Owners of apartment building complex accuse Oak Lawn village officials of racism and discrimination

The owners of three large apartment buildings in Oak Lawn off of 95th and Harlem Avenue accused the Village Manager of Oak Lawn, Larry Deetjen, of discriminatory practices and harassment. The owners charged at a public meeting of the Oak Lawn Village Board Tuesday Sept. 22, 2009, that the village began cracking down on them right after Deetjen became village manager. They said the issue was the  population of their buildings which are 40 percent Black, 20 percent Arab, 20 percent Hispanic and 20 percent White. Oak lawn is a predominantly White community and the apartment complex represents the heart of the suburban village's minority concentration.

Deetjen sat through the public session at the beginning of the board meeting without comment, but he was defended by Village Trustee Robert Streit who launched into a tirade against the two owners telling them that their tenants -- 84 families -- have drawn police calls 366 times over the last two years involving everything from drug abuse, domestic violence, gang fights and a long laundry list of crimes.

I was shocked to hear Streit's attack, mainly because:

1 -- the owners said the village was upset with them and cited them with numerous building code violations (that are not even listed on the village code books by the way) because the minority population has increased significantly at the buildings since they purchased them almost four years ago.

2 -- Streit did not address the alleged code violations which INVOLVE THE BUILDING but instead focused on the type of people who live in their buildings, outlining the alleged misconduct of the tenants (which the owners of the building have no control over) and saying people like that are unwanted in Oak Lawn.

Yikes!

I will have a story in next week's Southwest News-Herald column and will post a transcript of the verbal back-and-forth.

Streit also denounced the owners who live in Countryside as "absentee landlords" (does Streit do all of his business in Oak lawn or is he an absentee business owner?) And Streit denounced them for waiting 18 months to complain about the alleged verbal altercation that took place with Deetjen.

In an interview before the meeting, the owners said they were moved to come forward after reading about instances of racial discrimination against American Arab grocery store owner Naim Massad at 103rd and Central Avenue, whose store was harassed for two years by the village and was shut down including on July 15 when he was falsely accused of operating his store under a village order to be shut. It was falsely alleged that Massad had a sign on his window in Arabic that told Arab customers the store was closed and they should go to the back of the store to buy store items.

Massad was arrested -- not for the violation of the closing order but for allegedly putting food in an unsanitary vacant store next door -- and so was his wife and son. Massad accused the police who arrested him of denouncing his Arab heritage in vulgar terms.

Police have since reported that the evidence in the case, including the alleged sign in Arabic, was throw out and is no longer in police custody. Police took the sign as evidence but later discovered that the sign in Arabic only said that his store was "closed."

And during the dispatching of police to the store -- because of the Arabic sign and complaint -- the police officer told the dispatcher they were going to "shut down an Arab store owner."

I'll have more on the latest incident of discrimination in my next column in the Southwest News-Herald newspaper (www.SWNewsHerald.com.)

With few exceptions, voter turnout in suburban elections will be low

Once again, important local elections in most Chicagoland suburbs will be anti-climactic with the incumbents sweeping the polls and returning to office.

It's not because they have all done such a good job. It is because voters in the Chicagoland suburbs are both apathetic and confused.

Didn't we just vote for President Barack Obama to replace the nation's historicaly least liked and least effective President George W. Bush? Why do we have to vote again? Remind me?

The fact is the elecion system is made intentionally by the government to be confusing and to foster apathy. Low voter turnout in suburban elections has been the rule, with only few exceptions.

Here's the system we have now: The most important election is the election for President and major statewide offices. Voters go to the polls in larger numbers at this election.

Local officials through their state obfuscators -- also called legislators in the state House and Senate -- made sure to separate the national elections from the local elections, they claimed, because it was tooc onfusing for voters.

Too confusing?

The year after the presidential elections -- last March (in Illinois but earlier and later in other states) and in November, voters voted for president and the Congress. This February and now April 7, in Illinois, voters will vote for local government officials like village President and city mayor in the suburbs.

There are no elections in Chicago, where the media focus is intense. And media coverage which drives voter awareness, is lacking in the suburban elections reflecting a "who cares?" attitude. Any media coverage will be token and local.

So, if you are a voter, no one in the media is paying attention to your local suburban election, which means you will not get much awareness nor background information on the candidates. And that means the lower the voter turnout, the better it is for the incumbents. The supporters of incumbents who usually have jobs beholden to the incumbents, vote. And there are a lot of them usually reflecting the employee base of a village where incumbents usually sweep the majority of votes, as much as 95 percent. And so do their families and their friends. The supporters of the challengers, who usually are not beholden to the challenger for their jobs, may vote.

The local incumbents, who get ver little real journalism scrutiny -- most suburban papers publish "happy talk" features about how great the incumbents are in order to reduce animosity that might result on losing advertising (in today's repressive economic situation, it's even worse).

On top of all this, the election process is even more confusing. The "consolidated election" process has made public participation even less likely because no one knows when to vote. Cosnolidated elections mean that primariues have been eliminated and candidates (usually incumbents) who get 50 percent plus 1 vote are declared the winners in what used to be the Primary election date. (A primary used to be when members of an established party select their candidates from a field of candidates from within their party who then run in the general election representing their party.)

It isn't like that everywhere. So media coverage of those contests confuse the public into believing elections are over.

What should be done? We should have one election for every office in the country on the same dates. A Primary and a General Election. One year every four years, except for Congress, which would be every two years. Make special elections on the off years for Congress for those offices where vacancies have occurred at least three months before the Congressional elections.

If the suburban elections had taken place last November, almost 50 percent of incuments who have been challenged in the elections -- many are never challenged and run-unopposed -- would be defeated and replaced by fresh faces, fresh voices, fresh ideas and office holders who at least going into the system will be more likely to champion the needs of the voters and the public rather than line their own pocketbooks.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Running for local office -- How to do it right

1 -- Hire an attorney. There is a good chance the incumbents are going to challenge your petitions for office and you will end up spending money later when the local office holders challenge you to kick you off the ballot. A lawyer can help you from square one to prevent that.

2 -- You must file a committee if you raise or spend $3,000 on your campaign ...

3 -- You also need to start the process NOW ... don't wait until it's too late or the elected officials start talking about the election. In most cases, the elected officials don't want you to know and hope you miss the filing deadlines so you can't run. Or, they hope you will rush to run at the last minute making a mistake that they can challenge.

Start now, go to our election help web page linked on www.RadioChicagoland.com

Call our election law specialist Dennis Brenna and visit his web site at www.DennisBrennanLaw.com

-- Ray Hanania
www.radiochicagoland.com
www.OrlandParker.com