possible violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act:

Maher may have violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act in posting the notice of the meeting: The notices are supposed to be posted publicly at least 48 hours in advance. But, in posting the notice of the Special Meeting, called on Friday June 27 for 6 PM Monday June 30 (the Open Meetings Act requires that notices be posted publicly at least 48 hours in advance ) , Maher added a little provision on his own to the top of the notice:

Posting publicly 48 hours ina dvance means posting it "publicly." But you can read the posting of the notice for the special meeting yourself and see that the Special Meeting Notice posted by Maher begins at the very top by stating "NOT FOR PUBLICATION."

What does that mean? Well, it means the Village thinks it can get away with calling a special meeting 48 hours in advance, without letting the public know. (They probably just let the media know so theyc ould be at the meeting and report it afterwards.) But, clearly, the Village Board and Mayor McLaughlin DID NOT WANT THE PUBLIC TO ATTEND TO ASK QUESTIONS.

II -- But the second issue has to do with the deficit itself:

What did Mayor McLaughlin know and when did he know it?

Every year McLaughlin gives a very glossy, shinny "State of the Village" speech to the members of the Orland Park Area Chamber of Commerce. Usually, McLaughlin brags about how great he is doing as Village President/Mayor.

In 2005, for example, McLaughlin told OPACC members:

"The Village has maintained its AA bond rating with both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s. This is important and a big benefit when we sell bonds. The better bond rating allows us a better interest rate. Our budget for Fiscal Year 2005 was more than $131 million dollars and we are the seventh largest revenue producer in the State. We abated almost $1.5 million in property taxes which is a benefit to all property owners."

And it has been as cheery, and optimistic every year since.

Just four months ago, Mayor McLaughlin gave his most recent State of the Village Speech (February 27, 2008) at the OPACC's Installation Dinner for new officers. It was, once again, boring and very self-congratulating.

"There is a lot to go over in a short period of time. We have again prepared a handout that will be available that summarizes some of the things that have been done over the past year. I think you’ll be impressed."

The president of the OPACC thanked McLaughlin for his comments, saying:

"Thank you again to Mayor Dan McLaughlin for taking time from his busy schedule on Wednesday February 27th to address our Chamber members with his annual "State of the Village" message at Silver Lake Country Club. As always the event was well attended with over 130 chamber members on hand. We believe it is critical for our members to hear from the Mayor and other Village Officials about past accomplishments as well as any upcoming challenges, projects and goals that could impact the local business community."

"Upcoming challenges?" … What "upcoming challenges?"

McLaughlin noted that single-family "new starts" were down (new residential homes), there was an additional investment of $100 million in business investment, mainly many new restaurants in Orland Park …

He said there is still investment taking place and "confidence" in the community.

"The Finance Department received the Government Finance Officers Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting and was awarded the Government Finance Officers Distinguished Budget Award for fiscal year ending September 30, 2007. We continued to rebate the property taxes to the residents. This year we will be rebating over $5 million. We also are continuing to abate property taxes, which is beneficial to businesses.

"This year over $2.5 million in property taxes will be abated in addition to the mount that’s being rebated to the homeowners. The village continues to be ranked eventh in the State in terms of sales taxes and holding strong. This might be the time to mention that we just passed our 2008 budget. The budget is about $127 million. I found in my collection something that might interest you. This is the reasurer Report for the State of Illinois. It says that the amount of all funds in the State Treasury as of this date is $2.4 million. Of course, that was 1878."

No. What would interests us, Mayor McLaughlin, is how in three months, the Village of Orland Park's financial situation went from such a rosey and cheery picture that you painted to one that is bleak and disconcerting?

Coincidentally, our former Village Manager Robert J. Zeder resigned his post on November 5, 2007. What did he know and when did he know it?

He was just replaced by Paul Grimes, who bragged that one of his specialities was dealing with a budget deficits. Grimes, a U.S. Navy veteran, worked in the private and public sectors. He was last a business development executive with United Healthcare in Warwick, R.I. And before thatm he was director of administration for Cranston, Rhode Island, a city of 80,000 where he helped close an $11 million deficit by both cutting services and raising taxes.

The talk now is that McLaughlin says he can cut expenses that he detailed at the SECRET SPECIAL BOARD MEETING where the notice was NOT FOR PUBLICATION.

But not $4.8 million. So it turns out that Paul Grimes is not just the new Village Manager. He's our new Village Political Grim Reaper!

I've emailed questions to McLaughlin, Grimes, Maher and some members of the village board. We'll see how they respond.

Ray Hanania
http://www.orlandparker.com/

Welcome to our New Village Manager in Orland Park

Orland Park has a new village manager, Paul Grimes. He's from Warwick, Rhode Island. As we like to say in Orland Park:

"Welcome. Watch the Geese. Get ready for long traffic delays. Don't take it
personal when the politicians ignore your needs. At least you'll get a rebate
check in the mail. Don't criticize our elected officials because most of them are thinned-skinned whiners!"

Grimes moved into one of the handful of homes impacted by the flooding we've had here that the Village of Orland Park stupidly purchased at outrageous market prices a few years back that they have been having a hard time re-selling -- certainly, they haven't been able to get the exhorbitant prices they paid. Oh? You didn't know the Village of Orland Park is in the real estate business?

Bitter? Sure. They bought my neighbor's house at some outrageous price after ignoring the flooding problems that other neighbors were having. I mean ignoring. It was all about helping certain families.

The home down the street finally sold, at way below the purchase price and after the village spent thousands to "fix it up."

The young family that bough it was directed to it by Orland Park Trustee Pat Gira. I'm glad a good family did move in there and Gira's help is much appreciated. Maybe the Village should put Gira in charge. She seems to know how to get things down around here. And she also seems to care. They deserve the break, though.

Grimes is living in the home "across the alley" (an old Chicago expression) from the home two houses from me that Gira's friends purchased. At least the village didn't turn it into a retention pond, a suggestion from the engineers they hired who never bothered to get their asses out on the street to find out firsthand what the real problems were. But why would expensive consultants get their hands dirty or deal with facts?

It took years and a lot of protests -- led mainly by several very active families on the other side of the street who really deserve the credit (hey, one of them should run for mayor) -- but the village FINALLY put in a new water drainage pipe system to drain off the water that was backing up from the nearby pond onto Windsor Drive creating a small lake.

WARNING TO THOSE PEOPLE BUYING HOMES: Don't purchase a home near one of those Duck/Geese ponds. They flood. Yea! And they backup and they will destroy your home. The damage to my home was over $40,000 and I took out a FEMA loan (high interest scam artists who sold it to a private mortgage lender who proceeded to harass me to refinance). What a disaster.

Having gone through the flood in Orland Park in July 1997, I can certainly feel for the people whose homes were lost recently in Iowa and in other parts of Illinois and around the country. The media loves to cover their suffering, but no one really cares about them. I hope they have real friends and family to help because the public won't help and the government won't help.

So welcome to Orland Park, Mr. Grimes. I hope you can improve the shoddy service we receive around here in Orland Park, and maybe start looking at everyone in the village as a citizen instead of just catering to Mayor Dan McLaughlin's family friends, pals and political cronies and election volunteers.

(My only concern about Grimes is his past work with United Healthcare. I hope UH is more concerned about the public than Humana and Blue Cross, Blue Shield insurance. Issues? Issues? I have issues!)

Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

PS ... the one GREAT thing about Orland Park is our schools. They are the best.