Orland Clerk Sued for Malfeasance, Settles for $200,000

By Kathy Fenton

Orland Park Village Clerk Brian Gaspardo, appointed by Mayor Keith Pekau, is a CPA, was hired by the Village of Burnham in 2012 to perform audits for the village for the years 2007-2010. The Village of Burnham would sue Gaspardo for failing to detect fraud and theft by an employee that cost Burnham residents nearly $700,000. Burnham is a tiny south suburban working class village of less than 4000 residents.

Burnham sued Gaspardo and his firm O'Neill & Gaspardo for their incompetence and eventually settled with the firm in 2016, securing $200,000 in restitution from O'Neill & Gaspardo. Read the "Cook County Record" story at the time on the Burnham lawsuit:

https://cookcountyrecord.com/s...

In the settlement, O'Neill & Gaspardo paid the Village of Burnham $200,000 in restitution for their malfeasance in failing to perform a competent audit that would have discovered the employee was stealing over multiple years.

In 2024, Mayor Keith Pekau appointed Gaspardo Village Clerk shortly after Gaspardo donated thousands to Pekau's re-election campaign. The Village of Orland Park has been mired in controversy for failing to perform audits of village finances since 2021, the year Pekau gained complete political control of the Village Board. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza froze all state "offset" payments to Orland Park due to Pekau & his People over Politics Party incompetence. Read WGN-TV report on Comptroller freezing state payments to Orland Park here:

https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-inv...

This is just the latest example of the failed leadership of Mayor Keith Pekau. The fact that Pekau appointed an auditor as clerk who for years could not uncover theft happening under his watch should give every village resident pause and question Pekau's judgement.

The People over Politics slate has cost taxpayers millions since seizing power and now just added another sad chapter to their very unremarkable tenure.