Page 5 - February 2018 FOP Newsletter

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
Matters of Legal Defense, contract negotiations and demanding answers from COPA
I’d like to give the members a rundown of the key issues Chicago Lodge 7 is currently working on and what we are aiming for, because there is an awful lot going on. There have been so many developments since Christ- mas regarding the Legal Defense dues increase, contract negotiations, the consent decree, body cameras and COPA.
First is the fact that we must raise our dues for Legal Defense. Members understand that Chicago Lodge 7 is under more pressure than ever from COPA, the state’s attorney, the public and the media. All of these players are driving complaints against the police into the courtroom. We want to raise
the dues to $5 dollars per paycheck, an increase of $3 per check. At the General Meeting on Feb. 20 at 1900 hours, we will discuss this increase, answer any questions from the membership and vote on the proposal. I’m confident this motion will carry.
Now, let’s talk about contract negotiations. There has actually been little movement by the City regarding negotiations since we won the unfair labor practice that we filed regarding body cameras. The City was willing to sit down to discuss the body cameras issue only, but we are in the midst of negotiations and believe that the issue should be part of the contract. I have stated to the City that I would be perfectly willing to address that issue first; however, I do believe that negotiations should be well underway, and we should not be hampered by outside distractions.
It is clear that our negotiations are not moving along because of the consent decree. We did not ask for this. We did not agree to this. It is between the Attorney General’s office and the City. Our position is that the consent decree should not affect our negoti- ations. I hope within the next few weeks that this will be resolved, and I believe we will be in active negotiations by the middle of March.
I also believe there are many people within the Department, and within the City, who would like to get the contract negotiations underway. So far, we have had one meeting that was more of a meet-and-greet with the people from the City’s negotiation commit- tee. Also, as of Feb. 1, we have had a number of discussions with the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice. We hope that we can resolve many of the ridiculous accusations that have been made about the Chicago Police Depart- ment and Chicago Police Officers.
Recently, I attended a seminar on body cameras and I learned a great deal about the images that are recorded and the accuracy of what we are seeing. Many of us grew up
KEVIN GRAHAM
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ FEBRUARY 2018 5