Doing Business With Oak Lawn ‘Worse Than Cicero,’ Says Low-Bidder
Roofing contractor gets taste of doing business with the Village of Oak Lawn after his bid is rejected in favor of higher bidding company with ties to to Oak Lawn trustee.
Photos
With its reputation for bare-fisted politics mounting, Oak Lawn has earned another distinction: the village is now worse to do business with than Cicero.
A Des Plaines roofing contractor says he never saw the punch coming when his recent low bid to replace the leaking roof at the public works facility was rejected in favor of a higher bidder with family ties to a village trustee.
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“Oak Lawn is very political, more so than others, and I’ve dealt with Cicero,” said Dominic Dunlap, owner of DCG Roofing Solutions.
Although technically never in the running because he did not include a start date in his bid package, the Oak Lawn Village Board voted 4-3 to reward the contract to the fourth lowest bidder last month, where Trustee Bob Streit’s brother works as an estimator. Mayor Dave Heilmann cast the tie-breaking vote.
“I’ve never had a public (government) situation where they kick out three bidders based on no schedule to get a fourth bidder based on a schedule,” Dunlap said.
Dunlap, who had 20 years’ experience in the roofing industry before striking out on his own to form his own company two years ago, said nothing smelled right about the whole bidding process.
For one thing, most clients, including municipalities, specify a start date and ask bidders if they would be ready on that day.
“Public entities will always put out a start date,” Dunalp said. “Things just seem secretive [in Oak Lawn].”
Originally told that DCG was the lowest bidder, Dunlap expected a phone call from public works telling him when to start. Dunlap did receive a phone call from the village but it was from Trustee Tom Phelan (Dist. 6), explaining that trustees would be voting on the contract to Adler Roofing at the next village board meeting.
“Now all of a sudden we find out after the fact about Bob Streit’s brother. That’s a major concern,” Dunlap said. “(Bob Streit) should have recused himself. He shouldn’t have been allowed to vote.”
At the Nov. 27 board meeting, the three dissenting trustees, including Phelan, Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2) and Tom Duhig (Dist. 4), indicated they would be voting “no” on the Adler contract without any discussion.
Almost immediately after casting the tie-breaking vote, the mayor asked the village attorney whether the $166,085 contract required a super majority.
“I asked because I didn’t understand the ‘no’ votes,” Heilmann said. “If Phelan had concerns he never said anything to anyone on the board.”
The mayor said he didn’t know that Streit’s brother worked at Adler until after the fact.
“I appreciate how it looks,” Heilmann said. “This is something that came to us as a staff recommendation approved by the village attorney. I presume that when I get something from staff that is reviewed by the village attorney that we can rely on it.”
Bidders were also told verbally by public works staff that a schedule was to be included in the bid, Heilmann said.
“Before Thanksgiving our staff got a legal opinion from the village attorney and that legal opinion was that certain bids were not compliant, the mayor added. “This is what I have been told.”
Dunlap realizes the roof bid has become a major issue, and that Oak Lawn trustees have glommed on to it making it “political.”
“This thing should have been investigated before they made a vote,” Dunlap said. “I would think [the village board members] would have been smarter than this if it’s political as it is.”
Since losing out on the contract, Dunlap says he has never received so many calls after the fact as he has from Oak Lawn’s village board members.
“I talked to the mayor for an hour-and-a-half,” Dunlap said. “The gist of the conversation was to explain why he voted for it. [The mayor] said there was no collusion and nothing criminal. I find a lot going back on the law and not the ethics of it.”
Oak Lawn trustees will vote whether to rescind their offer to Adler at Tuesday's village board meeting, but Dunlap says his attorney is already involved.
Sweeten
7:10 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Why is the mayor on the phone for an hour with this bidder? How odd.
ME
7:11 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
It doesn't matter if you are the lowest bidder. I would choose by quality of work and then look at bids. Then I would negotiate. Also, it would be nice to give jobs to local Oak Lawn businesses that have been doing roofing in the area for years and have a proven track record of quality. Who got the contract?
anthony
10:42 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
No one has said local 11 once ... I find that so telling its sadly comical... I humbly submit "quality of work" talk should have the union as a standard...
Tom
7:14 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
oh trust me. the board act like they hate each other, but the button line they are reaping millions from oak lawn residents, I know for a fact The mayor mad a few hundred from hi friend the lawyer.
Tom
7:15 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Ooops I meant the trusty
Sweeten
7:27 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
If OL is Cicero, Carol Quinlan is Betty Loren Maltese. Clueless.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-candidate-for-cicero-president-files-lawsuit-alleging-intimidation-harassment-20121210,0,6866728.story
The PWD Man
7:28 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Didn't I already read this story and now I ask, Who Cares? Where does this roofer get off attacking the village? If he didn't comply with the bid then he really wasn't the low bidder. YOu have to actually comply with everything the villages asks for whether it is Oak Lawn, Chicago, Cicero or any town usa. This guy needs to shut up and learn how to turn in all the required documents.
If the attorneys made a mistake then the board will correct it. If not, let the contract stand and get the work done.
AndySandy
7:53 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Again the Patch/Phelan is trying to make something out of nothing. This attempt at reporting local "news" should just be renamed The Phelan and be honest. Oh wait that would be being transparent...and Tommy don't do that.....right Sandy?
andy skoundrianos
11:51 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Whaaah That's all I hear from you Den/Bob Next time don't do illegal stuff,and there won't be a story!! This isn't Cicero no matter if Joseph Moreno was your partner in your aggregation firmuntil he got indicted!! The Mayor didn't know Bob's brother worked for Adler?? Cmon Dave you thought you would sneak the bid through,and you guys got caught!! You have been getting caught in a lot of mistakes lately..
Andy's Buddy
10:14 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Andy should be careful about throwing stones because his lifestyle leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe people should take a look at it and see what's going on. The guy yelling the loudest often has the most to hide
Mmmore Mmmassages
8:39 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
i heard the feds are investigating... Patch, can you confirm this?
Abe Froman
11:00 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The only thing patch can confirm is what Phelan tells them...
andy skoundrianos
10:20 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Boy that didn't take long eh Den/Bob?? Out of executive session already?? My brother isn't a roofer,I'm not buddies with the President of Advocate, I'm not trying to cut my buisiness partner in secret deals with the village. I don't live in a glass house by the way You should know that Den/Bob
Sweeten
8:46 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
What the the new trustee candidates going to do to make things better? Nothing but take orders from Dave.
Rich
9:11 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
It all falls back to the mayor.
Get your house in order !
It's a mess !
Oak Lawn Gal
10:24 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
This does seem to be another issue and article slanted to make the Mayor look bad. The fact is the Village Manager could have alerted the mayor and board that there were problems with the bids before voting. He didn't. Why not? So that Phelan and buddies could use it as a political issue. Except now the village is being tainted. My question is why isn't Patch coming down hard on Deetjen not dong his job? The second thing is we have the low bidders non-compliant. They evidently didn't read the Request for Bids. It doesn't matter how other bids are "normally" done. In business RFPs if a vendor doesn't return a bid compliant with all of the instructions and if the details are incomplete, his bid is tossed. It's simple. I think there should have been a question in the RFP asking if anyone in the company had connections to anyone on Oak Lawn government. Without that I do think it would have been better for Mr Streit to abstain. But this entire "issue" smells like one big political set-up. Finally, there is and should be a difference between editorial reporting and news reporting.
Quiet Neighbor
11:45 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Thank you Oak Lawn Gal for great comments.
I apologize if I've lost track of who is doing what in the Village recently but out of the whole article I have to ask why this happened: "Dunlap did receive a phone call from the village but it was from Trustee Tom Phelan (Dist. 6), explaining that trustees would be voting on the contract to Adler Roofing at the next village board meeting".
It doesn't seem to make logical sense in the whole scheme of things that this particular Trustee or any one of them would be the Village contact to them informing them of the vote. I understand the mayor calling after the fact especially after this became a supposed mess, but the "tip off" phone call was for what reason? The only one I can come up with (based on the article(s)) was to stir up the question of nepotism ignoring the legal position of the Village Attorney. Is is also so hard to believe that the guy who lost the bid would have bad things to say? Oh the horror!
I think that supports your case for a total political frame up OLGal....but only 3 people on the board are allowed to be painted badly here. I appreciate that the quote about Mr. Phelan was included but disappointed that the logical question of WHY he was the caller wasn't asked or explained in the article.
Sweeten
10:44 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
OLG why aren't you blaming the village attorney? Or the mayor since he is an attorney and is very involved? Or are you biased and very supportive of the mayor? Just honest questions for you.
Abe Froman
10:50 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Is this article a Commentary or News or What? Seems like patch is doing more political work for Bury/Phelan...
Oak Lawn Gal
10:52 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Sweeten please read my reply again. I'm asking why the Village Manager didn't pull the contract from the agenda if there were issues. Or better yet alert the mayor to the issues? The Village Manager is in charge of the RFP process and village contracts. The village attorney does is own vetting of the contract. Not sure if he vets the process. He might. But the village manager presented the bid with a recommendation. How is it that he's not held accountable? As far as the mayor goes if we had a decent candidate running against him I would have considered that candidate. But Dr Bury is indebted to Phelan and I don't want to see a Phelan puppet as mayor.
andy skoundrianos
12:00 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
OL Gal The Mayor when things are good for him,runs the village and wants to be a king. When things go bad,Blame Village Manager,Attorney's, Trustees who are not in lock step with him. You can not have it both ways. If this situation with Trustee Streit happened a year ago All of the Dave fan( secret names or otherwise ) Would be calling for Streit to be arrested and flogged in public at Village hall. Now he is best buddies with Dave and You don't blame Bob?? I remember all your posts you do not like Mr. Streit but now Dave tells you to like him. At least I admit I once supported the Mayor and Trustee Streit and no longer do Who is the puppet master now??
Oak Lawn Gal
12:23 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Andy first of all it's the Village Manager's staff who prepares and coordinates RFPs for bids. The village attorney certainly plays a role in contract review and preparation. I'm not sure if he vets the RFP itself. But there's no question that the Village Manager controls the RFP process. So why would we not hold him accountable? Why didn't he raise any of the issues of non-compliance by the vendors or anything else that was a problem before the vote? Simple ~ politics. There are facts in this "incident" and one of the few guys who seems to have clean hands in this particular event is the mayor. Quiet Neighbor also raises an interesting point of why it was Phelan who called Dunklap?
Let's be candid. Phelan hates the mayor and his only option is to get Dr Bury elected. He's writing her literature and will do anything he can to get her elected. Which is why she won't get elected.
As far as who I support at this stage I want a board that will stop bickering and will work together to get things done for the village. At this point it's more who I don't like and Mr Phelan is at the top of the list. If Dr Bury had run as a true independent I would have given her a serious look. I view myself as an independent and vote that way. But it's clear that Phelan is controlling her campaign and if she ever did get elected she would be indebted to him. And we know how political favors are repaid.
The man who knows alot
6:26 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
Phelan!!,
andy skoundrianos
12:53 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
You didn't answer my points, Was bid rigging and getting Bob's buisiness partner involved in the beatty lumber property payment from the Mayor for Bob switching sides and becoming the Mayor's best friend?? Cmon OL Gal lets be candid Those two individuals hate each other I know I was there to see the arguments and fights between Heilmann and Streit both on the campaign trail and at board Meetings.. Now they are the bestest of buddies?? I've made it very clear I don't like the Mayor's policies and I will comment on them.We need new leadership The Mayor has had 8 years.The Mayor cast the deciding vote in this "incident " by the way 4-3 He owns this His vote is on record. He is not clean on anything. I know you are a supporter of him fine I'm not, Don't try to convince anyone your independent You have your favorites just as I do The difference is, I tell everyone who they are..
Oak Lawn Gal
1:19 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Andy I don't see that you ever made that allegation in this thread about Bob and the mayor. But my short answer is no. Why? Because if "bid rigging" had occurred here then both the Village Manager and attorney would have had to be involved. Are you making that accusation? Also the mayor would have had to persuade the 2 or 3 tossed bidders submit incomplete bids. Are you alleging that? Seriously?
It's too bad Dr Bury didn't run as a true independent. But she has no government or governance experience. She can't generate an audience so she resorts to the Phelan tactics of using village mailing lists to reach voters. Oh and shouting out at Board meetings.
Now answer my points. Is the Village Manager and his staff not responsible for for issuing and processing RFPs? Did Deetjen not submit the Adler as the lowest bidder without raising any issues?
andy skoundrianos
2:58 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
OL Gal Where there is smoke with Dave and Bob around there usually is fire. If you don't think there was no quid pro quo going on between Bob and Dave you are delusional. I asked Bob a few months ago why is he working with the Mayor now after all those years of being enemies. His quote " I need to get MY AGENDA Through " The people can make up their own minds on all these recent " shady " events
Oak Lawn Gal
5:00 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Well Andy all that means is you have no hard evidence of any deal specific to the Mayor, Streit and Adler. Furthernore you haven't addressed my points about any bid fixing requiring the collusion of Deetjen (who controls the RFP process) and the village attorney. And of course all of the bidders who failed to meet the requirements of the RFP. What you have done is thrown out an allegation with no proof and it simply paints your candidate, Dr Bury, with the same brush. With your help the mayor should win in a landslide. Good job.
Dist2Curious
2:07 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
And, Andy, to be correct, you should add that it's Deetjen who hangs with wannabe Beatty developer, Tony Ruh, and plays golf with the guy in Florida. So, it looks like ol' Larry is also trying to get some skin in the game. Shades of Deerfield Beach?
andy skoundrianos
5:22 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
OLG I have to call Ripley's You of all People are defending Bob Streit?? Boy you sure have changed your tune. I would vote for any of the above against Dave You sound like Dave himself with blaming attorney's Who has publicly stated( he dislikes ) and a Village manager who he has been trying to get rid of for 4 years!! I'm not surprised you keep saying Dave's talking points, I'll keep stating facts we will see who wins. Remember Bob won't be any help he only won his district by 5 votes against a person your buddy the Mayor recruited to run against Bob?? I remember all you anti-Bob posts don't you maybe you were right after all!!!
andy skoundrianos
2:53 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
If you remember Den/Bob ?? Dave kabashed that idea because he said a 6 story building wouldn't look good in that area of course he then approves of a 9 story monster building for his buddies at Advocate who throw a $300 Dollar a plate dinner in downtown Chicago to name him Man of the Year?? Oh yeah back when the first beatty development was discussed Bob wasn't on Dave's team back then, now Bob is and we have the famous joint venture with Advocate sceret meetings with the Mayor Bob and his buisiness partner Dennis Brennan. Hypocrisy abounds all over these blogs
richard fitswell
3:44 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
If they really wanted to use the low bid they could have made it work. That was never the case, the job was to go to the highest bidder.
Joe W.
4:17 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Bidders were also told verbally by public works staff that a schedule was to be included in the bid, Heilmann said.
Am I the only one who read this? Why would that be verbal and not in writing. And if several of the lowest bids missed this part did it actually get said?
RG
10:48 am on Thursday, December 13, 2012
Good Point Joe W. How could the lawyer recommend a verbal requirement? All requirements have to WRITTEN in the request for bid.
Looks like the Lawyer made a mistake, which is why the Board now has rescinded.
And again the Village Manager should NOT have forwarded the bids to the Board Meeting and THEN state his concerns during the vote.
Streit should have recused himself from voting.
And Phelan should NOT be calling bidders during the bidding process.
bigboyAndy
5:28 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Andy you are a fool. Not an insult, just a fact.
OakLawnGuy
7:51 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
I'm not going to come out pro- or anti- anyone on this article. I have it on good authority that most vendors who haven't done business in the past with the Village, or don't know someone on the Board, hate dealing with Oak Lawn. Warring factions, "my guys" doing bidding and a difficult Village Manager make it so new bidders get frustrated and, after losing, don't bother bidding again. I'll say this, though....at least they bid this job out!
andy skoundrianos
10:13 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
OLG just left the meeting they rescinded these bids and are doing a re-bid Trustee Streit brought the vote up!!! Caught with his hand in the cookie jar I guess..
Andy's Buddy
10:31 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Andy
You make a lot of accusations. None of which you have any evidence of but continue to blabber about. In this story alone, you've posted several times with innuendo and down and dirty phelanesque lies. I count seven posts from you and at least three are libelous. You can't accuse people of "quid pro quo" and "illegal acts". Do you understand or do you need a remedial lesson plan?
andy skoundrianos
11:31 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Just doing what Bob and Dave do at every meeting and Blog Den/Bob
Oak Lawn Gal
12:42 am on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Andy you never addressed my points. How could Dave engage in bid fixing with Streit or anyone else when the Village Manager controls the RFP process and presented Adler as the winning bidder? And remember the various companies who didn't comply with the RFP instructions and got their bids kicked? Did they work this all out in advance for a Dave-Streit quid pro quo? LOL! And I guess you missed the post where I said there should be a question in all RFPs asking if the companies have any connection to people in village government but barring that I thought Streit should have abstained.
andy skoundrianos
11:02 am on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The bottom line is Mr. Streit should have told the board and the residents his brother worked for Adler period.. Sadly no one in Politics does anything for anyone without asking what's in it for me?? Bob switches sides on the board all of a sudden his buisiness partner gets involved with a village project unknown to Trustees Only the Mayor knows?? Roofing bid goes to brother's company?? Trustee Streit, does a 180 and now doesn't support impact fees for Advocate just like the Mayor?? Blame everyone else if you will,think all these moves were coincidence , suspend belief, I go for the common sense argument of " If it walks like a duck......"
Quiet Neighbor
3:35 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Which is it Andy? He should have told them or they already knew? You flipped on that position. Mr. Phelan obviously knew before the vote because he tipped off DCG to get angry and get legally pumped up. So if Mr. Phelan knew and said nothing at the meeting they voted at there is plenty of blame to go around. 3 people voted no but had nothing to say. It is entirely possible Andy that the 4 yeas could care less who does the roof, assume the recommended roofer is vetted, and they know it needs to be fixed. The 3 no's cared more about the who and less about the work needing to be done. Like OLGal stated, there were many people starting with the Manager and lower that could have rectified the situation long before the vote and didn't. Your crew of people who find every way possible to blame and cry for transparency! should be crying out asking why wasn't this all settled by staff long before the board was asked to act. The waste of time could have been eliminated. The angry comments to well-spun articles wouldn't have happened. Why aren't the people who are all for change saying "why did that vote even happen to begin with?". More fun to blame the people they hate is my guess.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. You use that method a lot. Flawed logic is just that, flawed.
Note also that it is possible to make statements and end them in periods instead of question marks. With so many ?? ?? ?? like your old backer QC?? it makes me wonder, like you said if it walks like a duck.....
andy skoundrianos
9:16 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Den/Bob you guys got caught you own it stop blaming everyone else. Any politician knows about conflict of interests should have recused himself right away period end of story. None of this would have happened ,the excuses of Heilmann,Streit et al We are mad and blaming everyone who caught us doing something " shady " how dare the press print stories or people comment on it. Next time cry-babies don't do anything that would cause the press and people to ask questions. You guys have been in politics a long time you should have known better
Blah Blah
9:38 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Andy, get a job.
Blah Blah
9:39 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Lorraine, like the baiting of ray hanania. Cicero. Harharhar.
Tom Palos
10:31 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
I would assume that Bob Streit lost his VIP status at the St Catherines Sports Night (sitting with the Phelan elite!). Or maybe he will have to just pay this year? By the way, what is the story with the parking lot and Phelan?
Brennanisahack
10:53 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Get a life Brennan No jobs or Money for you in Oak Lawn go back to Hinsdale You Hack
SnakeCharmer
10:12 am on Thursday, December 13, 2012
You guys are way too funny, you guys are absolutely ridiculous. Here let me help explain how all you bloggers sound, especially Andy who cant even stay on one side.
"Are you some kind of idiot keeping a Cobra as a pet, don't you know how dangerous it is. Oh no, your the moron, your pet Viper is much more dangerous then my Cobra. Hey, Stupid everyone knows the Viper is the only snake you can trust. Once again your wrong, the Cobra is completely trustworthy." In unison "My snake would never bite ME".
Andy Coughman
12:00 pm on Thursday, December 13, 2012
My faith in Dave is fading. Expect dolts like Andy were part of bob's army of thugs and unemployed, but Dave being drawn in by Bob is dissappointing. Not voting for Sandy. She's biggest sellout out of all of them. Hoping somebody else steps up to run.
andy skoundrianos
12:06 pm on Thursday, December 13, 2012
Den/Bob worried about something?? I would be I hear some people have been trying to reach you!!!
anthony
9:30 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
I never seen a town with so many guys on salary in such a hurry to make trouble for themselves...... OK ITS A BET...
anthony
9:31 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
Hometown also