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But I also think that if you firmly believe the mayor is wrong, you should speak up. If it costs you your job, then it costs you your job. It’s not just the superintendent; it’s the upper echelon of leadership, too. Standing up to lead means being firm in your convictions. They are the professionals. The mayor is not the professional. People are too afraid to stand up to her and tell her, ‘You’re wrong.” They realize they put their jobs at risk if they do it. That’s the polar opposite of leadership.
We will continue to highlight the ineffectiveness of policies that keep getting rolled out. Some roll out better than others, but the wheels are rolling worse, not better.
The larger dynamic that is a bigger issue than not having a firm sense of leadership in the Department is the echo cham- ber the mayor has surrounded herself with. She is clueless when it comes to law enforcement, but they are too afraid to tell her, “That’s not a good idea.” All they tell her is, “Great idea, great idea.” And that’s why we’re going to make sure she’s a one-term mayor.
She has even created that “Yes, ma’am,” mentality among the other unions in the city. She has made them more afraid of the 50-to-100-member layoffs, so they will do anything she says to protect their members. They allowed the City to pass this budget, which basically says, “To hell with the CPD and their 600 jobs.”
We know that defunding of police will catch up to the Depart- ment, the City and the mayor. Which is why we made the pro- posal to address the residency issue as part of our contract. It would give the City an open door to a better recruitment process.
This isn’t a knock on the younger officers. The recruitment process was altered to make the changes to Department the City wanted demographically. But they don’t realize that people don’t want this job unless the City starts standing up for the Depart- ment. They will be facing hiring and retention problems in five years that they are not ready for.
There are resolutions to the problem. Residency is one. Rais- ing the mandatory retirement age to 67 with a fitness require- ment is another. I’m sure there are a lot of officers who would stick around, and that would bolster the pension.
There is also allowing lateral transfers from outside the City. If you make it attractive enough, officers in suburban departments might just come for a chance to work in the big city. But that will only happen with a mayor who cares about police officers and
doesn’t throw them under the bus any chance she gets.
So morale continues to be low, as it has been for a very long time. And COVID hasn’t helped. Or, more precisely, the Depart- ment’s approach to COVID definitely has not helped. We have standing orders that we can’t have more than 10 officers in a room. But they are still forcing us to go to training with 40 other
people.
Clearly, there is no consideration for officers’ health and wel-
fare. That goes back to City Hall and you know who. Even her budget plan seems like a Hail Mary. She figured that if Joe Biden were elected president, a massive bailout would come to the City. There was no other plan for the budget, other than to raise taxes and cut jobs. She knows she is getting a good chunk of money. That seems like a pretty crappy way to run a city, but what do I know.
But it’s all a bunch of spit, which is why the City waited until EXACTLY 3 p.m. to turn down our proposal for the 11.5 percent. So now that’s off the table. We have negotiated in good faith, but you can’t say the same for the City.
We really tried to make it as painless as possible. What we asked for was barely a little more than the firefighters received, just structured differently. But they are targeting us. The mayor made up her mind really quick. So now the number goes up, and if the City gets a bailout from the federal government, we will demand our larger number as part of that bailout.
And if the City does not meet that demand, financial issues will be going to arbitration along with discipline reforms. We will go back to negotiating other parts of the contract prior to arbi- tration and see what we can get done.
The budget and the contract are confusing everything right now. The lack of respect the City has shown our members high- lights the indifference by the city council to hold the mayor’s feet to the fire. These aldermen are on notice. We are now keeping a scorecard, starting with the list and the map at the top of this page. The aldermen who voted to pass this budget will pay the price.
We will begin recruitment for candidates right away, and we will be ready to go by 2022 well in advance of the 2023 election. And we will definitely have a horse in the big race.
6 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2020