This year’s election comes at a critical time when the City of Chicago faces great challenges. The Association’s Political Action Committee looked carefully at the responses to our questionnaires that were sent to all of the candidates. Of the mayoral candidates that responded and appeared in front of the Committee, Bob Fioretti responded most favorably to our concerns regarding pensions, promotions, retiree health care, and overall strategies to combat crime and violence. Additionally, Bob Fioretti expressed his vision for the future of the Police Department and the City of Chicago, which ultimately led to the decision to endorse Bob Fioretti for Mayor of the City of Chicago. We ask that you support the candidacy of Bob Fioretti and to urge your family and friends to support him as well. The Committee relied on the questionnaires and support from members and community to recommend these endorsements. We ask that you support all of the Association’s endorsed candidates, but most importantly, participate in the election process by voting in February.

The department has identified the three (3) dates when personal days may be denied.

1st Watch
01 Nov 15 (Day after Halloween)
27 Nov 15 (Day after Thanksgiving)
26 Dec 15 (Day after Christmas)

2nd watch
28 Jun 15 (Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade)
08 Aug 15 (Day of Bud Billiken Parade)
16 Aug 15 (Chicago Air and Water Show)

3rd Watch
28 Jun 15 (Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade)
24 Dec 15 (Christmas Eve)
31 Dec 15 (New Years Eve)

The Election Committee met on October 14 to verify candidate petitions and prepare ballots for the election for Executive Officers and Directors of the Association. Upon completion of the verification process, all of the candidates were unopposed. The committee then declared the candidates as elected by proclamation. I wish to thank the Election Committee; Don Januszyk, Keith Mayo, Ted Raab, Gene Richmond, and Al Piantkowski, made up of retired members of the Association, for their continued dedication to our members. The Association’s new Executive Officers and Board of Directors will be installed at the Annual Meeting of the Association in January of 2015.

President

Jim Ade

Vice-President

Paul Bilotta

Financial Secretary

Glenn White

Recording Secretary

Jim Raffae

Treasurer

Chris Pettis

Sergeant at Arms

Rich Moravec

Directors

Mark Andersen

Mike Barz

Mark McDermott

Gerry Murphy

Dan O’Connor

Mike Rafferty

Keith Rigan

Gabi Shemash

Eddie Sullins

In response to the City of Chicago releasing CR information, I spoke with our attorney to see what course of action could be taken to stop the release of this material. Unfortunately, the unions have no standing in the matter. This stems from an Illinois Appellate Court decision that the City has accepted, thereby ending this litigation. No local court will grant an injunction in opposition to a case that has already been ruled upon by a higher court. I also spoke with FOP President Dean Angelo who is as frustrated with this issue as I am. The FOP stated that they do not have any legal grounds or position to file an appeal or otherwise intervene.

All of this means, is that lists of Police Department members, who have had a number of CR numbers during a specified time period, will be released to requestors due to the Freedom of Information Act. These lists contain no more than officers names, CR numbers, and findings. Let’s face it. We all know that working police officers have a tendency to receive complaints. People that get arrested are not happy to be customers of the district lock ups. Parents are not happy that their “little angels” were arrested. They complain and an investigation ensues, and in almost all of these complaints, the officers are cleared. We’ve all been subjects of this process. To be on a list of officers that were subjects of CR investigations during a certain time period simply means that you were the working police at that time. It means nothing else. We know that we were doing our job, and at the end of the day, we can be proud of what we did. No FOIA request, or press clipping can take that away from us.

Congratulations to the newest members of the Chicago Police Sergeants’ Association that are currently in the academy. They should be hitting the districts soon. We look forward to working with them in the near future.