Chicago Police contract extension set for approval, but committee could reject arbitrator’s ruling on police discipline

A City Council committee is poised Thursday to deliver a symbolic but temporary message underscoring its commitment to police reform and accountability.

Over strenuous objections from the Fraternal Order of Police and the FOP’s Council allies, the Committee on Workforce Development is expected to reject an independent arbitrator’s ruling that would allow Chicago police officers accused of the most serious wrongdoing — and recommended for firings or suspensions longer than one year — to bypass the Police Board and take their cases to an arbitrator who might be more sympathetic to their arguments and would hold proceedings behind closed doors.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and outgoing Police Board President Ghian Foreman led the charge in urging the committee to reject the ruling that independent arbitrator Edwin Benn has affirmed and reaffirmed.

The committee vote to defy Benn is the easy part, requiring just eight votes in the 15-member committee.

Next week’s full Council vote will be more difficult. It will require a three-fifths vote — 30 members — to defy Benn yet again. And even if the full Council does reject the ruling, it would only send it back to Benn, who has made it clear he would reach the same conclusion.

“He’s already said he’s not changing anything. He’ll send it right back to ’em a second time,” FOP President John Catanzara told the Sun-Times this week.

“If it goes back a second time and they reject it a second time, it ends up in court. The city already knows … it’s a dead issue. They’re never going to win. It’s a collective bargaining right that cannot be weakened. If there’s that many aldermen who want to take it to court, then I guess we’re going back to war time like we did with [former Mayor Lori] Lightfoot. There’s no need for it to get ugly. But if enough aldermen want to fight, we’ll certainly give ’em a fight.”

Catanzara warned of the political consequences of picking a fight with the police union in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“They’re the ones with the convention coming up in less than nine months now. If they want to explain to the whole nation why they’re so anti-police or anti-union in general, then let ’em,” he said.

“We’ll make a case on why they are no longer the party of labor, if that’s the case. … This is a Democratic city. It’s a democratic principle: arbitration. I don’t see how they think they can get away from it and treat police unions any different than every other union in this city.”

Foreman has argued that “police accountability and ultimately, the people of Chicago will suffer” if the most serious disciplinary cases are removed from the Police Board’s jurisdiction and placed in the hands of an independent arbitrator who will decide those cases “behind closed doors.”

He has warned alderpersons not to make, what he called the “big mistake” of allowing that to happen.

Johnson has agreed, saying it is “crucial that disciplinary cases be handled in a manner that allows for public transparency and true accountability.”

Given the pyrrhic and, possibly temporary nature of Thursday’s vote, senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee was asked what a no vote would accomplish beyond giving political cover to alderpersons who vote to sweeten and extend the police contract that Johnson negotiated.

“We have to send a signal to the public about what’s important, what our values are and what the standards should be. … The commitment from the city and the City Council has to be to transparency and public involvement in accountability mechanisms for law enforcement,” Lee said.

“We need to give ourselves an opportunity to potentially have some adjustment to, either the ruling or some other avenue that we might be able to pursue. But, it starts with the rejection. If you don’t reject it, you foreclose any opportunity to rectify or adjust the ruling or get the ruling changed. There’s no guarantee that this step will ultimately deliver the outcome that we all seek. But we must try.”

Even though it’s poised to hand the FOP a bitter defeat, the Committee on Workforce Development is expected give the police union an important split decision by approving the two-year contract extension with higher pay raises and operational changes that could help solve murders and reduce CTA crime.

The agreement calls for doubling the annual pay raise that rank-and-file police officers were scheduled to receive in 2024 and 2025 — from 2.5% to 5%. During the two year-extension that ends on June 30, 2027, police officers will receive annual pay raises in the 3%-to-5% range, depending on the cost of living.

Instead of giving officers with 20 years’ seniority the annual $2,000 retention bonus awarded by an independent arbitrator, the agreement gives a one-time, $2,500 retention bonus to all officers, regardless of seniority.

For Johnson and his newly-appointed CPD Supt. Larry Snelling, there is a key operational change that could help boost Chicago’s dismal homicide clearance rates.

CPD won the right to create Los Angeles-style rotating teams of homicide investigators working 10-hour days. Each team would get all of the murders in a given area during a one-week period, then spent the next five weeks solving those homicides without being assigned additional cases.

The proposal was the city’s “major ask” during contract talks, according to Catanzara.

Yet another operational change could help reduce violent crime on the CTA. It would reduce — from 80% to 50% — the share of officers assigned to the mass transit detail on the basis of seniority.