Race is on iTunes as to who is more popular: Chris Ciciora or Cindy Nelson Katsenes

I was able to interview two of the candidates running in the Orland Park Fire Protection District Race, a race that involves a taxing body that has been extremely taxing over the past year and under the leadership of a nepotistic politician.

The two candidates were on my radio Show, "Radio Chicagoland" on WJJG 1530 AM Tuesday Feb. 3, 2009 (www.RadioChicagoland.com), separately.

I podcast major interviews and I noticed this morning that the race is on to see whose podcast gets more listeners. They've raced up the charts and are neck and neck, which only goes to show you that sometimes local issuesa are far more interesting than the more explosive national and international issues.

The podcasts are available through several podcasting sites like iTunes, Podcast Pickle and others, and combined, the two have already broken through records in terms of downloads.

You can hear the podcast off the RadioC hicagoland web site (we have a green virtual iPod player on the web site and you can scroll through the podcasts to find either and then just click to listen, or go to the Radio Chicagoland iPod blog archive.)

Here are the links:

8:05 Cris Ciciora, candidate for Orland Park Fire Protection District Trustee (Listen to Podcast?)

8:45 Cindy Nelson Katsenes, candidate for Orland Park Fire Protection District Trustee (Listen to Podcast?)

I'm not sure if the skyrocketing hits represent votes or not but clearly these two guests have a HUGE following and will make an interesting race April 7.

Hopefully, one of them can help put a spotlight on the excessive taxation of the Fire Protection District and put an end to what Katsenes points out is excessive legal spending which averaged about $80,000 during ewach year from 2001 to 2006 but that skyrocketed to more than $300,000 in the years since.

No wonder the Fire Protection District chief Patrick Maher, the son of Orland Park Village Clerk David Maher, has ordered that fire department ambulances charge victims upfront instead of billing their insurance.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Fire Protection District hammers residents with another property tax increase

The President of the Orland Park Fire Protection District, Patrick Maher, told the reporter for the Orland Park Prairie that the Fire Protection District is raising property taxes.

It's a significant increase.

You HAVE to read this spin. CLICK HERE to read the story.

The increase was quietly passed before Christmas and not a word was released on it until now. They waite duntil they were as close as possible to the filing deadine for public office. Petitions must be filed next week.

Maher is the son of the Village Clerk David P. Maher, who is on the slate for re-election this April with Mayor Dan McLaughlin, who has the dubious distinction of having adopted the largest property tax increases this village has ever experienced in a long time.

Patrick Maher, the "son," explains after having jacked up the fees for ambulance service -- from ZERO to as much as what? $750? -- that the Fire District had to increase the property taxes.

But, he asserts, that doesn't mean it is a property tax increase on homeowners. Our taxes are going to go down. Maher explains int he story that the taxing base has increased slightly, which means the individual property tax share for each homeowner is dropping, and the increase his board passed won't exceed the drop so in the end (stillw ith me?) the property tax overall with also be reduced.

Duh!

I've covered budgets and property tax increases for 32 years. I've seen some slick maneuvering, but nothing comes close to the property tax scam being pulled by McLaughlin and now by the clerk's son, Patrick Maher.

The FACT IS, the increased tax base means we SHOULD receive a tax reduction. The burden is being shared by more people. Instead of being responsible and living within his budget, Patrick Maher is taking almost ALL of that reduction and leaving only just enough so he can get a softball headline from the local paper which reads "Taxes going up," but your property tax bill from the "Fire District" is going down.

The polls show that the public is fed up with the increased property taxes, the misleading statements from the unaccountable elected officials, and the wasteful spending of the village and the Fire "Protection" District.

It's sad that we live in a time when elected officials have to be so sneaky. They want you to think theproperty taxes are going down and even the media fails to challenge them.

The economy is bad enough. But to have unaccountable government officials at the helm who don't have the courage to be forthright with us, is even worse.

Pathetic!

Maybe the mayor should have put THAT in his cheery, uplifting balther about all his achievements 12 weeks before his re-election.

Well in the end, at least his street was plowed first.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Letters, letters and more letters: Fire "Protect the President's Career" District

Dear Mr. Hanania

I am a faithful reader of you blog. In regards to your recent article regarding the Orland Park Fire District charging for ambulance fees, I would like to respond, anonymously, of course.

The "whisper" behind these fees is that the President of the Board of Trustees [of the Orland Park Fire Protection District], Pat Maher, will be seeking a seat on the Cook COunty Board of Commissioners in the 2010 election.

As was stated in the Southtown/Star, "the fire district is not running short of funds but the new policy, which will bring in about $1 million a year, will help prevent future tax increases."

Mr. Maher will collect these ambulance fees, sit on them until he has a nice accumulation, then he will rebate them back to the taxpayers just in time so this "good deed" is fresh in the voters' minds when we go to the polls in 2010. A move right out of the playbook of Mayor Dan McLaughlin.

This should also answer the question you asked in your July 29, 2008 article titled "Campaign Disclosure Notes for Orland Park." Under article V -- Friends of Patrick M. Maher, you asked, "So why did he [Maher] create this campaign [fund] in March?

Now you know.

Sincerely,
Anonymous

Dear Anonymous.

Thank you for sharing your views and what you have heard. I think you hit the political nail on the head and I believe Maher is planning to run for higher office and Cook COunty Board -- which does nothing in Orland Park ala Elizabeth Gorman Doody -- is the perfect spot to grab. Gorman will probably retire, as she is worthless. Maher and McLaughlin are politically very close. They share friendship in a certain computer company involved in another legal mess.

And I hope voters are smart enough to see past Maher's scheme. I mean, McLaughlin raised taxes in Orland Park and built up a huge surplus that he "rebates" back to voters. Of course, this year he imposed a back-door property tax hike by only rebating a part of that promised rebate. He's keeping about 40 percent for the village and that is a 40 percent hike in property taxes.

Not that I can get McLaughlin or Maher to ever respond as they don't care. They share that imported 19th Ward Chicago arrogance that they can do whatever they want because the people they "govern" are too apathetic to bother protesting or asking questions, and most newspapers in this area don't write about controversy, especially when kissing ass is so much more lucrative.

Thanks for writing
Ray Hanania
www.OrlandParker.com

Dear Ray

You wrote a while back that Orland Park Police Chief Timothy McCarthy would make a great candidate for mayor. Is there any truth to the rumors McLaughlin is retiring?

Thanks
a "Blue Heron"

Dear "Blue Heron"

Thanks for your letter. I am not sure. My sources in the village hall and in the police department tell me McCarthy wants to run for office and may run for mayor only if McLaughlin steps down. McCarthy would make a great elected official so I hope the rumors are true.

Thank you for writing.

You do more than the Village Clerk, his son and the mayor combined.

Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

You can email your comments to:

rayhanania@comcast.net

and I will keep your identities private and will not publish them if you request. Or, you can also send your letters to my PO Box at

Ray Hanania
PO Box 2127
Orland Park, IL., 60462

OR ... you can call me on my radio show every morning on WJJG 1530 AM Radio Monday thru Friday from 8 am until 9:30 am and share your thoughts anonymously also.

Let's put Orland Park back on the map of accountability.

# # #

Orland Park residents hammered with new fee from Fire District

With the Orland Fire Protection District already in political disarray and conflict, now they decided that the best way to deal with their incompetence is to hammer residents with an excessive charge for ambulance service -- something that TAXPAYERS ALREADY PAY FOR IN THEIR TAXES.

Not that anyone in Orland Park cares, though, right? I mean Mayor Dan McLaughlin only cares about his union clout and his prestige, and the Orland Park Village trustees -- most of them -- only care about their re-elections and are pals with the Orland Park Fire Protection District.

No one cares about the taxpayers. That's obvious from the total disregard we get from our elected officials, from the Village Clerk David P. Maher who continues to violate the Open Meetings Act by placing wording at the top of his public meeting notices declaring the notices are not for newspaper publication. (Hey, even Mayor Daley has a lifelong difficulty with the English language and you can't nottin' to no one.)

Now, the board that Maher's kid controls, the Orland Park Fire Protection District, thinks that the best way to protect their salaries and pensions and political clout (since so many relatives of village employees, political activists and government officials work on either side of the Village-OFPD fence) is to not protect the residents of Orland Park.

The Orland Park Fire Protection District has a history of poor decisionmaking and poor leadership under its current boss, Patrick Maher, the son of David Maher. Read this from the Better Government Association Web Site.

The Fire Protection district and several village officials are the target of a lawsuit that coulds cause major financial problems for the District and Maher's leadership there. Here's the link to that story that no one wrote about.

The Fire Protection DIstrict said they made the stupid decision in public and didn't try to hide anything. Sure. They know that if they don't tell you they are going to do something important at a board meeting, the public -- which works at REAL JOBS -- won't have the time to show up at the the meetings to hold Maher and his crony's feet to the political fire. Of course, instead of important issues, the OPFPD did promote their "rodeo" ... read that story? The OPFPD loves to promote the fluff, but not something serious, of course.

The DailySouthtown reported one ambulance bill topped $760 and the Fire Protection District is squirrling away cash with more than $7 million in a surplus, which in local tax terms means that they have been gouging taxpayers. (They are not the US Budget and don't need a surplus ever). The people hurt the most are senior citizens and those in need.

Imagine, someone in your family needs an ambulance and the OPFPD shows up and hammers you with a $760 bill. Outrageous, but, what we are used to in "Orland Peyton Place Park."

But then, what do you care? It's just your money and Mayor Happy McLaughlin and OFPD Chief Maher just do whatever they want anyway.

A lawsuit you probably haven't heard much about in Orland Park

About one year after the heated Orland Park Fire Protection District (OPFPD) trustee election battle on April 17, 2007 between Arthur Granat Jr. and Cynthia Nelson Katsenes on one side, and Marty McGill and Glenn Michalak on the other side, Granat filed a defamation lawsuit.

The lawsuit deals indirectly with that embarrassing event in January 2007 involving Lt. Lawrence Masa, who claimed he needed paid leave from the OPFPD because he was serving his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, between 2003 and 2006. Masa was charged in January 2007 by the Cook County State's Attorney with ripping off taxpayers of $200,000 in salary during that period because, well, he wasn't serving in Iraq or Afghanistan at all, apparently. The Masa case is pending.

Granat alleges in his lawsuit, filed by attorney John Partelow, that his opponents for the trustee seat in collusion with the other board members -- the OPFPD attorneys, a computer company that has close ties to Mayor Dan McLaughlin, and the Orland Park Prairie -- used the Masa controversy to make it look like he was responsible. They defamed him, Granat alleges in his lawsuit, in order to make him lose the election.

Granat apparently had nothing to do with the Masa scandal, but the OPFPD quietly hired a contractor in February 2007, for about $10,000 according to Granat's attorney, to investigate Granat's "role" in the Masa affair, a role which apparently did not exist. Oops! It all centers around a computer that Granat was given permission by then acting Chief Donald Bettenhausen to take home. Granat's opponents on the board quietly hired a "computer forensic expert" to determine if Granat was hiding any files protecting Masa and that information was fed to the media to discredit Granat just before the April 2007 election.

Two of the 13 defendants in Granat's suit are McGill, Michalak, now OPFDP trustees. Of course, with the mud flying, they defeated Granat and Katsenes for the two trustee seats. Katsenes had been an outspoken champion to force the OPFPD to improve its sloppy and wasteful ways, which made her disliked on the board, and Granat, who was a 38 year OPFPD employee and deputy fire chief, had an impeccable record until the election mudslinging took place.

But, there are 11 other defendants in the lawsuit, and chances are you, the Orland Park taxpayer are most likely going to get socked with the tab if, as it should, Granat's suit is affirmed by a jury.

The remaining defendants round out what Granat's attorney spells out was a conspiracy to defame Granat and destroy his reputation in a mudslinging effort just before the election. They are:

Patrick Maher, the son of the Orland Park Village Clerk and the president and a trustee on the OPFPD who allegedly authorized the spending of $10,000 in OPFPD and taxpayer money to investigate his political rival.

OPFPD trustees Patricia Corcoran and Salvatore Cacciato who also supported the decision.

The OPFPD district itself, as the abusive government entity.

The OPFPD district's law firm Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, (KTJ) which has very close ties to the Village of Orland Park, too.

Michael J. Duggan and Dennis G. Walsh, lawyers with KTJ.

The Orland Park Prairie Newspaper, which published the stories apparently fed to it by a certain Orland Park employee.

Marjorie Owens-Klotz, daughter of the late Mayor Fred Owens and a "big shot" in the Village of Orland Park who handles media relations with the local newspapers and publicity and also handled media for the OPFPD, according to the lawsuit. She's married to a top ranking firefighter at the OPFPD, too. A sister was appointed to the OPFPD Commission.

Computer Bits, Inc., the firm hired by Maher and the anti-Granat/Katsenes board members to investigate the issue. Computer Bits Inc. has very close ties to the Village of Orland Park and is a major contributor to Mayor McLaughlin.

James T. Harmening, the owner of Computer Bits Inc., and a self-professed "forensic computer expert," according tot he lawsuit.

Apparently, the Daily Southtown ran the harmful and misleading story but later acknowledged, according to Granat's attorney, that Granat was unfairly slammed. The Orland Park Prairie (my favorite newspaper, or MFN), has not said anything.

Here's the lawsuit. Read it for yourself:

I've reached out to the attorneys, KJT, for a response to the lawsuit and will post it as soon as it comes in.