Page 5 - August 2017

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 Rep
Robert Bartlett Rich Aguilar
We asked, and you told us what you want
Members respond with great ideas for the contract
During the past few months, many of our officers have responded to our request and submitted ideas for the new contract. The vast ma- jority are outstanding ideas, and I wish we could have the ability to vet each and every one. Unfortunately, we are usually limited to about 30 proposals for the contract. But with so many good ideas, we will ex- pand this policy as much as possible.
Several common themes have emerged from our members’ respons- es:
The first has been to not give up anything in regard to our rights to- ward discipline and the discipline process.
Second on the list has been allowing officers to be able to get time off when they need it.
The third is that residency should be on the table. Every time I meet with mem- bers, I try to remind them about one central fact: Residency is not a subject for arbitration. That means we have no right to compel residency into the arbitration process. We can discuss, and maybe even negotiate something for residency, but when the City decides not to talk about it, we do not have the ability to take it to an arbitrator. It’s very important that members understand this fact.
Fourth is addressing the insurance deductible and how the cost has been passed on to our members.
Fifth on the list is affordable healthcare for retirement – preferably free, or at least, lowering the age for affordable healthcare “into retirement.” Clearly, this is- sue is foremost among the members as they think about planning for their retire- ment.
Lastly, members said they think there should be specialty pay for units that have particular skill sets.
I could go on and on about all the requests our members have submitted, but it is good to know that so many people have the same ideas about what is important: Protection of our rights, being treated fairly and good health insurance resonated in almost every request.
By the time you read this article, the negotiating team will have held two meet- ings, conducted many hours of research and poured through the requests by the members. We should also have had one meeting with the City.
KEVIN GRAHAM
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2017 5