Election 2025: Orland Park Village Trustee Candidate Dina Lawrence

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:

Dina M Lawrence

Campaign website:

Orland Park for All.

Office sought:

Orland Park Village Trustee

Town/city of residence:

Orland Park

Party Affiliation (if a partisan race):

I am running non-partisan.

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

No.

Occupation. Please include years of experience.

Engineer with MBA in Finance and Business Strategy. I have a variety of experience in engineering operations oversight, project management, and regulatory compliance. I also have extensive experience performing business case analyses for projects valued up to hundreds of millions of dollars. I have 40 years of experience.

Previous or current elected or appointed office.

I was previously elected to my condominium board. Currently, I do not serve in any elected position; and I never ran for any other elected position.

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

Issue 1: Village officials should be more respectful to the residents and our employees, and they should encourage harmony and enthusiasm rather than create divisiveness and apathy.

I intend to invite stakeholders to offer their ideas and share their concerns. I will listen with curiosity to find value in what they offer. I will encourage experimenting with new ideas. I will respond honestly when I believe that I know the answers and I will seek answers from reliable sources when I do not know the answers. I will act with integrity. My decisions will be my own. I will acknowledge my mistakes and learn from them.

Issue 2: Village resources and government activity should be managed with greater transparency and in a manner that ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.

I intend to advocate for transparent and consistent accounting for Village resources. I intend to facilitate the timely filing of our annual, audited Finanancial Statements. I will help residents to understand the big picture of our financial situation. Math does not have to be scary. Before approving large expenditures, I will carefully evaluate alternatives and apply economic analyses where appropriate.

I am an independent voter. I will not be coerced to say or to do something just because someone else told me to get in line and obey. I will listen with curiosity and consider how we might be able to incorporate more ideas to satisfy the tremendous variety of interests of our residents. I have a unique combination of professional skills that are well suited to making policy decisions regarding municipal operations and resources.

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

Yes, the current office holders are failing the community in a variety of ways, including:

1. Fighting against residents' desires to be fully heard at Village Board meetings. Publicly disparaging residents who dare to voice their concerns about issues in their neighborhoods. Residents have become fearful of approaching the Board to voice their concerns.
2. Refusing to respond in a timely and transparent manner to Freedom of Information Act Requests, and consuming significant financial resources for lawyers to obstruct those requests. That money could be used to employ additional police officers and to help hold the line on taxes.
3. Building new projects without careful business case analyses, while neglecting maintenance of some existing Village assets causing unrecoverable losses to those assets.
4. Disparaging residents of differing ethnic backgrounds when they ask to be treated the same.
5. Micromanaging Village departments rather than focusing on good governance and policy issues. Employee turnover is higher than ever. Service levels have declined.
6. Bragging repeatedly about small savings for residents while avoiding discussion of the large new charges.

Our slate is purposefully bipartisan and running nonpartisan. We interviewed each other, then committed to acting with integrity and appreciating our differences. We have a variety of valuable business and legal skills that are well suited for Village service. We are committed to respecting residents, employees, and businesses, managing our resources better, and making sensible decisions for the betterment of our community.

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

In my engineering roles, I learned to set boundaries, gather pertinent information, analyze complex details, and provide sound conclusions.

In my project management roles, I learned to prioritize while coordinating a myriad of professional, craft, and material resources for successful completion-- on time and on budget.

In my regulatory roles, I learned to comprehend complicated legal issues and to devise sensible solutions for compliance.

Although I never aspired to elected office, recently I chose to run for election because many of my friends and neighbors were telling me that they are thinking of leaving due to the declining neighborly feel. Not wanting them to leave, I decided that I could make a greater impact for improvement by getting into a leadership position. Ask my neighbors. Ask my friends. People can see from my lifestyle that I do not aspire to gain, but rather to be a good caretaker and to respectfully enjoy what we have.

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

My term in office will be a success if we can bring back more open and respectful communication among and between Village officials, Village employees, Village residents, and Village businesses. We are in this together. We can choose to continue to fight with each other or we can learn to appreciate and enjoy each other. I will be thrilled to increase neighborhood-centric events like block parties. We must improve our financial management and submit our audited financial statements in a timely manner.

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

I am a thoughtful, conservative manager of my personal resources. I do not spend beyond my means. I know how to stretch a buck. I will treat Village resources similarly.

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?

The crime rate has always been rather low in Orland Park for a variety of reasons. Our police officers are well trained and well equipped to perform their jobs well. There is very good community engagement between our police officers and our residents and visitors. And overall, we have responsible and respectful citizens and visitors.

Meanwhile, our Village is growing, and the residential and retail footprints are increasing in size and complexity. With those increases, additional police officers and innovative policing tactics appear to be needed to maintain and improve safety. Our police officers have expressed their strong desire for increased predictability in their scheduling as a means to attract new talent and improve morale among existing officers. The Orland Park police officers created a business case to support their preferred alternative. I will give careful consideration to their business case; and if it proves to be attractive, to implement their plan as a means of improving policing in Orland Park. In addition, there appears to be opportunity for increasing the number of police officers without increasing expenditures by increased use of competitive bidding in Village contracting.

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

Orland Park has a long history of successful commercial and residential developments. Over time, conditions changed and desired uses changed. Likewise, developments continuously adapted to accommodate that change. Today there is less open land, some of the older space is going unused, some of the housing stock is deteriorating, some older residents are seeking housing that is easier to maintain, and some younger residents are seeking lower cost alternatives.

In recent years, some development has been overly dense, with very little green elements such as trees and flowers, and insufficient infrastructure to comfortably accommodate good traffic flow and safety. I will encourage a return to development standards where overcrowding is avoided, nature is an essential element, and traffic flow and safety are required. I believe that Orland Park is attractive enough that Village funding through Tax Increment Financing (TIF) should not be needed.

I have heard directly from residents that Orland Park has grown so large that it is inconvenient to travel all the way across town for routine activities. They are asking for consideration of how to provide a greater variety of amenities closer to the far reaches of our Village. I would like to get residents' ideas for what they want-- at prices that won't hurt our cost of living.

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

I intend to serve my full term of office, and I will hope and pray that my health and family needs will not interfere with that commitment.

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

I love Orland Park. I love the physical environment, the diversity of our grocery stores, restaurants, and retail stores. I want to give residents more reasons to like shopping locally rather than online, so that local businesses can thrive. I love being close to good medical resources, an exceptional library, and a pool that I don't have to vacuum. I want to see little kids and their elderly neighbors chatting with each other at the parks. I would like Orland Park to have a real Farmers' Market and a Taste of Orland Park with a greater variety of foods and beverages. I would like to have more cultural events to celebrate and enjoy our differences.