Bid Problems Starting To Tarnish Orland's Reputation: Official

ORLAND PARK, IL — Recent bidding scandals appear to have tarnished Orland's reputation and are draining the candidate pool for a new village manager, officials said. And judging by actions of the village's trustees and attorney Monday night, they don't appear to be going away soon.

In May, two bidding scandals hit the village. In the first, trustees rescinded a controversial $3.5 million roads project and rewarded it by waving the bidding process in a five-minute special meeting. In the second, independent investigators recommended that Orland Park officials investigate contracts awarded to Mayor Keith Pekau's former landscaping business and the financial interests he holds with two village vendors, as well as fix its own flawed bidding, purchasing and ethics policies. In the report, known as the Jones Day report, investigators found no evidence of criminal activity and Pekau has denied any wrongdoing. The two issues are not related and the investigation was complete before the roads bid was approved by the board.

Since then, however, the issues appear to have stalled the recruiting of a new village manager. One trustee called for a thorough review of the village's entire bidding process. And the controversial release of executive-session meeting minutes was stalled Monday after Pekau promised to distribute them.

"Our lawyers want to be sure they have reviewed them properly," Pekau said.

Interim Village Manager Tom Dubelbeis told the board at the regularly scheduled meeting Monday that the hiring of his replacement had been delayed for weeks because the village had not received enough resumes. Trustee Jim Dodge asked why.

"I think some of the headlines the village has made over the past few months have not been conducive for highly qualified candidates for the Village of Orland Park," he said.

Dubelbeis was referring to stories local media reported about the village's bidding irregularities. Candidates for the top-staff job often shy away from municipalities beset by controversial investigations, highly politicized issues or other evidence of brewing problems.

Dodge also asked the board to revisit the village's entire bidding process. "So far the report found no evidence — it doesn't point to anything sinister, but it does point to something sloppy in the way we as an organization get bids done," he said.

Pekau agreed. However, it was not clear Monday how the board would proceed with the review.

But even Pekau's own request was delayed. He had promised to release minutes of the executive session the board held in May to discuss the Jones Day investigation. Releasing minutes from those meetings is rare because they often contain sensitive information, including personnel reports. Trustee Kathleen Fenton asked why the mayor wanted to approve the unusual move, but her question went unanswered. Pekau later notified members of the media that they would not be released Monday in order to give village attorneys more time to review them.

Pekau has said in the past that he wanted them open to the public because they would show that the Jones Day report was conducted in "secret" and that it violated several laws, including those governing the release of records.

The investigators from the global Jones Day law firm said they did not gather enough evidence to show whether the village broke state bidding or ethics laws in the cases they reviewed. Instead, they said, the incidents "raise questions" that led them to recommend that the village continue its investigation.

"At present, the investigative record is insufficient to conclusively establish that there were any clear violations of existing law or policy in connection with the bidding process involving these contractors," investigators said in the report. "This is due in part to Jones Day's incomplete knowledge regarding the events described above, but it also results from gaps in the Village's own ethics and purchasing policies."

A second internal report Pekau commissioned after the Jones Day investigation concurred with the findings that no laws were broken. Joseph Mitchell, Orland's interim assistant village manager who conducted the review, said he found that Pekau had no conflicts of interest with the village and that he, too, recommended strengthening the village's ethics and purchasing policies.

Pekau called the initial investigation a "political attack" and has denied any wrongdoing. He has suggested that former village manager Joseph La Margo did not have the authority to conduct such an investigation and likely broke several laws while doing it.

"What is even more nefarious and subversive is that a couple of Trustees and a Village Manager colluded to run a clandestine investigation on a sitting Mayor for the political purposes of influencing a campaign and in an attempt to overturn a Mayoral election. Had there not been a new Village Manager, we would never have known about this bogus investigation and this would have been swept under the rug! This should frighten all of the people of Orland Park that Trustees colluded to try to overturn your vote," he wrote to supporters in a June 9 campaign email.

There is no evidence, however, La Margo broke any laws.