Will County Gazette

Keith Pekau, the former Mayor of Orland Park, has claimed that current Mayor Jim Dodge sent him a cease-and-desist letter due to his "sharing the truth" about alleged patronage hires and misuse of taxpayer dollars by the new mayoral administration.

"Jim Dodge and his goons just sent me a cease-and-desist letter," said Pekau, Former Mayor of Orland Park, Illinois, according to Facebook. "Why? Because I shared the truth—and they're afraid of what you'll find out. I won't be silenced. I won't be intimidated. I'll keep exposing what they're hiding. Read the latest edition of Straight Down the Fairway to see what they're so desperate to shut down."

In his newsletter, "Straight Down the Fairway," Pekau responded to the cease-and-desist letter he received from the Village Board. He alleges that this action is an attempt to suppress transparency. The letter, issued following a board vote led by Mayor Dodge, accuses Pekau of disclosing confidential village information in previous newsletters. According to Pekau, the issue at hand is not legal risk but political fallout. "Not because it’s untrue. Not because it’s stolen. But because it’s inconvenient—for them," he said. He described the letter as "nothing more than a political weapon dressed in legalese."

Pekau's post on Facebook | facebook.com/KeithPekau4Mayor

Pekau further accused Dodge and his allies of targeting him through what he terms "lawfare"—the use of legal tactics for political purposes. In his newsletter titled "Straight Down the Fairway – Volume 10: They Want to Silence the Truth," he connected current legal pressures to a broader campaign of harassment, referencing past criminal complaints, investigations, and politically motivated lawsuits. "Dodge has been using lawfare to target me for eight years," Pekau said. He urged residents to question what might be concealed from them and encouraged public records requests to uncover alleged misconduct. "They don’t want you informed. They want you silent," he added.

According to the Regional News, on July 21, the Orland Park Village Board voted 5-1 to approve a cease-and-desist notice against Pekau, although officials declined to publicly disclose their reasons. The board authorized the village attorney to pursue "all remedies available under law" if Pekau does not comply; however, Village Manager George Koczwara cited legal constraints in refusing further comment. Pekau declared: "I will neither be silent or intimidated. I won’t cease and I won’t desist because I’m not doing anything wrong." He added that he would only comply when they stop lying and start being responsible.

In a Facebook post dated July 20th, Pekau criticized Orland Park's current leadership for abandoning a five-year capital plan that he claims was developed after reducing waste and lowering village debt from $110 million to $93 million. He accused Mayor Dodge and the board of replacing that plan with $1.5 million in patronage hires, salary increases, and new contracts while signaling future tax hikes and debt accumulation. "He’s reviving the same Chicago-style machine politics we rejected 8 years ago," Pekau asserted, urging vigilance among residents.

Keith Pekau is noted as a combat veteran and former U.S. Air Force F‑15E Weapons System Officer who pursued an MBA from Duke University before building a career as an entrepreneur prior to entering politics as Mayor of Orland Park.