The full City Council is set to consider an eight-year contract with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police that would give rank-and-file officers a total of 20% in raises.
The council Workforce Development Committee on Tuesday approved the deal Mayor Lori Lightfoot is proposing with FOP Local 7 without dissent. The full City Council will consider it next week.
The proposal would grants officers 20% raises over eight years, 10.5% of it retroactive to 2017, when the last FOP contract expired.
Police would get another 9.5% in raises going forward into 2025.
The retroactive pay would cost about $365 million, according to the city. Lightfoot set aside about $103 million in this year’s budget to cover part of the police back pay. Her administration plans to refinance existing debt to pay for the rest of it.
Aldermen expressed concern Tuesday with some language in the agreement and some situations it doesn’t address.
Southwest Side Ald. Mike Rodriguez, 22nd, said officers should be required to disclose outside jobs they’re working after they get off shift or on their days off. It’s important that officers don’t come to work tired from another job, since they need to be sharp to make split-second decisions, Rodriguez said.
The Chicago City Council is expected to consider the new contract next week for the Chicago Police Department, shown here investigating the scene of a shooting on Sept. 1. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
City negotiator Mike Frisch said the city is still bargaining with the FOP to require officers to disclose when and where they can work outside jobs and limit the number of outside work hours. That would be handled in a separate deal, he said.
And North Side Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, noted the proposed contract includes several “statements of values,” such as language stating that officers who are whistle-blowers about misconduct are acting in the highest standards of the profession.
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Given those value statements, Vasquez said he wished the contract explicitly condemned racist behavior by officers, “especially in a city where Black and brown folks at times feel like their interactions (with police) are ones where they have concerns about the officers.”
The deal does include various police accountability measures, which the mayor has touted as part of her push to show she’s reforming the department.
Among those are the elimination of a requirement that police disciplinary records older than five years old be destroyed; an end to allowing officers to change their testimony during disciplinary investigations after viewing video evidence; and recognition that officers who report potential misconduct are “acting in the highest traditions of public service.”
The agreement also addresses how to deal with a new state law that allows anonymous complaints against cops and no longer requires complainants to sign affidavits attesting to the accuracy of their statements.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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