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Information about The Reserve
Citizens Outraged over Lack of Govt. Transparency
The article below is what surprised us all... This article was the FIRST time most community residents heard of "The Reserve." The "announcement" was somewhat atypical of Tinley Park, as the Village has a history of discussing new developments in advance. Just see our "stop property development" page for details on other Village developments.
Article Link: Affordable housing complex planned for Tinley Park, January 22, 2016
More articles that came out soonafter:
Who is Buckeye Community Hope Foundation?
Buckeye Community Hope Foundation website
Buckeye Community Hope Foundation unrated on the BBB
Buckeye's Report, that includes the following Contractors:
1) Gleason Architects, P.C.
2) Tower Contracting, LLC. (previously Castle Contruction)
4) OAS, LLC - O'Higgins and Arnold Sustainability
More coming soon...
Buckeye Community Hope Foundation unrated on the BBB
Buckeye's Report, that includes the following Contractors:
1) Gleason Architects, P.C.
2) Tower Contracting, LLC. (previously Castle Contruction)
- Construction union locals concerned about cafeteria remodeling contractor
- Attorney General Madigan: Castle Construction, owner indicted for concealing minority-owned business fraud
- Madigan: Castle Construction owner pleads guilty to fraud
- Contractor Robert Blum slapped with tax fraud charges
- On Chicago's debarred list (page 9)
4) OAS, LLC - O'Higgins and Arnold Sustainability
More coming soon...
Buckeye v. Village of Tinley Park
Village and Developer Group Resignations
Here is a current list of people who have resigned or left their position since news broke of the The Reserve project and hard questions were asked by residents...
Tinley Park:
Buckeye Community Hope Foundation:
Now, there is no indication stating exactly why every person listed here has resigned or left their position. It may be a coincidence, it may be due to wrongdoing, it may be due to any number of reasons. It is rare in Tinley Park to see long-time Village employees and commissioners resign abruply and within months of eachother. It's just not the typical Tinley way... so that does make us a little suspicous.
Tinley Park:
- 7 of 9 Plan Commissioners: Commission Chairwoman Rita Walker, along with Commissioners Jeff Ficaro, Tom Mahoney, Robert McClellan, Gina Miller, Arthur Pierce and William Reidy.
- Assistant Village Manager, Mike Mertens
- Trustee, Bernie Brady
- Planning Director, Amy Connolly
- Economic Development Director, Ivan Baker
Buckeye Community Hope Foundation:
- Vice President of Business Development for Buckeye's housing division, David Petroni
Now, there is no indication stating exactly why every person listed here has resigned or left their position. It may be a coincidence, it may be due to wrongdoing, it may be due to any number of reasons. It is rare in Tinley Park to see long-time Village employees and commissioners resign abruply and within months of eachother. It's just not the typical Tinley way... so that does make us a little suspicous.
Department of Justice v. Village of Tinley Park
- As one Tinley probe starts, another is put on hold
- Feds probe Tinley's handling of apartment project
- PDF: DOJ announces investigation into handling of Tinley Park apartment project
- Justice Department files discrimination lawsuit against Tinley Park
- Feds hit Tinley Park with housing discrimination suit
"The lawsuit cites social media posts in support of its argument."
As community residents, we find it preposterous for a Federal agency to cite SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS and accuse an entire community of discrimination based on random Facebook posts. It's discriminatory for the Justice Department to label and entire Village of residents as discriminant on this basis alone! Furthermore, if social media posts are cited by the plaintiffs, then we hope the Village requests the private emails and social media posts made by Justice Department employees. This is an asinine lawsuit that makes a mockery of the Justice Department.
The truth is, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation's "The Reserve" development was NEVER in precise compliance with the LEGACY CODE which our Village has in place for the "main street" section of our town. A commercial parcel of land, at a commercial intersection, should clearly have commercial real estate on it. Buckeye wants to build a multi-unit residential property on this commercial land, and not have to comply with CODE for commercial space.
Concerns about the Department of Justice...
"The Government Accountability Institute conducted an in-depth examination of the nature of settlement agreements between U.S. financial institutions and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and designated nonprofits, and the destination of much of the settlement money. The DOJ has instituted a reiterative process that provided significant funding for nonprofit “community organizers” through a pattern of extortive lawsuits. The threat of a federal lawsuit, protracted litigation, negative public relations and, in some cases, criminal prosecution, has prodded private businesses – primarily financial institutions – to surrender millions of dollars to these organizations at the DOJ’s direction – often at the expense of those supposedly aggrieved by the banks’ actions. The DOJ has curated an opaque system wherein appointed attorneys can legally extract money from the private sector and redistribute the funds to third-party organizations outside of the appropriations process - an unprecedented and extraordinary disregard for Congressional authority." You can read the entire report HERE. It's a very interesting read.
Here are more articles:
Here are more articles:
Local Journalist Opinions
Our Opinion of the Journalist
After reading an opinion piece about our Village online and then see it published to the front page of the Daily Southtown (an opinion piece that didn't address or research fact-based valid concerns of residents), TP residents were justifiably outraged. So... a new opinion piece has been written that includes comments made by some of the outraged residents. It's a plus for Ted Slowik to at least have published some very valid citizen concerns this time, but a minus for not researching how valid many citizen statements were, and another minus to not have included FACTS proving the initial front page opinion piece FALSE. The "experts" cited are, at a minimum, biased... in addition, no FACTS were cited. We provided facts for Mr. Slowik and he forgot to include those in his article. Apparently, opinions (especially a journalist's published opinions) don't have to be based on facts.
Hard-hitting journalists could publish some damning evidence found by TP residents that could help change the systemic problems in government, change the way tax dollars are spent on projects like "The Reserve", change the way section 8 housing operates - where it will not inflate rent prices for other community residents, not overcompensate section 8 recipients (which would allow housing opportunities for more people in need), not overcrowd developments by building on small parcel lots, not build section 8 properties at more than triple the cost of private developments, not build developments in locations where traffic is a concern or on commercial lots, and not lower property values of existing residents. Instead, this journalist found it easier to tell a community to just let the government have its way, because "it will save taxpayer money"? Does the writer believe the system is skewed against us? Then why not fight for us Mr. Slowik and local Journalists?
We're overburdened taxpayers paying 2-3 times the annual property taxes the journalist and his article "experts" pay. Our tax rates have doubled in a matter of years. Our schools are in debt, and many of them are not well rated. Our local government has, many times, been VERY wasteful with our hard-earned tax dollars. Many Village and Buckeye developer employees have resigned since “The Reserve” story broke in early 2016. Tinley Park is a diverse community of hardworking citizens that pay a lot in taxes but receive very little for it. Our home values are important to us, we've sacrificed and invested years of hard work to have a home here, current renters can't afford higher rents, many of our schools are at capacity. Yet, nobody is speaking for us, not our politicians and not the media.
We're not against those needing affordable housing, in fact, Tinley Park has more than neighboring communities [Tinley Park: 43, Orland Park: 14, Oak Forest: 9, Homewood: 15, Flossmoor:1, Matteson: 33, Oak Lawn: 15]. However, we are against the notion that the needs of some citizens have the right to impede on the needs of existing residents and homeowners. Residents here rely on their home values, their home equity - they rely on what they've invested in, sacrificed for and built here. These citizens are just as worthy as citizens in need. There's nothing racist about it. Every citizen in this diverse community knows it.
When did citizens who work hard to afford to live here, sometimes working 2-3 jobs to live here and keep up with rapidly increasing taxes... when did these citizens become less valuable than those who make less income? The taxpayers built this community. There would be nothing here without them.
Taxpayers deserve respect; without them, the government would not exist, and neither would government handouts.
Hard-hitting journalists could publish some damning evidence found by TP residents that could help change the systemic problems in government, change the way tax dollars are spent on projects like "The Reserve", change the way section 8 housing operates - where it will not inflate rent prices for other community residents, not overcompensate section 8 recipients (which would allow housing opportunities for more people in need), not overcrowd developments by building on small parcel lots, not build section 8 properties at more than triple the cost of private developments, not build developments in locations where traffic is a concern or on commercial lots, and not lower property values of existing residents. Instead, this journalist found it easier to tell a community to just let the government have its way, because "it will save taxpayer money"? Does the writer believe the system is skewed against us? Then why not fight for us Mr. Slowik and local Journalists?
We're overburdened taxpayers paying 2-3 times the annual property taxes the journalist and his article "experts" pay. Our tax rates have doubled in a matter of years. Our schools are in debt, and many of them are not well rated. Our local government has, many times, been VERY wasteful with our hard-earned tax dollars. Many Village and Buckeye developer employees have resigned since “The Reserve” story broke in early 2016. Tinley Park is a diverse community of hardworking citizens that pay a lot in taxes but receive very little for it. Our home values are important to us, we've sacrificed and invested years of hard work to have a home here, current renters can't afford higher rents, many of our schools are at capacity. Yet, nobody is speaking for us, not our politicians and not the media.
We're not against those needing affordable housing, in fact, Tinley Park has more than neighboring communities [Tinley Park: 43, Orland Park: 14, Oak Forest: 9, Homewood: 15, Flossmoor:1, Matteson: 33, Oak Lawn: 15]. However, we are against the notion that the needs of some citizens have the right to impede on the needs of existing residents and homeowners. Residents here rely on their home values, their home equity - they rely on what they've invested in, sacrificed for and built here. These citizens are just as worthy as citizens in need. There's nothing racist about it. Every citizen in this diverse community knows it.
When did citizens who work hard to afford to live here, sometimes working 2-3 jobs to live here and keep up with rapidly increasing taxes... when did these citizens become less valuable than those who make less income? The taxpayers built this community. There would be nothing here without them.
Taxpayers deserve respect; without them, the government would not exist, and neither would government handouts.
Citizen Research
More details coming soon...
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The Reserve
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Legislators
Govt. Transparency
How did we get here?
How can we fix this?
Imagine If
Who we are
TIP LINE
Taxpayer Greivances
Collaborate
Open Forum
Sources
Downloads
FAQ's