Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau won reelection Tuesday in a close race with just 512 votes separating him from former Mayor Dan McLaughlin, according to unofficial results.

Pekau said Wednesday he believes he and his team “ran a very good campaign, an honest campaign.”

He said he knocked on about 2,600 doors during the campaign and that “we heard overwhelming support” for how the village is being run.

McLaughlin called Pekau Wednesday to concede.

“While these were certainly not the results we wanted, we built something powerful here in Orland Park, and I’m so proud of the work this team did,” McLaughlin said.

Heading the People Over Politics ticket, Pekau had 52% of the more than 13,000 votes, compared with 48% for McLaughlin.

McLaughlin, who headed the One Orland slate, lost to Pekau, a first-time candidate, in the 2017 election.

Already holding a majority vote on the Village Board, Pekau may have added trustees on his side, preliminary totals showed.

Running on the Pekau-backed People Over Politics ticket, trustee candidates Sean Kampas, Joni Radaszewski and Brian Riordan each had about 17% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

They were running slightly ahead of the three trustee candidates on the One Orland Party ticket, with Amy Burrell, Chris Kasmer and Derek Rinaldi, each garnering roughly 16% of the vote, according to preliminary results.

The People Over Politics candidate for village clerk, Constantine “Gus” Lekas, had 49% of the vote compared with 51% for Patrick O’Sullivan, the One Orland’s candidate for clerk, according to unofficial results.

The mayor’s job now pays $150,000 a year and the mayor also receives $3,000 as liquor commissioner. For whoever is elected, the

salary will drop to $40,000 with the pay for liquor commissioner remaining at $3,000.

The mayor’s pay and corresponding boost in pension had been a significant issue in the 2017 contest, and during this year’s campaign McLaughlin acknowledged it had significantly impacted his reelection to a seventh term.

In March 2019, before Pekau gained a majority of votes on the Village Board, trustees changed the position to part time with a corresponding cut in pay, taking effect with the this election.

Pay for the village clerk and trustees will also be reduced.

After they are sworn in, village trustees who now receive $13,629 annually will see that cut to $10,350. That new salary would also apply to the clerk, a position that now pays $27,257.

This past November, Orland Park voters overwhelmingly approved term limits for the mayor, clerk and trustees, with municipal officers constrained to three four-year terms starting with those elected in April.

Three incumbent trustees — Dan Calandriello, James Dodge and Kathy Fenton — did not seek reelection.

The new board members will be sworn in at a meeting early next month, Pekau said.

With a Village Board that could be fully aligned with his thinking and way of doing business, Pekau said it presents a challenge.

“You can’t get complacent,” he said. “You don’t want to fall into group think. You want them to provide input.”

Kampas, 45, has been an technology consultant for more than 20 years and chairs the village’s technology commission while Radaszewski, 48, is a marketing and business development manager at Chicago law firm Novack and Macey LLP. Riordan, 49, is a shareholder at law firm Clausen Miller and has been with the firm since 1996.

O’Sullivan, 50, is president of PRO Insurance Services and is on the High School District 230 Board.

mnolan@tribpub.com