Page 5 - APRIL 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
Contract negotiations are
starting to move, and we
continue to be on the move
Finally, we’re getting some movement with negotiations for the contract. The City has tried to delay a new collective bargaining agreement as long as pos- sible, and with the new mayor, we will have additional challenges. However, my commitment to negotiating one of the best Chicago Lodge 7 contracts ever will not change. We will bargain with the City according to the law, and our best-faith efforts will not give up rights in the contract we have fought for that protect the members from being treated unfairly.
Let me be clear: The majority of the provisions in our contract are there so that we get a fair process when addressing mostly false allegations about the police. These are fundamental rights that we cannot give up.
In the process of negotiating the contract, it has become clear that the City’s position has been to give in to community groups that have no intention of being fair to the police. They only want to punish the police because of what they have perceived as police not treating the public fairly or correctly. Of course, those community groups are incorrect. It is a sad state of affairs when criminals are viewed to be the heroes and the police have very few people backing us up.
Many of you have read that during the past month we have filed a lawsuit against COPA for not following our current contract regarding treatment of FOP members. We have also called for a federal investigation of Kimberly Foxx, the Cook County State’s Attorney. We have serious questions about a high-profile case in which Foxx exchanged messages with a private attorney. This was reported in the Chicago Tribune. I sent a letter to Foxx expressing our concerns. She disagrees with the letter I sent.
On April 1, the FOP held a demonstration and protest at 69 West Washington St. – the Cook County Administration Building – against Foxx. I want to thank all the retired police officers who came out to support the FOP, and all the active police officers and detectives working so hard to try and protect the people of the City of Chicago. They joined with mem- bers of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, the Chicago Police Sergeants Association and lot of people from the neighborhood who just wanted to come out and support the police. Our protest was a success.
We are working very hard on many other issues affecting our members. It is well known that we have been working at the FOP to try and repeal the windfall provision in the Social Security Act that cuts our Social Security by as much as 60 percent when we reach the age to begin collecting. Right now, representatives in both the Illinois House and Senate have agreed to stand with the FOP to try to get Social Security back to where it needs to be for our members.
However, there seems to be a problem. National FOP President Chuck Canterbury ex- plained to one of our members here in Chicago that we may need to start paying into the Social Security system.I assure you that the National FOP is working hard to get back what we are entitled to with Social Security.
Finally, it is with a heavy heart that we pay our respects to yet another member of the Fra- ternal Order of Police that we have lost. While sitting in a car on March 23 – off duty – several gunmen ran up to the car and shot Officer John Rivera of the 6th District. So many of us like to go out for a drink together after work. It should never end with the loss of one of our brothers. Please keep Officer Rivera and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
KEVIN GRAHAM
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ APRIL 2019 5