The Rundown: Oak Lawn Village Board Discusses Taxes, Snow Removal and Brunswick Zone

The Oak Lawn Village Board did everything but vote one of its members off the island during Tuesday’s regular board meeting at Village Hall.

Village board members fought and scrapped through their entire agenda, from old and new business to discussion of petition fraud and the appointment of an Oak Lawn resident to the Planning and Development Commission that was tabled for a second time.

Here are the highlights:

Social Service Corporation

Trustee Bob Streit (3rd District) brought up a special meeting of the Social Service Corporation scheduled for this Thursday. The Social Service Corporation is a quasi-governmental agency with 501(c)4 status that works for the civic betterment and to improve the quality of life for Oak Lawn residents.

The Social Service Corporation operates on an annual budget of $500,000 of public funds. It meets once a year in September and awards grants to such local service organizations as the Oak Lawn Community Partnership, the Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn, and the Public Safety coloring book, not to exceed 90 percent of the interest on the principal.

Board members include the mayor, village manager, chief administrator of Advocate Christ Medical Center, the senior village board trustee and a representative from the village’s six districts.

Streit expressed concern over an agenda item that would change the status of Social Service Corporation from a 501(c)(4) to a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that would allow the group to host fundraisers and receive tax-deductible donations permitted under federal tax guidelines.

Streit asked that Thursday’s meeting be postponed until the village’s legal counsel, Querrey and Harrow, could research whether a change in tax status would be in violation of Social Service Corporation’s bylaws and share that legal review with the village board.

“One of my concerns is that the last time we had a special meeting the Social Service Corporation voted to transfer $116,000 out of the fund in violation of the bylaws,” Streit said. “I believe this a matter that the full board of trustees should be aware of because this essentially is taxpayers’ money.”

Streit accused Mayor Dave Heilmann of securing the vote on the $116,000 expenditure to fund the Children’s Museum before the special meeting took place in August 2009. He also said the mayor violated the bylaws by dipping into the principal.

“The purpose of that was fundraising,” Heilmann told Streit. “But I think all of this is proper discussion for that corporation which is not this village board. I stand by that decision on the Children’s Museum.”

After further “he said-he said” debate, Heilmann agreed to have the change-of-tax-status item removed from the agenda.

“I could care less if the Social Service Corporation changes its status …” Heilmann said.

Brunswick Zone

The Brunswick Zone, at 4700 W. 103rd St., has been operating under a new safety plan mandated by the Oak Lawn Village Board following a gang shooting in the bowling center’s parking lot last summer.

Brunswick has shortened its evening hours, now closing at 10 p.m. instead of midnight, and has instituted a $5 cover charge after 9 p.m. redeemable for bowling and other entertainment.

The bowling center got some of its weekday evening hours back last fall but says it is losing money with the shortened weekend evening hours. Brunswick wants to extend Friday-through-Sunday hours back to a midnight closing.

Trustee Tom Phelan (Dist. 6) said he doesn’t want to see Brunswick go dark, but wants the village to monitor any measures the bowling center takes to ensure the safety of residents, employees and patrons before the board allows Brunswick to extend its weekend hours

Police Chief Bill Villanova said that since the new measures were introduced, as well as heightened police presence in the Brunswick Zone’s parking lot, 911 calls have been reduced significantly.

Brunswick has agreed to a new safety plan, which includes hiring off-duty village cops to provide security. The village board will hold a special meeting before deciding whether to give Brusnwick its extended weekend hours back.

Snow Update

Village Manager Larry Deetjen said the snow removal from last week’s blizzard has cost the village $200,000, including salt, private trucks and overtime for village public works employees.

Oak Lawn, along with every municipality in Cook County, may be eligible for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Deetjen admitted to not understanding some of the federal regulations, which state that the village can be reimbursed for only 48 hours of snow removal assistance.

The village has until Friday to submit its forms to Cook County. Plans are to request funds for the costliest 48-hour stretch associated with the storm between Jan. 31-Feb. 12.

After the forms are submitted to the county, they will go the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, which will decide whether or not to recommend to the governor to request a presidential declaration for federal reimbursement of up to 75 percent of snow removal by President Obama.

Back Taxes for Children’s Museum

The Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn will pay $39,702 in back taxes to the Cook County Tax Assessor’s office, half of which will be funded by the Village of Oak Lawn.

The former owner of the building where the museum and ground-level retail shops are located went into receivership. A new company has since purchased the building at 5100 Museum Drive.

Because the village owns the second floor where the museum is located, the property should have been tax exempt. The village is filing a “certificate of error” with the county for reimbursement of the $39,702 this fall.

Streit asked Deetjen who was responsible for not partitioning that section of the building. Deetjen tried to deflect answering the question, saying that his staff caught it and is rectifying the error.

Some trustees blamed the former village attorneys who should have filed for tax exempt status for the museum at the Cook County Assessor's Office.

Clarification: In the Brunswick recap, a clarification was made to Trustee Tom Phelan’s position on the bowling center regaining its weekend hours as noted in the story. Patch regrets the error.