‘This is all about money’
I am writing as a resident of Oak Lawn that has lived in this community for over 50 years and has lived in or purchased six different homes located throughout the village. I am also the village’s current finance director serving residents for the past decade after spending most of my career as the CFO and treasurer at Fruit of the Loom, a Fortune 500 Company.
As one of the largest property taxpayers in Oak Lawn for the last 10 years, I am extremely disappointed by Fire Union Local 3405 President Vince Griffin’s hypocritical characterization of “safety concerns” with respect to the village’s proposed revisions to the current firefighter staffing levels. Griffin lives in Glen Ellyn, which has a volunteer fire department and certainly does not have the expensive staffing levels that is required by the Village of Oak Lawn’s antiquated 2007 carryover collective bargaining agreement that was signed in December 2008 and which has had to go to interest arbitration since that time. In fact, 55 of Oak Lawn’s firefighters live outside of Oak Lawn in locales with volunteer departments, paid-on-call or “three-on-an-engine staffing.”
Does Griffin really believe that Oak Lawn taxpayers are that naive to believe that he would put the safety of Oak Lawn residents above the safety of his own family? There is no question that this is all about money, money to be used for things like Griffin’s underfunded pension, village debt service and street and alley infrastructure — all the things that need to be addressed so that individuals like Griffin and fellow firefighters do not move out of Oak Lawn and choose to raise their families in places like Aurora, Beecher, Bourbonnais, Frankfort, Glen Ellyn, Joliet, Lemont, Morris, River Forest and Tinley Park.
Brian Hanigan is director of finance and administrative services for the Village of Oak Lawn.
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