Pekau to Take Mayoral Salary, Pass on Pension

ORLAND PARK, IL - Orland Park Mayor-elect Keith Pekau will accept the heightened $150,000 a year mayoral salary after he is sworn into office next month and said in an interview with The Regional News that it will be up to him to “earn” the salary that was put in place by trustees who fully expected it to go to current Mayor Dan McLaughlin.

“I will earn the $150,000. I never said anything different. However, I am not vested in the pension system and I will not be taking a pension,” Pekau told The Regional News in an interview published this week.

Pekau also made it known that he has no plans to accept an inflated pension that trustees voted to quadruple from $25,000 annually to $100,000.

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“That (pension hike) is wrong,” he said. “I consistently was told, ‘You need to give it (the higher mayoral salary) back to charity, you need to do this or that.’ One of the trustees said I should only take $40,000. (They) have the gall to ask me to take less, but would have given it McLaughlin.”

The village board voted in October to turn the mayoral role into a full-time position and raise the salary from $40,000 a year to $150,000 beginning with the 2017-elected term.

Earlier this month, Pekau was elected mayor of Orland Park in an upset against the incumbent McLaughlin. McLaughlin had been seeking his seventh term.

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Photo via Keith 4 Mayor