Orland Passed A $3.5 Million Roads Project — And Waived The Bid

ORLAND PARK, IL — Orland Park's trustees rescinded a controversial $3.5 million roads project and rewarded it by waving the bidding process in a five-minute special meeting Thursday night.

If you blinked, you would have missed it. Or if you were late — like Trustee Daniel Calandriello was — you could not have voted on the measures.

There was no discussion and the votes fell along party lines: Mayor Keith Pekau and trustees Bill Healy, Cynthia Katsenses and Michael Milani supported the measures. Trustees Kathleen Fenton and Jim Dodge opposed them. Calandriello, who messaged the mayor to tell him he would be late, slipped in at the end of the vote.

The meeting was called to fix contract that did not follow state laws regulating bidding for public works contracts. Earlier this month, the board added $3.8 million worth of work to a $1.9 million roads improvement project minutes after it approved the original contract. That original contract was awarded through a bidding process to Austin Tyler Construction of Elwood, Ill. The addition was made through a change order and was not put out to bid.

Village attorneys, the mayor and trustees later acknowledged that they had inadvertently violated public works bidding laws when they attempted to expand the project that officials largely agree is needed to repair many Orland streets and walkways. The law requires that changes 50 percent or more of the original contract go out for bid.

Orland used a home rule exemption to waive the bidding process, which the village's attorneys told Pekau can be used in this case so the contract would not have to be re-bid. The village is borrowing money to pay for the project.

In a message to supporters this week, Pekau said he would seek an efficient and affordable way to fix the problematic contract.

However, on Thursday, Fenton and Dodge said they voted against the measures because they did not like the process and the way the situation was handled.

"We have $30 million worth of street work to do, and sales tax receipts have been down 2 to 5 percent year over year, and we'll be adding almost $1 million to the police pension fund," Dodge said, questioning the slipshod way the road-improvement contracts were handled.

"Let's make this a thoughtful, multiyear programs," one that is transparent and one that the community can be on board with, he said.

The contract expansion adds nearly 10 subdivisions and 6.2 miles of roads to the improvements project.