Page 5 - FOP Magazine March 2019

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
KEVIN GRAHAM
President
PATRICK J. MURRAY
First Vice President
Martin Preib
Second Vice President
Jay R. Ryan
Third Vice President
Greg Bella
Recording Secretary
Michael P. Garza
Financial Secretary
John Capparelli
Treasurer
Dean C. Angelo, Sr.
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
William Burns James Jakstavich Michael Mette
Trustees
Harold Brown Andrew Cantore Mark Donahue William Dougherty Pat Duckhorn Sergio Escobedo Fernando Flores Joseph Gentile Danny Gorman Ken Hauser Rick King Frank Quinn Carlos Salazar Ron Shogren Mark Tamlo Daniel Trevino Michael Underwood
Field Representatives
Robert Bartlett Rich Aguilar
City offers some contract
proposals, and we respond
We have finally exchanged proposals with the City for a new contract. How- ever, in its zeal to pacify everyone who hates the police, the City has made some of the most outrageous proposals I have ever seen in any collective bargaining agreement.
For example, the City proposes:
• Having as many interrogators from the Civilian Office of Police Account- ability (COPA) in the room as it wants when questioning a police officer.
• The right to reopen a case for any reason at any time in an attempt to pur-
sue discipline against a police officer without justification for the renewed scrutiny. • That a police officer NOT talk about an investigation (that he or she is a part of) to anyone in the Department, even if the officer is being set up or lied to. This is noth-
ing more than limiting an officer’s constitutional right of free speech.
We are fighting the proposal that would allow the City to reopen an investigation at any time. But our negotiating team was presented with 10 pages of this kind of crap. Some members may become disheartened and angry about the negotiations dragging on, but
we have no intention of agreeing to such ludicrous proposals as these.
And while the City presented these ridiculous proposals, we presented fair and realistic
ones, such as:
• Significantly increasing wages each year of the contract.
• Especially increasing pay for CIT officers, school officers and other specialized
units.
• Demanding that every officer who wears a body camera have rights that go along
with the wearing of that camera. For example, the City must eliminate unflagged
videos after 90 days.
• Enhancing healthcare benefits and retiree healthcare.
Although negotiations have been extremely slow, we do believe that with a new mayor,
talks will pick up dramatically. We also believe that it is in everyone’s best interest to get the contract done sooner than later.
We have very good people working on a contract – attorneys and members of the FOP contract committee. For this reason, I believe we will have a good contract.
KEVIN GRAHAM
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2019 5