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Crime
Forest Park Review, August 18, 2021 13 At reelection launch, Kaegi touts equity, transparency
By MICHAEL ROMAIN
Equity Editor
Oak Park resident and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi announced his run for another term on Aug. 11 in Chicago. The Democratic Primary election is on June 28, 2022.
Kaegi formally announced his campaign for reelection during a press conference held at Jeffery Plaza in Chicago’s South Shore community on Aug. 11.
Kaegi, a longtime Oak Park resident, was surrounded by roughly a dozen politicians in support of his reelection bid, including some with west suburban constituencies like Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and First District Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson.
Garcia lauded Kaegi for what he said is the assessor’s office accountability and transparency, issues that Kaegi ran on four years ago when he soundly beat former assessor and local powerbroker Joe Berrios.
“A perfect example of transparency and accountability in Cook County is found in the policy that says anyone who comes to the assessor’s office needs to sign in and explain who they are there to see,” said Garcia.
“I have found that many people who visit the assessor’s office no longer want to visit the office, because they don’t want to sign in and tell who they’re there to visit,” the congressman said.
Kaegi said that, over his first term, his office fought “to bring transparency and equity to a rigged system that put favoritism above fairness. We got right to work fixing the corruption and unfairness of the last administration, implementing strict ethics codes, being transparent about how we are assessing properties — showing our work, and putting our models online.”
Along with technological upgrades in the office, Kaegi also touted a passage of “important legislation like automatic renewal of the senior exemption and the omnibus affordable housing bill. All of this has contributed to eliminating distortions and biases in assessments so that our tax base is becoming more equitable.”
Recently, Kaegi’s office has come under criticism from commercial property owners for carrying out his campaign of redistributing some of the property tax burden from residential to commercial properties.
Writing in Crain’s earlier this month, Jack Lavin, the president and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, called the assessor’s property valuation process “arbitrary.”
But Kaegi’s attempts to reset the county’s property tax system, so that it’s less burdensome for homeowners has been countered by activity at the Cook County Board of Review, the 3-person body that facilitates the process of taxpayers appealing over-valued property assessments.
Last year in Oak Park and River Forest townships, the assessor’s valuations of nonresidential property totaled $81 million, an increase of 33% over the Board of Review’s total of $61 million for 2019. In 2020, the board’s total was $69 million, just a 13% jump.
“The data support the view that Assessor Fritz Kaegi faces powerful real estate tax appeal attorneys and other political forces in his efforts to reform Cook County’s grossly unfair and logic-defying method of calculating property values,” Daily Southtown columnist Ted Slowik wrote earlier this month.
Slowik said the board defended its readjusted total “by saying it conducts detailed examinations of tax appeal requests on an individual basis, whereas the assessor must determine valuations for more than 1.8 million parcels countywide.
During his remarks on Aug. 11, Kaegi said for “too long, our system has undervalued the biggest properties, shifting the burden on homeowners and small businesses, who pick up the tab.”
Kaegi said the undervaluation of commercial properties during Berrios’ tenure “meant that millions of dollars were taken out of ” places like South Shore each year, “when they could be spent right here.
“That extra burden was enough to displace long-term residents from their homes,” Kaegi said. “And inaccurate, regressive assessments of homes also lead even more millions to be taken out of the community that should have stayed here.”
Kaegi said the Berrios administration “rewarded vacancy, by cutting assessments by up to 90% for owners who stated their buildings, keeping them empty while waiting for land values to rise. This heaped extra burden on the hard-working entrepreneurs and local leaders who dedicate themselves to enlivening and sustaining commercial strips like 71st Street.”
Kaegi said starting this year, “all properties on corridors like 71st Street will get credit for the local vacancy rate, while those with extra vacancy will only get temporary and partial relief, in line with market practice.”
CRIME Cops cast doubt on carjacking claim, impound vehicle
Forest Park police impounded a 2021 Kia K5 sedan and have cast suspicion on the story given to them over the phone by someone purporting to be the vehicle’s owner following a high-speed chase involving the vehicle from Forest Park into Berwyn on Aug. 5 at about 11:15 p.m.
An officer on patrol reported seeing the Kia traveling at a high rate of speed southbound on Harlem Avenue at I-290 and gave pursuit. The Kia reportedly entered the right-turn lane at Roosevelt Road and accelerated quickly to get around other vehicles to continue southbound.
A short distance south of Cermak Road, the Kia entered the Cermak Road parking lot and stopped. The officer exited his squad car to approach the vehicle, but the Kia accelerated again eastbound through the parking lot and eluded police.
A short while later, someone claiming to be the owner of the Kia called 911 to report his vehicle had been hijacked just prior to the police pursuit. The person claimed he was carjacked at gunpoint and that his assailant made him stay in the vehicle while the offender “joyrode around.” The police officer involved in the chase reported seeing just one person inside the vehicle when it briefly stopped in the Cermak Plaza parking lot.
After the offender eluded police, the alleged victim said the offender got out of the vehicle in Berwyn and ran away. The alleged victim apparently gave police his name, but otherwise was not very cooperative. Police traced alleged victim to an address in Berwyn not too far from where the chase ended. They located the vehicle there and had it towed pending further investigation.
Car stolen from gas station
A 29-year-old Forest Park man called police on Aug. 8 at about 7:50 p.m. to report that about 10 to 15 minutes earlier someone had stolen his black 2018 Infiniti while it was parked at a gas pump outside 7-Eleven, 7749 Roosevelt Road.
The victim told police he was in possession of the key and was sure the ignition was off, so he was unsure how it could have been stolen. Asked about the delay in calling police, the victim said his cellphone died and so he went home first. Vehicle parts stolen
■ A resident of the 1200 block of Circle Avenue went to police on Aug. 11 to report that during the overnight hours someone had removed the entire rear passenger side window from his 1999 Chrysler Town and Country minivan, which was parked in Municipal Lot 15 at Circle and Roosevelt.
The victim told police he did not believe the window had been broken out because there was no shattered glass near or in the vehicle. ■ A resident of the 300 block of Circle Avenue contacted police on the morning of Aug. 12 to report that sometime after 1:30 p.m. the previous day someone sawed off the catalytic converter from his 2006 Honda CR-V, which was parked in an assigned spot overnight.
DUI crash
Forest Park police charged a 25-year-old Bellwood woman with drunken driving after she allegedly crashed his 2019 Ford sedan into a 2010 Ford F-150 pickup truck parked in the 400 block of Circle Avenue on Aug. 8 at about 11:35 p.m.
The owner of the pickup truck, who heard the crash, called police after hearing the driver of the sedan’s engine revving, as if trying to drive away. The alleged offender reportedly failed field sobriety tests and police reported finding a broken beer bottle in the center console of the sedan.
A breath test reportedly revealed the woman’s blood-alcohol content to be .247, which is more than three times the legal limit of .08. In addition to driving under influence, the woman was cited for illegally transporting open alcohol. Vehicle break-ins
Forest Park residents reported a spate of vehicle break-ins between Aug. 5 and Aug. 12, all but one of them involving unlocked vehicles.
On Aug. 5, three overnight burglaries to vehicles occurred, one each in the 800 block of Dunlop, 800 block of Lathrop and the 1000 block of Thomas.
On the night of Aug. 6 someone living in the 7200 block of Harvard Street reported that someone entered his unlocked vehicle and removed a Movado watch worth $3,800 , credit cards and an envelope containing $1,100 in cash.
Other overnight car burglaries were reported Aug. 9 in the 1100 block of Hannah; on Aug. 10 in the 1000 block of Marengo and 200 block of Circle; on Aug. 11 in the 7700 block of Dixon and the 1100 block of Lathrop; and on Aug. 12 in the 7500 block of Roosevelt.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Aug. 5-12, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.
