Letter to the Editor: Correcting Lies, Distortions, Propaganda of a Fellow Trustee

Written and submitted by Terry Vorderer.

My name is Terry Vorderer and I am a Trustee on the Oak Lawn Village Board.

I am also a life-long Oak Lawn resident, a retired member of the Oak Lawn Police Department, and I currently serve as the Police Liaison to the Village Board.

I am writing today to correct the out-right lies, distortions, and propaganda that my fellow Trustee Bob Streit has been spreading through newspaper stories, campaign mailings, and on his political blog. Here are a few of the more recent ones:

Mr. Streit said the Board reduced the number of Firefighters we have. The Truth is we hired 2 new firefighters in 2014 and now have 77. This lie is made worse when you consider that from 2006 to 2013, while Mr. Streit was your Trustee, the Village went from 100 firefighters to 75.

Mr. Streit said the Board reduced the number of Police Officers we have. In 2003, when I retired as the Chief of Patrol from our Police Department in 2003, we had 105 police officers. Today we have 107, the highest staffing level in our Department’s history.

Mr. Streit said the Board voted down his proposal to “step-up our police patrols.” Mr. Streit NEVERproposed this to the Board, nor did he speak with our Police Department about this it. In fact, had Mr. Streit consulted our Department, he would have learned we were already doing stepped-up patrols and those patrols recently broke up a burglary ring.

Mr. Streit said burglaries have increased 35% in Oak Lawn. We had 113 Burglaries in 2013, and 121 in 2014, an increase of 6.7%, NOT 35%. Mr. Streit conveniently left out other crimes that have actually decreased, like Theft (down 8.9%) and Battery (down 6.9%). I have known Mr. Streit for almost 30 years and his reputation as a ruthless and aggressive politician is well-deserved. He once told me when I was running for office that even lying was fair game when it came to winning elections.

Now I can’t say that the concept of a politician lying was shocking to me, but the smile on his face when he said it was, prompting me to ask him “Bob, you are TRUSTEE, doesn’t that word mean anything to you?”

It obviously doesn’t, based on Mr. Streit’s efforts to deceive, scare, and bully people into voting for him.

But I can’t sit idly by while he tears down our Village for his own personal and political gain.

Terry Vorderer
4th District Trustee
Village of Oak Lawn
708-380-3108