For the second time in two months, a City Council committee on Tuesday defied a Cook County Circuit Court judge by reaffirming its symbolic commitment to police reform and accountability.
The Committee on Workforce Development voted 10-5 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 over one year — to bypass the Police Board in favor of an arbitrator who might be more sympathetic to their cases and would hold proceedings behind closed doors.
The “no” votes were once again cast by five of the police union’s staunchest Council supporters: alderpersons Anthony Beale (9th); Peter Chico (10th); Marty Quinn (13th), Derrick Curtis (18th) and Nick Sposato (38th).
Beale said he has never seen an arbitrator’s ruling “broken” into two parts “because we don’t like something.”
“Whether you like it or not, you hold your nose and vote for it,” Beale said, calling Tuesday’s vote a “political stunt.”
Tuesday’s vote sets the stage for a final roll call vote at Wednesday’s Council meeting.
Mayor Brandon Johnson will probably be able to muster the 30 votes he needs in the full Council to reject the arbitrator’s ruling for a second time after convincing 33 alderpersons to do the same in December.
That will be followed by what is almost certain to be a contentious hearing before Circuit Judge Michael Mullen.
The Fraternal Order of Police has already requested a summary judgment immediately enforcing the arbitrator’s ruling and a temporary restraining order to suspend about 26 Police Board cases impacted by the ruling. That includes the case of the Officer Eric Stillman, who shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021.
On Tuesday, FOP President John Catanzara warned alderpersons to “get your checkbook ready.”
“Our goal is to not only take you to civil court for everyone who’s facing a Police Board case currently under this arbitration award, but all the way back to 2018 when this proposal was first presented to the city. Anybody who went to the Police Board, we are literally gonna sue the hell out of this body,” Catanzara told committee members.
Catanzara accused alderpersons of “carrying the mayor’s water” and buying the argument that the Police Board offers “transparency” while arbitration does not.
In fact, Catanzara maintained the Police Board has “become a one-side entity” that deliberates in closed-door executive session — the “same thing that an arbitrator does” — and denies accused officers the right to cross-examine investigators for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability who recommend termination.
“Every labor leader in this city should be shivering at the spine that that mayor can decide what he’s gonna call balls and strikes on in violation of state law, and that some of you are willing to carry the water in violation of state law. … This is all about fairness, and more importantly, it’s about labor law. You all took an oath to uphold this state constitution. You are all in violation of it.”
Newly appointed Police Board President Kyle Cooper countered that the Police Board “serves both the public and Chicago Police officers.” In the 18-month period that ended June 30, 2023, the Police Board ruled in favor of police officers in termination cases in “more than half of all cases,” he said.
“Forty years after the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act was passed, the police union, for reasons that are murky at best and sinister at worst, has decided it no longer wants the Chicago residents appointed to the Police Board to decide serious cases of police misconduct. Instead, it wants these cases to be handled by private hand-picked arbitrators in proceedings that, by their very virtue, are shrouded in secrecy,” Cooper said.
“Numerous studies have shown that, when police disciplinary cases are funneled through arbitration, officers either evade punishment altogether or the recommended sentences are routinely reduced by as much as 50%.”
Anthony Driver, president of the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability, said he is neither “pro-cop nor anti-cop” but supports “the public’s right to know.”
“Some values are worth fighting for. Transparency is one of them,” Driver said.
In reaffirming his ruling for a second time, arbitrator Edwin Benn warned that the city has “no possibility of prevailing” in litigation already filed by the FOP.
That’s a chance the city’s chief labor negotiator, Cicely Porter Adams, is willing to take.
“Our proposals comport with the rule of law and address the public’s need in policy for transparency and openness in government,” Porter Adams said. “The arbitration award does nothing to build the public’s trust in the police disciplinary process, and it erodes the integrity and legitimacy of that process.”
