Page 21 - June2020 FOP Magazine

Making sure our deal is upheld
The Illinois legislature met in Springfield after working from home for several months. They narrowed their focus and met for only five days in an abbreviated and odd session.
There was basically no face-to-face access to legislators — they wanted to limit their interaction with people to reduce their risk of catching the coronavirus. While their agenda was limited, they did accomplish a few
important items impacting the Chicago police.
The biggest item that the Illinois legislature passed
that will benefit police is the Chicago casino. We have worked on this issue through what is now the third Lodge 7 administration. When Dean Angelo was president, we were able to get SB 777 passed, requiring all of the city revenue from a future casino in Chicago to go to Chicago police and fire pensions. Many wondered why we did it. Now we see the benefit of that early move. Can you imagine if we had tried to corral all of that revenue to just police and fire pen- sions in this time of economic uncertainty? It would have been a failed attempt. But we got that important bill passed
before others were focused on the issue.
While Kevin Graham was president, he would ask me to make sure that the agreement Dean fought for was up-
held. It was. And now that John Catanzara is the pres- ident, he has strongly encouraged me to make sure the deal held as the prospects of a Chicago casi- no grew stronger. This was a major victory for the Chicago FOP and could not have been achieved without the foresight of getting that early commit- ment in law and the strength to make sure the deal we struck years ago would be maintained. The bill that
passed was SB 516.
In addition, as part of the COVID response, the legislature
passed HB 2455, which among other items, enables Chica- go police officers and firefighters who contract COVID-19 on the job and die to access death benefits. The legislature passed a state budget that relies on billions of dollars in fed- eral money as a result of the COVID crisis. They also passed legislation expanding vote by mail for the fall election.
I continue to hear praise from legislators for the dedica- tion of the police, especially in these difficult times.
DAVE SULLIVAN
Knapp Medical Center
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21 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2020