Page 5 - December 2019 FOP Magazine

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
Arbitration explanation
Holiday greetings and thoughts of best wishes for a happy and healthy new year have been filling conversations throughout the districts and on the beat, from one member to another and from officers to members of their communities. And hope- fully from the citizens to all of you, who certainly deserve it.
Here are some greetings and thoughts for the holiday on behalf of Lodge 7:
Spending holidays with family is a beautiful feeling of safety and warmth. May you always stay united and strong with each other this holiday season.
As we look back on the past year, we would like to acknowledge those members who have given their best every single day. Thanks for a great year, and we wish you all the best as you embark on 2020.
Wishing you the joy of family, the gift of friends and the best of everything life can offer.
Of course, I know what many members might be dreaming about for 2020: a new contract filled with better compensation, benefits and assorted stocking stuffers.
We have taken the next step toward delivering that gift. On Dec. 3, the Lodge 7 executive board voted to move to arbitration as a means to achieve a new collective bargaining agreement with the City. In arbitration, both sides present their proposals for issues in dispute to an inde- pendent third party. The arbitrator then issues a decision that is binding on the parties entering into the contract.
I don’t think any of our members wanted to go to arbitration. But we couldn’t pursue the cur- rent course of negotiations with the City and give our members a lump of coal like we did with the last contract. They get it!
Arbitration proved to be the best course of action because the City continues to ask for things in the contract based on false information and rumors about police officers being undisci- plined. Most of the problems that have occurred in the Department have come from City Hall and with the Department administration. (Apparently, we are not the only ones who have seen that, if you know what I mean.)
Another problem that has impeded negotiations is the consent decree issued by the former Illinois attorney general and accepted by a mayor with the Chicago FOP having no input. The City promised the attorney general that it will make best-faith efforts to use the consent decree to make changes to our contract.
That would certainly violate the contract, would be done for political reason and simply to pacify people who have no idea what is causing the problems in the Department. So if we didn’t go to arbitration, the only gift we would be giving this holiday season is a political football.
The other problem we’ve had with the negotiation process is that we just won’t accept some of the changes the City is proposing, including doing away with signed affidavits and accepting anonymous complaints. Having a complaint signed by the person who makes the complaint is important. Everywhere in this country, you have a right to face your accusers. Allowing com- plaints to be anonymous is just a way to pacify the public.
The City and its elected officials think people are afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation from police officers. I’ve been in meetings with politicians in this City where I have asked them to give me the name or a star number of an officer who has threatened retaliation. They have never come up with one because there isn’t one.
Rather than accept the failures of politicians to properly fund and staff the Department, they are trying to throw us under the bus. So here we are, going to arbitration.
With the opportunity to present our proposals to an independent, third party who is not tied to the City, the FOP anticipates we can finally get the truth out. The City will be required to come up with actual facts instead of lies and innuendo.
Here’s the reality: We have about 100 things on the table, but the arbitrator is not going to want to hear everything we have on our list. What we want is to do something positive for our members rather than keep on listening to the people who are making false allegations.
So it will be up to the arbitrator. Negotiation is always the best way, but you have to have people who are willing to negotiate honestly. We cannot strike like the teachers. So we will go to arbitration and we are confident we will put our best case forward.
KEVIN GRAHAM
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2019 5