South Cook News

On her monthly bill at the private Crystal Tree Country Club in Orland Park, former Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth Gorman is $873.48 past due.

That's according to a "listing of delinquent members" posted on the club's wall as of Mar. 21, a photo of which was shared this week with South Cook News.

Gorman's country club bill delinquency, otherwise hardly newsworthy, became so this week after, in "robo-calls" to village residents, she attacked Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau for accepting an honorary Crystal Tree membership.

Liz Gorman (left) and Keith Pekau (right)

That's the same honorary membership Crystal Tree gave granted Gorman herself for 13 years (2002-15), as the commissioner representing Orland Park on the Cook County Board.

“Can you say hypocrite?” Pekau wrote in a email newsletter he sent to supporters this week, obtained by South Cook News.

Unlike Gorman, Pekau, a management consultant, had already been an "equity member" at Crystal Tree for a decade when he was elected mayor in 2017. "Honorary members" don't have to pay dues, which currently run $675 per month for regular members. 

"To be clear I am billed for everything I do at Crystal Tree and unlike.. Liz Gorman, I have never been sent to collections for not paying my Crystal Tree bill," he wrote.

Under a tradition that dates back decades, Orland Park's mayor, chief of police and county commissioner are given honorary memberships to the club. This means they pay no initiation fee to join the club, or monthly dues. But they do pay the cart fees for a round of golf, and other fees that members are required to pay

According to sources, Gorman and her husband, Gerald, joined the club on their own as "social" non-golf members after she left office in July 2015 and was no longer eligible for complimentary dues. 

But that's after they lobbied club leaders to keep their benefit on account of the fact that Elizabeth was still "influential." 

The club didn’t budge.

“The honorary membership follows the office not the person,” Pekau told South Cook News.

Elizabeth Gorman was named director of the Illinois Tollway by Gov. Bruce Rauner last Feb, earning $215,000 per year. But new Gov. J.B. Pritzker fired her earlier this month.

"A pack of weasels"

Pekau is backing a slate of candidates for Orland Park village trustee in the April 2 election, running under the "People Over Politics" banner. 

Gorman and Democrat Orland Park Township Supervisor Paul O'Grady are backing a slate of anti-Pekau candidates, dubbing their alliance the "Orland Integrity Party."

If they say so.

Gorman's "political mentor" and business partner, former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak, pled guilty earlier this month to federal tax evasion and now faces two and a half years in prison. The charges were related to his role in siphoning off "millions of dollars" from a state of Illinois' settlement with tobacco companies. 

“The guilty plea marked the second time in a little over a decade that the onetime political powerhouse has been convicted of a federal felony,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

Vrdolyak and the Gormans, partners in a series of south side auto dealers, Marquette Chrysler-Jeep in Chicago's Marquette Park neighborhood and Dodge of Midlothian, were embroiled in a court battle themselves with automaker Chrysler.

After Chrysler demanded upfront payment for cars, the Gormans sued the company alleging racial discrimination. Many of its customers, it argued, were black.

A federal judge ordered Chrysler to deliver the cars if the Gormans could obtain $1 million in financing. They told the court they had it-- but actually only had secured a $750,000 loan from Vrdolyak, a personal injury lawyer.

After uncovering that "Gorman had lied," U.S. Appeals Court Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook chastised the Gormans, writing they were "like a pack of weasels" and adding that he "can't expect any part of their tale to be believed."

According to a Daily Herald report, "Easterbrook noted that Gerald Gorman had claimed to have proof of those allegation in copious notes but couldn't produce those records when the time came."

"Plaintiffs insist that the claims of racial discrimination are legitimate, but that is dubious," the court ruled, dismissing them.

The Gormans filed for bankruptcy in 2010, owing more than $13 million.