"Cost Saving"

That's what Joe "What Cheating Scandal?" Ferguson is calling his "proposals" to Rahm's next budget:

• With dozens of city worker union contracts about to expire for the first time in a decade, Chicago should consider a host of changes that could save taxpayer money, streamline operations and make it easier to mete out discipline, a new report from the city's top watchdog concludes.
  
  Some of the ideas floated in a detailed 34-page report released Wednesday by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson rankled Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, who said in a statement that Ferguson's report "does not address the intricacies of a collective bargaining agreement and how best to serve the interests of the city, its workers and the taxpayers."
  
  Even so, the report, they also might give Mayor Rahm Emanuel some political cover — because the ideas didn't come directly from him — as negotiations get underway on 44 separate contracts that either expired last June or are coming due later this year.

Well, now we know what Ferguson had to do to get his contract extended - screw 90% of the city workers. Hey FOP, guess who Ferguson is proposing take it up the caboose with no lube?

• If the mayor follows the script, Chicago Police officers stand to lose from Ferguson’s proposal to tighten the rules on secondary employment and cash payouts for accumulated compensatory time upon retirement that constitute a $259 million liability, according to the report.
  
  The inspector general also urged the mayor to re-examine a host of contract sweeteners, including uniform allowance, tuition reimbursement, duty availability pay and the quarterly differential pay for police sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

This seems like a bunch of smoke with no substance:

• restrictions on side gigs are already in place and any attempt to further regulate will cost the city dearly - unless he's talking about VRI. Aside from existing restrictions, how can the city deny cops the right to make a living and to better their situation? We aren't all connected crooked politicians nor slumlords in Maywood;
• the time due issue is already owed to officers for overtime worked. There isn't a court in the land that won't have officers paid for work already done. And the FOP has proposed on numerous occasions allowing officers to sell-back time at current rates instead of retirement rates - that would save the city millions (but they always say "no");
• uniform allowances and duty availability were negotiated in lieu of Contract raises - the FOP saved the city millions again, because the total compensation isn't pensionable. Of course, the city didn't contribute the actuarial recommended amounts with the savings - they spent it on all sorts of crooked shit, so officers got screwed twice;
• same thing with the supervisory money - negotiated in lieu of pay raises - saving the city millions, but that's the PBPA, not FOP.

Graham is making the correct statements so far, placing the blame entirely on the city's practice of kicking the can down the road. Hold the line FOP. You are setting the tone for a lot of people other than the cops.