FOP Insurrection?

Something is attracting attention over at the Hall, and it has the potential to cause some heavy duty issues. We got a couple emails outlining some concerns about the upcoming By-Law vote in September. Here's the newsletter article (click for larger version):

One of the emails expressed their concerns thusly:

• I just read the president’s piece on the bylaw changes, and I couldn’t help noticing how much it sounded like a self-congratulatory infomercial for himself. It’s being sold as progress, but the only thing really expanding here is JCat’s ego.

  He says this isn’t controversial, but one of the changes he “definitely” wants to pass would expand who we represent — not because our members are clamoring for it, but because he wants more territory,more dues, and more personal power. [...]

  He paints this like we’re some kind of “corporation” that needs to “grow our brand” to stay relevant. Let’s get real, we are a union, not his personal start-up. We don’t exist to expand his market share, we exist to protect and serve our current members. The only “corporate” thing about us lately is how much of our dues he blows on luxury vacations and pricey artwork.

  He’s also been very vocal about wanting to break away from the National FOP — and surprise, surprise — growing our numbers outside Chicago gets him one step closer to running his own “union/cult” completely unchecked. Once that happens, he answers to no one but himself.

  He ends by saying this expansion could make us so big “nobody would touch us.” Translation: so big nobody could touch him. That’s not a plan for member representation, that’s a blueprint for one man’s vanity project. There’s a difference between “expanding our brand” and inflating one man’s ego.

A second email is even more pointed....with a stark warning:

• Article I Section 3 of the by-laws clearly state that "No member shall be simultaneously a member of Chicago Lodge #7 and any other Subordinate Lodge". Which means when he tries to pull CPD members out, they will lose their affiliation with FOP. Word is, John is trying to grab all the departments represented by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police in the state of Illinois.

  The by-law change proposal is the next step in pulling out of FOP. And pulling out of FOP means losing all the protections that come along with national representation. The logical reason for this is because the National FOP can't stand John and effectively blocks everything he tries to do because, and I quote, "No way are we doing anything this asshole wants". So when John can't get what he wants, he tries to manipulate the system to get his way. His ability to run again for President is coming to a close, and John doesn't want to give up the purse strings. And an uninformed membership only makes things easier for him to continuously control our dues money without the members knowing how money is being spent.

  This by-law change proposal is DANGEROUS. It will give J-Cat far too much power to manipulate the system that is supposed to represent the best interest of CHICAGO police officers. Did we learn nothing when the Credit Union opened up their membership to those outside of CPD? What a shit show that became. This is where things are headed unless this by-law change is stopped.

Anyone familiar with By-Law meetings knows that they are crooked as Hell and easily manipulable. We attended a number of these back in the day when Bill Nolan tried to force through contentious issues (this is our recollection of a really bad Nolan meeting):

• the changes, which have already been "vetted" by the Lodge committee, are read to the attendees. Unwanted proposals have been killed by this committee on procedural grounds as well as spelling and grammatical errors;
• the president calls for a voice vote, Aye or Nay, and the declares the winner. No counting, no raising of hands and counting, the president just says, "The Ayes have it" and attempts to move on;
• this particular time, there was a massive outcry over an issue we don't recall right now, but demands were made to "Divide the room," Ayes on one side, Nays on the other, so everyone could see how the vote played out;
• after being declared out of order and other such nonsense, the room was divided, and Nolan still claimed the vote went his way.

That was when we got discouraged by the entire procedure, because the president could just make up the vote, pack the Hall or straight up lie. Old timers will recall that under the following administration, the FOP actually sent out ballots to everyone regarding by-law changes....and even with a self-addressed stamped envelope that cost cops nothing but two minutes to vote, participation was atrocious, maybe one-third of the membership? One quarter? It was bad.

If these speculations are true, this could be far worse.