Page 5 - March 2022

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
JOHN CATANZARA JR.
President
Michael Mette
First Vice President
Daniel D. Gorman
Second Vice President
Fernando Flores
Third Vice President
Rob Noceda
Recording Secretary
Jim Jakstavich
Financial Secretary
Dennis McGuire
Treasurer
Sergeants-at-Arms
Nenad Markovich Frank Quinn III Daniel Sheehan
Trustees
Harold Brown John Capparelli Pablo Claudio Frank J. DiMaria David DiSanti Mark P. Donahue Patrick Duckhorn Tim Fitzpatrick Dan Goetz Ken Hauser Tom Lonergan Brock Merck Steve Olsen Monica Ortiz Dan Quaid Ron Shogren Daniel G. Trevino
Field Representative
Andrew Cantore
Saluting the female members and officers who are keeping it ‘Real’
Before we get to what is still on everybody’s mind, allow me a few words about this issue celebrating National Women’s History Month in March.
The cover photo shows three of the real women who are great Lodge 7 members and the real police. It should have probably been done last year, the first March we were here, because of the gravity of it. And the direction that we felt this Lodge needed to focus on is the somewhat silent voices over generations that have not been given a platform.
So I’m glad Monica Ortiz, one of the amazing women featured on the cover and our first female field representative since anybody can remember, actually brought it up to me. I’m glad she is a shining example of how we ask, “Throw ideas at me and let’s see what makes sense for this organization.” And this is a great idea that kind of took on a life of its own.
A big shout-out to Monica and Kathy Spiewak, my administrative assistant, for really taking this issue and making it spectacular. The reality is that women make up a third of this department, and I don’t feel that they’ve had equal representation in this Lodge for far too long.
I’m just glad Monica said “yes” when I asked her to work in the office. It wasn’t a slam dunk on her end, whether she wanted to jump in the deep end of the pool given where she is in her career. But she’s literally been, “What do you need?” And that’s pretty much all I’ve ever asked from everybody up here: Just grab a paddle and row the boat.
I’m equally ecstatic about the other two members on the cover, who have stepped up to run for political office. Carolynn Crump is a perfect example of somebody as a Black female whom we asked to get involved in Lodge politics. She grabbed the bull by the horns from Day One and has always been, “What do you need?” When I asked her about running, she said, “I never really thought about it deeply, but I’m in.”
And everybody knows Erin Jones’ reputation of just saying what’s on her mind and not pulling punches. She witnessed firsthand what this Lodge did with Daniel Toole, a sergeant running for of- fice, in not giving him 100 percent support because of some allegiances to Senator Martwick, who has now proved that he can’t be trusted. He knew the morning that he said “yes” to HB 3653, he was dead man walking to us. So I’m glad she stepped up. Having two small kids, it’s a pretty big leap. But she’s a firebrand, and she’s going to make a difference. We’re going to give her every tool we possibly can to get her across the line, because she’s a voice that we need. And it’s also to send a message to the politicians in Springfield: “We are not just talking to talk, we are going to walk the walk, and we are coming for your chairs.”
Full of shot
By the time this article hits, Judge Mitchell will have issued a ruling about the vaccine mandate. We hoped he would continue to be the outlier of common sense in this whole situation. The reality, is his basis for his original TRO, that this is irreparable harm, did not change.
The arbitration decision we got apparently was baked in the cake. Nobody thought that would be the case, because the issues were not entirely different from the firefighters’. Just much more exten- sive. The belief was that arbitrator George Roumell would have to look at it through a different lens. Regrettably, that didn’t happen. Apparently, it took him longer to come up with this decision because he was trying to figure out how to come to the same conclusion as the firefighters with a lot more in the middle.
There are so many things that he didn’t take into account. I was stunned when I read the decision. His reasoning behind it was baffling, to say the least. And we hoped that would be the basis for the TRO to continue until the labor board makes a ruling on the ULP, which we’ve had in front of the board as long as we’ve had the complaint in front of Judge Mitchell.
The end result was very similar to CFD Local 2 in many ways, as far as dates for the first shot, sec- ond shot, fully vaccinated, etc. The only major difference is the discipline component of it. And the City has had three or four different iterations of the process between the portal and discipline. That just doesn’t make sense, I think, even to George, who’s really good with discipline usually, or fair. He retains jurisdiction over the discipline component of this, for what that’s worth.
JOHN CATANZARA JR.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2022 5