Residency Proposal

Boom! Shots fired at the inbred midget from Massillon:

• The Fraternal Order of Police is demanding a 17% pay raise over four years — and half that amount for officers who are allowed to live outside the city — in a financial-only deal that includes none of the 40 disciplinary reforms demanded by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

  Last week, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara stormed out of negotiations after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s team offered his members the same 10% pay raise over four years awarded to Chicago firefighters in exchange for higher health care contributions, but tacked on 17 pages including 40 disciplinary reforms.

  Catanzara was so insulted by the city’s offer and the conditions Lightfoot attached to it, he vowed to make a financial-only counter-offer and demand an up-or-down vote by the City Council.

  Now, Catanzara has a new offer — minus the demand for an up-or-down Council vote.

  His new offer would give a choice to Chicago police officers who have long chafed at the city’s residency rule: Take the full 17% — with all but 3% retroactive — and continue to live in the city. Or, accept half that amount and be free to move to the suburbs.

And he used a lot of charged language throwing the gauntlet at Groot:

• “We want to be treated the same as the sergeants,” Catanzara said, noting that union settled on the financial aspect before ending up in arbitration over disciplinary changes.

  “When do we get our life back? If they want to treat us like rented mules, well then, start paying us like rented mules. We’re not gonna sit there and just be slaves.”

  Catanzara said the city’s chief labor negotiator Jim Franczek told him he could not go to the City Council and argue for a financial-only package that did not also include disciplinary changes in response to the demand for police reform in Chicago and across the nation that followed the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

  “Which was baloney. He was too afraid to do it. ... They don’t want to get yelled at by the aldermen. Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. They always try to take the easiest path thinking like there’s no other options. Well, we’re not rolling over and playing dead anymore,” he said.
  

Catanzara is correct in that the sergeants got a financial package separate from the rest of the Contract. And (our opinion) it's a good move to throw residency on the table at this point. The State Law regarding residency only applies to cities over one million - meaning only Chicago. So negotiate it.

Groot hates cops and our representation. The feeling is mutual. So why insist on keeping us here? Groot is about to run into the buzzsaw of reality regarding hiring that is hitting every jurisdiction nationwide - no one is taking the job, and Groot killing the city has made it that less desirable. Might as well take the shot.