OFFICIAL TRIED TO ‘KILL’ APARTMENTS: REPORT
Vandenberg will not comment on investigation into controversial affordable housing development at time when he was a village trustee
Initially an advocate of a controversial low- income apartment project that embroiled Tinley Park in a federal discrimination lawsuit, Mayor Jacob Vandenberg, a village trustee at the time, tried to “kill” the development and made a village employee a scapegoat, according to a report by the Cook County sheriff’s Inspector General obtained by the Daily Southtown.
Vandenberg told the village’s planning director at the time, Amy Connolly, to advise the village’s Plan Commission and other village trustees to quash the affordable housing project, called The Reserve, after residents protested, according to the report obtained through a public records request. The report indicates that Connolly, who was later fired, did not go along with the request.
The report said the thentrustee campaigned against the project following aDaily Southtown article that indicated rents in the 47-unit building would range from$400 to $1,500.
Vandenberg, elected trustee four years ago then mayor in 2017, said Thursday he has not seen the document and declined comment.
“As of this moment the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has neither sent to me or to the Village of Tinley Park any report regarding the Buck eye Community Hope Development ,” he said via textmessagein response toa request for comment. “I was never interviewed by any representative of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office nor have I ever read any portion of any draft or incomplete report.”
“I understand my political opponents may have a draft of the incomplete report which they are using portions of to further their political agenda. I cannot and will not comment any further on the report that even Sheriff Tom Dart has not put his signature on,” Vandenberg added.
The village asked the inspector general in March 2016 to review its handling of The Reserve after the Plan Commission tabled a vote that could have given a green light to the project. The development was never reconsidered, and Tinley Parkwas sued by The Reserve’s developer and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging the village was in violation of the federal FairHousingAct.
Both lawsuits have since been settled, along with a complaint Connolly brought against the village after shewas fired.
Sheriff’s investigators reviewed documents, inspected village computers, and interviewed several village employees and Plan Commission members.
The investigation was suspended once the Justice Department began its own probe in early summer 2016. The Justice Department filed its Fair Housing lawsuit a few months later, in November 2016. A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department said the office is “evaluating possible next steps” as to whether it will resume its investigation.
At the time the inspector general was asked to launch its probe, there were allegations that village development codes and guidelines were circumvented to favor the developer of The Reserve. Those interviewed for the report said they saw no evidence of improprieties in the review process for the project.
At the Plan Commission meeting in February 2016, shortly after the Daily Southtown article was published, Vandenberg said key information about the project was kept from trustees and alleged “back-door maneuvering” to push through the project, according to a Southtown article. Under development guidelines in place at the time, The Reservewould not have needed to go to the Village Board for approval if the Plan Commission deemed the project in compliance, according to articles published at the time.
Vandenberg at the time said he was reviewing more than 2,500 emails related to The Reserve and said some of the correspondence was “improper.” He called for an independent investigation for a review of the interaction between village staff and the developer.
As part of its investigation, the inspector general report said a laptop computer used by the village’s planning department was turned over to a lab for analysis, and that therewere
“numerous emails” involving The Reserve that were reviewed and “found to be consistent with documents submitted by the developer in pursuit of obtaining village approval” for the 47unit apartment building, according to the report.
The report notes that initial discussions between the developer and village staff regarding the project began in earlyMarch 2015.
Virtually all those interviewedduring the investigation said the development was receiving generally supportive and favorable reviews by staff and village planners until a Daily Southtown article in late January 2016.
The article noted that the development, proposed for the northeast corner of Oak Park Avenue and 183rd Street, would offer apartments with estimated monthly rents of between $400 and $1,500, and most would be for low- and moderate-income renters.
What followedwas a firestorm of protest from residents, who packed a Village Board meeting two days before the Plan Commission’s scheduled vote saying the village didn’t need an affordable housing development. At that meeting, Vandenberg said he would seek to have the Plan Commission postpone a vote on The Reserve and that he didn’t “believe there is a need for a large influx of affordable housing in our community.”
Vitriolic and racially tinged remarkswere posted on social media. The Justice Department, in its lawsuit, accused village officials of bowing to public pressure and racist comments in not approving the project.
Connolly was placed on administrative leave in February 2016 and fired inMay of that year. She filed a complaint in January 2017 with theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development alleging retaliation on the part of village officials. The village sued her in May 2017.
Tinley Park last summer approveda settlement of the Justice Department lawsuit andlitigationwithConnolly, with the village contributing $85,000 toward a total payout of $360,000, but not admitting any liability or wrongdoing.
A separate April 2017 settlement of a lawsuit filed against the village by Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, which proposed building The Reserve and sued the village in federal court in April 2016, totaled $2.45 million. The terms called for Tinley Park paying Buckeye $75,392 from the village’s general fund, with another $684,608 coming from a legal settlement fund held on the village’s behalf by its insurer at the time, the Intergovernmental Risk Management Association. IRMA also paid another $1.69 million out of its own fund toward the settlement.
In an April 2016 interview, Connolly said that prior to the Daily Southtown article Vandenberg had been supportive of the project, according to the report.
After the article appeared, however, Vandenberg “told her to kill The Reserve Project and to advise the Planning Commissioners and trustees to do the same,” according to the report.
At the time the project was being considered, Vandenberg chaired the Village Board’s planning and zoning committee.
Rita Walker, who was chairman of the village’s Plan Commission at the time told an investigator that she had talked with Connollywhorelayedtoher that Vandenberg instructed Connolly to contact Plan Commission members and have them either reject the project or not vote on it.
Walker said it was commonpractice for her tomeet with Connolly before a Plan Commission meeting, and that she saw Vandenberg in Connolly’s office a few days before the project vote was tabled, according to the report. Walker said that Connolly said she wouldn’t do what the trustee had asked of her, according toWalker’s interview documented in the report.
In her interview, Walker told an investigator that Vandenbergandother trustees knew The Reserve was going to be an affordable housing development. Walker said “Vandenberg changed his position and threw Ms. Connolly under the bus blaming her for some type of deceit,” according to the report.
Walker wasn’t able to attend the Feb. 4 meeting, and she and six other Plan Commission members resigned shortly afterward. In her interview, Walker said commissioners quit “because they did not want to be involved in the political backlash.”
Then-village attorney ThomasMelody advised village officials, Plan Commission members and the Village Board that, if The Reserve was in compliance with development codes, “it cannot be turned down because it is low-income housing,” according to the report.
Connolly “was made a scapegoat in this matter along with himself andwere treated unfairly by public opinion and a lack of support fromthe village,” Melody told investigators, according to the report.