Page 14 - November 2018

Financial Secretary’s Report
Bringing a stressful year to a close
The year is nearly over, and even though it seems quick for some, it was definitely a long and stress- ful one for Chicago Police officers and detectives.
A Grievance Committee meeting was held on Oct. 19, and 24 grievances were reviewed. On three of them, the City did not send a response, so we’ve deferred them until we receive a letter from the de- partment explaining the reason why it was denied. Once a letter is received, the committee can assess the claim and see if it has any validity. If it does, we
can vote to withdraw this and have the officer come in to pres- ent to us any further evidence to support the grievance.
In this meeting, we decided to withdraw six grievances, defer six and go forward with 12. I am of the opinion that if every- thing was done properly by the City in the first place, we would not have a grievance. Under the withdrawal grievances, there are some that have resolution before going to full arbitration. For instance, one of our committee members has a grievance in which he was passed over for a bid to another unit. The officer filed the grievance accordingly. After registering the grievance and sending it to the committee, he bid and was accepted to the unit he wished to join. In this circumstance, the solution to the grievance would have been placing him in the Unit he bid to. With this already accomplished, we withdrew the grievance.
Let’s imagine a different outcome for a second: If the officer never made it to that unit and we followed through to arbitra- tion and won, the arbitrator can tell the City his place in that
Get an insider’s view into the unique life of a big-city undercover cop:
Learn what it feels like as McCarthy walks throughout the wreckage of the worst aviation disaster in Chicago’s history – American Airlines flight #191 –
collecting bodies and body parts.
Go behind the scenes as McCarthy, wired by the FBI, is bribed by an Asian organized crime figure to protect a secret Asian gambling den in Chicago’s Chinatown.
See how McCarthy turned five Thai hookers into informants to solve a brutal murder in Philadelphia.
Ride along with McCarthy’s FBI squad as they try to stop a gang war in the aftermath of the shooting of a Vietnamese gang leader.
Read what it’s like to be a SWAT team mem- ber in a two-day standoff with a cop killer.
Ride with McCarthy and his partner as they police Cabrini Green, the most violent housing project in Chicago.
unit and give him time-and-a-half from the time he placed the bid to the time he makes it into the unit (best-case scenario). Unfortunately, if we lost, there would be no change. Luckily for all union members, the people before us fought hard for these rights and procedures.
I was out in the 2nd District, and an officer asked me to look into the Baltimore Police getting tax breaks on their property in Baltimore. After researching the question, it appears that the of- ficers in Baltimore do not have to live in the city; the mayor pro- posed the tax break to lure officers back into the city. I’m sure that if the City of Chicago presented us with such tax breaks, it would ease officers’ minds and pocketbooks and give them relief for living in town.
The secretaries have been working hard on your 2018 FOP books, clarifying numbers and seeing that the book is set up correctly. At the unit rep meeting, I asked all the reps to call the Lodge with any mistakes or changes in phone numbers, and we have gotten good response. We are hoping for a first printing by the first or second week in December. Once that is done, we will mail them out to you.
We have one more month until the end of the year, and I hope we can get out of this detailed situation without any more fuss or muss. Wishful thinking, as we are already getting calls at the Lodge from districts trying to restrict time off in December. The people in charge are getting quite adept at destroying all our enthusiasm for coming to work. Stay safe. d
MICHAEL GARZA
14 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2017