Oak Lawn mayor, village manager at odds over meetings, development

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Updated: March 17, 2012 10:27AM

Oak Lawn Mayor Dave Heilmann said village manager Larry Deetjen recently held a secret meeting with developers about their plans to build a nine-story office building on blighted property near the center of the village and suggested Deetjen must have something to hide.

Deetjen denied the accusation but said such meetings routinely take place with various village officials.

Heilmann said Deetjen met in November with developers Tony Ruh and Karl Shea, just hours before the developers met with Heilmann to discuss the development plans.

Heilmann said he became aware of the meeting after seeing records of email exchanges between Deetjen and the developers.

“They deliberately set up a meeting to discuss their meeting with me,” Heilmann said. “You don’t meet out of village hall unless you have something to hide. It’s horrific that someone would do this.”

The email indicates Ruh requested the meeting with Deetjen before the Heilmann meeting took place to “advise or discuss.” The developers did not mention their meeting with Deetjen while they were meeting with Heilmann, Heilmann said.

Ruh and Shea are proposing to redevelop the abandoned Beatty Lumber property, 9537 S. 52nd Ave., which they bought in October. Preliminary plans call for a nine-story office tower, which Heilmann said would be inappropriate adjacent to a residential neighborhood.

Heilmann said he met with the developers to voice his opposition to an office complex and to express the importance of keeping the village involved as the plans move forward.

“I would like to see that entire office concept scraped,” Heilmann said, adding a new site for the village’s senior center would be among several appropriate uses of the land.

Deetjen denies that any secret meeting took place. He said the proposed development was discussed at a recent finance committee meeting and that he, Heilmann and village trustees routinely have independent meetings with developers.

“There were no secret meetings,” he said. “The administration constantly has meetings with developers and institutions seeking to invest in our fair village.

“I also have meetings with individual trustees and businesses that are in their districts. My job is to guide, answer questions and lead business seamlessly through the permitting and local regulatory process,” he said.

Deetjen said the developers understand “the village’s vision for green space and linear park/walkway integration with commercial development and neighborhood compatibility.” He said no decisions have been made on the development in terms of “mix, density and scale.”

But Heilmann said the meeting in November was Deetjen’s attempt to control the project.

“He was forging ahead with what he wants,” Heilmann said. “There is a massive disconnect. He wasn’t elected by anyone in the village of Oak Lawn.”