Transparency in Oak Lawn government? Not so much

In October the Village of Oak Lawn got a check from the Airway Mobile Home park in the amount of $960,000. Did you know about this? No, you did not, because as per their standard operating procedure, the Village trustees passed the settlement agreement in the consent agenda during the November 12, 2019 meeting, thereby making sure that the least amount of people would find out about it. Reviewing documents I received in a FOIA request, I found out that the Village entered into a settlement with the park for supposed misue of property on the mobile home park's part. The Village accused the mobile home park of encroaching on Village property, specifically, that the park had encroached on two streets inside the park. In order to avoid a full-blown lawsuit, the park agreed to a $960,000 settlement. I find this interesting for many reasons. First, because after several high-profile incidents (fire, murder, drug activity) at the mobile home park, trustee Alex Olejniczak called for a 'safety meeting' in the summer of 2019. After a couple articles in local newspapers, the story totally disappeared. Then this settlement comes about on the down low. Second, where did the mobile home park come up with $960,000? The deal smells bad. It smells like coersion. It smells of Larry Deetjen. Olejniczak and Brian Hanigan, the Village Financial Director smell too. Why was this agreement not made public? What did the Village do with the money? They certainly didn't apply it toward their pension debt, considering Moody just ranked OL's credit rating at the junk level. Is there ANYONE in Oak Lawn Village government that is NOT corrupt? I guess we're lucky that Deetjen is out and Oleniczak has said he isn't running again. Maybe he's finally fed up with being a patsy? This Board, the financial director, and the mayor (gag me) are corrupt as hell. VOTE THEM OUT and demand a clean sweep of all Village administrative offices. If you want a copy of the documents, email me at jaschaller@yahoo.com. I'll be happy to forward a copy of the documents for your inspection.