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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
Fit the bills
As you patrol the streets of the city, continuing the amazing work to keep citi- zens safe amid ever-increasing challenges, know that we are fighting the next most dangerous threat to doing our jobs. The 2020 Illinois General Assembly legislative session is in full force, and I haven’t seen this many bad bills since Toys R Us de- clared bankruptcy.
It’s not like the grim reaper is hovering over Springfield with law enforcement on his radar. Out of the several thousand pieces of legislation in the works, several will help our cause if they can be passed.
Most prominent on that list is House Bill 5251, which amends the Illinois Gam- bling Act by providing that the duties of the Illinois Gaming Board include con- tracting with the Chicago Police Department for the use of trained and qualified police officers to conduct investigations, searches, seizures, arrests and other duties imposed under the act for
a casino located in Chicago.
When casinos come to the city, we need them to be policed by our qualified and experienced
members rather than private security. And we are working hard to get this done because the ad- vent of 4,000-plus gaming positions at O’Hare and Midway, among other locations, will ensure that money is coming into our pension fund. The trailer on this bill will also allow the city to get a company in to run the casinos to generate money that will go into the pension fund. I think we can get this done during this session.
We also are advocating the passage of HB 4283, which amends the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission Act, which you might know as the Turk Commission. The amendment changes the commission from eight to 10 members, with those two additions being members of Chicago Lodge 7.
And we are working on two pension improvement bills. One amends the pension code to re- move the birthdate restriction on eligibility at age 55 for a 3 percent automatic annual increase in retirement annuity that is not subject to a maximum increase of 30 percent. The second fixes problems for Tier 2 members in the pension system.
Much of our legislative success the past few years has been blocking bills from passing that, if signed into law, would make the job more difficult. We need to be on the block again as the session speeds toward conclusion at the end of May.
One bill calls for expunging records of a suspended license. That would make it more dan- gerous to stop people, because we will never know if people who are driving should never have been allowed to get behind the wheel. Another proposed bill would make it a criminal offense for police officers if they don’t give accused offenders three phone calls within an hour of being detained. Another calls for expungement of the records of criminal inmates. And yet another wants to eliminate required sworn affidavits.
Legislators proposing these bills have a total lack of understanding of what law enforcement really does. It’s a total lack of comprehension of what we need to do our jobs and an attack on law enforcement.
These are legislators who don’t value police officers, who don’t value the rule of law. They sim- ply want to pacify their constituents, and they don’t care if they attack the hardworking women and men of law enforcement. It’s a twisted way of thinking.
But we’re fighting all of them. It takes a great deal of time, and even money, to do so, and a state representative told one of our lobbyists that some of the bills are in play to keep us busy and keep us from pushing our own legislation.
That’s not going to happen. We have our lobbyists in Springfield working hard to make sure we stay on top of all this anti-police legislation. We still have a lot of friends in Springfield who will tip us off if anything goes on.
Lodge 7 can be a force to be reckoned with, as the City learned again when we won a grievance arbitration at the end of February related to three-day-off groups. The arbitrator ruled that the City’s desire to extend the change in 006 related to day-off groups to the rest of the districts must be bargained.
There is a larger implication of this: It says that the consent decree doesn’t take precedence over our contract. That’s a big win, one that our members truly deserve.
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2020 5
KEVIN GRAHAM