Election 2025: Orland Park Mayoral Candidate Keith Pekau

ORLAND PARK, IL — Orland Park residents in the thick of a contentious local election season are likely about ready to see it end. With the consolidated election set for April 1, early voting began March 17, and residents can make their picks for the village's next leaders.

Incumbent Mayor Keith Pekau's People Over Politics slate will face off against mayoral challenger Jim Dodge's Orland Park for All.

Pekau is flanked by trustee candidates Sean Kampas, Carol McGury and Brian Riordan, along with clerk candidate Brian Gaspardo.

Dodge leads his slate of trustee candidates Dina M. Lawrence, John Lawler and Joanna M. Liotine Leafblad, as well as Mary Ryan Norwell for clerk.

Patch sent questionnaires to candidates, and their answers are now published in their candidate profiles. Early voting began March 17. Find out where and when you can vote ahead of April 1.

Candidate:

Keith Pekau

Campaign website:

KeithPekau.com

Office sought:

Mayor

Town/city of residence:

Orland Park

Party Affiliation (if a partisan race):

People Over Politics

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for.

My wife is a teacher in a school district outside of Orland Park.

Occupation. Please include years of experience.

Mayor of Orland Park since 2017, small business owner for over 20 years, and Air Force combat veteran.

Previous or current elected or appointed office.

Mayor of Orland Park

The most pressing issues facing Orland Park are _______, and this is what I intend to do about them.

Financial pressure due to the stagnation of the State of Illinois and Cook County. Both have poorly managed their funds and continue to pass legislation that puts a heavy burden of unfunded mandates on the village. Additionally, neither adequately cares for the infrastructure they are responsible for and the village has had to pick up the slack.

We will continue to manage our finances well and implement policies that attract economic development in spite of being located in Cook County and Illinois. Additionally, we will continue to work with other municipalities in efforts to stop unfunded mandates, to restore funding levels and to fix the public sector pension system that continue to break our backs.

Another top press issue is our infrastructure.

Before I took office, over 40% of our roads were in poor or very poor condition after years of underinvestment. The McLaughlin and Dodge administration ignored our infrastructure to spend money on the “Downtown Triangle”, losing $47M in the process. They were fixing just a single park every two years.

I also led the redevelopment of Centennial Park West, Schussler Park, The John Humphrey Complex, and renovated 32 neighborhood parks complete with pavilions, pickleball, basketball, tennis and bocce ball courts. Next year we will update Doogan Park, finish Phase 2 of Schussler Park, and replace all the paths at Centennial Park West. We will also be bringing back the summer concert series for families and residents to enjoy.

As Mayor I will continue improving the quality of life for our residents by delivering results, managing our finances properly and improving our roads and parks.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Jim Dodge is a career politician who wants to bring Orland Park backward to the same failed political games of the past. Before I was elected Mayor, career politicians had run our village for their own benefit. Politicians like Jim Dodge had exploded our village’s debt from $13 million in 1998 to $110 million in 2016. The former leadership depleted reserves and spent money like they had a bottomless balance. Over 40% of our roads were in poor condition after years of underinvestment, and the village was only investing in a single park every two years.

Meanwhile, the career politicians and their allies were getting rich off our tax dollars. Dodge and his allies voted unanimously to hike the mayor’s salary, including a whopping 275% increase for the mayor, which would have increased McLaughlin’s pension by $2.1 million and $3.1 million if Dodge had followed him as they planned. All with our hard-earned tax dollars. They also lost $47 million playing developer in the downtown Triangle and gave $64 million to a developer for the 9750 apartment buildings covering 98% of the cost, wasteful spending our taxpayers cannot afford.

Jim Dodge has demonstrated that he is doing this to serve himself. He voted against term limits and is already collecting two pensions for part time government board positions. He would add over $600,000 of our hard earned tax dollars to his village pension should he win.

I am a community leader who wants to do what’s best for the village. I am not receiving a pension, I lowered my own pay by $110,000 and implemented term limits (3-terms). I’ve also found ways to cut costs while making our village more efficient and make significant investments in improving our roads and parks while simultaneously reducing debt. These decisions have improved the quality of life for all of our residents.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

N/A

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

For the first time in decades, Orland Park is primed for success long into the future. We can’t afford to go back to the failures of the past. We need to continue moving forward with a mindset and culture that puts people over politics.

We must build on Orland Park’s positive momentum welcoming new businesses that creates jobs, keeping Orland Park the safest it has been in over 30 years, and adding new parks and fixing roads to improve our residents’ lives. We must also continue to help working families by protecting their tax dollars. We’ve made progress cutting expenses and reducing the debt while making much needed infrastructure improvements. We’ve added over 5,000 jobs in the last 8 years and we can add more by creating an environment where businesses thrive. We can’t let the political games of the past return—plain and simple, our village can’t afford the same mistakes of the past.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Take a look around. The Orland Park we live in today is not the Orland Park of the past. We’re welcoming new businesses and growing the job market, lowering crime by increasing public safety efforts, and improving our residents’ quality of life by prioritizing fixing our roads and renovating our beloved parks.

We have turned Orland Park into a model for good government—one that prioritizes transparency and fiscal responsibility by instituting a plan and acting on it. We recently approved a plan for the downtown center, which has had no direction for over 20 years, are breaking ground this month, and are committed to having it completed within the next term. We stabilized our economic development by welcoming in over 600 businesses and are reimaging how to continue making Orland Park a destination. We also redeveloped Centennial Park West, Schussler Park, The John Humphrey Complex, over 30 neighborhood parks, and will be focusing on updating Doogan Park and replacing the paths at Centennial Park.

We’ve delivered results that are making our residents’ lives better.

Why should voters trust you?

I keep my word. Since taking office, we’ve restored good government in Orland Park. We eliminated the lavish pension benefits that career politician Dan McLaughlin and his allies had provided themselves with our hard-earned tax dollars. I kept my promise and led the charge to lower the mayor’s salary back down to $40,000 a year, making it a part-time position. We reduced the pay for trustees, because serving in local government shouldn’t be about getting rich off taxpayers. We instituted term limits for our local elected officials to put an end to career politicians. We eliminated patronage, established a new ethics ordinance, and put in place a public, transparent hiring process. And we increased transparency by making our board meetings public and digitally accessible, shining a spotlight on decisions that had previously been made behind closed doors.

Now there’s a new mindset and culture in our local government, one that’s focused on doing the right thing for our residents and small businesses. We no longer have career politicians lining their pockets at our expense and we can’t afford to go back to that style of leadership. Instead, our community leaders are working cooperatively to move Orland Park forward. People are stepping up to serve for the right reasons without personal agendas, like me and People Over Politics team. And we are bringing our village together to further make Orland Park the community that our citizens expect.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success?

There is no single accomplishment than defines a term’s success. As mayor, you never know what you will face. In my first term, it was the loss of 2 anchors and 3 other large retailers in one month, COVID and regional riots. In my second term, it was runaway inflation. What defines success is managing through these challenges and coming out on the other side in a better financial position, a better economic position, improving your infrastructure, and keeping us safe. If I do that in the third term, it will be as successful as the first two.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

The old school mentality of government spending was to deplete reserves and waste our hard-earned tax dollars. I have prioritized reducing our village’s tax levy, maintaining a surplus in our operating budget that is used to address our infrastructure needs. I will continue to invest our tax dollars wisely and only spend what we have to ensure we don’t have to ask our residents for money because we are still digging ourselves out of a financial hole the past leadership left.

Since taking office, we cut operating expenses, have paid down over $25 million in debt, rebuilt reserves, and lowered property taxes. We have also started on a new project for our public works facility that will move all of the trucks and equipment indoors to last longer and operations will be more efficient to save on operating costs. I will continue to find ways to lower costs and be creative with our budget to help our working families.

What are your thoughts on the crime rate in your community, and what more can be done to combat crime — especially violent crime — in town?

I have made it a priority to keep our families safe and our neighborhoods secure. Thanks to the finest police department in all of Illinois, Orland Park is once again rated one of the safest towns in America. Over the last 6 years, we have achieved the lowest level of crime in the last 31 years. Of the 360 largest suburbs in the country, we are top 5 for lowest property crime (#2) and lowest for violent crime (#5). For cities with over 50,000 residents in Illinois, we have the lowest violent crime rate for the last 5 years. And during the riots and looting in 2020, we proactively kept our residents and businesses safe. We’ve also ensured our law enforcement has the latest equipment and introduced body cameras before the state mandated them. We’re also adding a new training facility and firing range will open to better train our law enforcement professionals and to continue our success

What is your view of the Village's approach to commercial and residential development?

We need both to continue being a thriving community. We need more commercial development to keep up with the demand for the number of businesses who want to move here and we must continue welcoming that. We’ve added over 5,000 jobs under my leadership and welcomed over 600 new businesses that have strengthened our retail, restaurant, and auto sectors. And our residential market is growing. As someone who was raised in Orland Park and then raised their family here, I want more families to experience the joys of our village.

When it comes to development, what are some key areas for improvement or additions you feel are most wanted by residents? What will need to be done to make this happen?

There are several developments that are in the queue. First is the 143rd & LaGrange project (formerly known as the Triangle). It will break ground in the coming weeks and completion is expected by the end of 2026.

Additionally, we have a single family home development that has been approved (~126 homes) between Costco and Marcus Theaters. This will break ground this year.

Other potential projects include both the East and West corners of the South side of LaGrange Road and 159th as well as the Andrew Corporation property redevelopment.

The most important thing we can do is to create an environment that makes businesses want to come here. We do that by having high quality infrastructure and keeping residents and businesses safe. It is also imperative that we protect the core retail district of Orland Park (143rd to 163rd on LaGrange Road). If this stays successful and the mall stays successful (currently a top 1% traffic mall and the safest mall in Chicagoland), businesses will continue to relocate here.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

No.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I grew up in Orland Park. I played OYA baseball and basketball, was on the first Pioneer football team, and played basketball, baseball and golf at Carl Sandburg. I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Arizona State University. Following that, I went into the Air Force where I flew the F-15E as an Instructor Weapons System Officer. My time in the Air Force includes three tours to Southwest Asia and 45 combat sorties. While in the Air Force, I received an MBA from Duke University. After serving in the Air Force, I had a job opportunity so I decided to move back and raise my family here in Orland Park. I coached baseball and basketball for the OYA and the Orland Park Magic, and watch my children go through Orland schools. Orland Park is my home. It was a great place to grow up and a great place to raise my children. I want to make sure it remains this way for future generations which is why I’m so passionate about serving you as Mayor.