Pension Board Meeting Alert

From the comments:

• Pension Board Rep Mike Shields said he needs support at the next pension board meeting to ensure that the civilian high ranking members trying to steal from our pension fund are indeed forced out.
  
  The next scheduled meeting of the Pension Board is November 24th Tuesday, 0900 hrs. at Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund
  221 North LaSalle Street Suite 1626
  Chicago, Illinois 60601

Remember, someone let these feds into our pension fund in the first place. Shields needs our help to ensure it not only stops, it stops ever happening again. We don't doubt that there are more than a few civilians who were snuck into the pension fund on the orders of Shortshanks. Police pensions should be for police only - not hacks and feds flown in under the radar.

Police Board on the Hot Seat

First, someone questions their "termination rate:"

• The civilian Chicago police board responsible for disciplining officers has backed the police superintendent's recommendations for terminating officers only 37 percent of the time, though the city's top cop has recommended firings in 97 percent of the cases, according to the report by the Chicago Justice Project, which advocates public access to justice-related information.

Then an aldercreature wants them to explain themselves:

• Chicago’s disciplinary board for police officers would have to explain its votes for the first time and would see its compensation slashed under an ordinance introduced today by Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd).

  Fioretti is reacting to a recently released report by the Chicago Justice Project that showed four of the Chicago Police Board’s nine members missed more than 20 percent of the board’s meetings over the last decade.

  “They get stale serving on these boards,” Fioretti said. “They look at it as a place to show up and get a paycheck. The board needs fresh blood.”

Funny he should mention "fresh blood." We've been getting quite a few reports that "fresh blood" is going to be the least of the Police Board's problems in short order. And remember, the entire Board is appointed by one person - there are no layers of insulation between him and them.

Relief is on the Way!

Plans are on the board to hire 86 (that's eighty-six) new recruits sometime between now and Christmas.

That's assuming that there are

• eighty-six names still on the list,
  
• eighty-six people who can pass the drug and power tests,
  
• eighty-six people who have waited through about three years of no hiring movement whatsoever,
• eighty-six people who are willing to disrupt their lives to the extent necessary to become the police in an economy where not only are jobs scarce, formerly "recession-resistant" jobs such as the police, fire and municipal employees are being forced or requested to take off massive amounts of time and a retirement future that is about as bleak as an Antarctic winter day.

And that will just about cover the 591 vacancies and hold the Department through the upcoming 2010 budget year when 1,000 more police become eligible for retirement.

Welcome aboard recruits! Don't mind the water rising in your steerage compartments. It's all part of the charm.

Another Trade Show Gone?

The hits just keep on coming:

• Chicago's standing as a trade show center faces yet another pummeling as the National Restaurant Association weighs whether to take its 2012 trade show elsewhere, according to sources close to the negotiations.

  An exit by this McCormick Place star--a top show here for more than a half-century--would be a third brutal punch to the city, which in the past week lost two other shows.

  The plastics industry trade show, a triennial event, announced Tuesday it will move its 2012 and 2015 shows to Orlando after nearly four decades in Chicago. And the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week said it would move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas.

  Both cited the cost of doing business in Chicago as the major factor in their decisions.

The Restaurant people haven't verified this one yet, but the fact that they're only committed to Chicago through 2011 speaks volumes and gives them unprecedented leverage in making their decision. The plastic industry trade show said they'll save $20 million by not showing up and they're similar in size and scope to the Restaurant convention.

We could actually be witnessing the dissolution of the last of the Rust Belt cities before our very eyes. An even bigger blow could be the 2010 census if Illinois loses another few seats in Congress.

Huberman in 2002

A reader with a sharp eye and an even sharper memory dug up this little beauty from Crain's in 2002. Sounds an awful lot like the puff piece Crain's just did on Masters:

• Paperwork, the bane of every beat cop's existence, will be shelved for good here.
  
  "Within 12 months, the Chicago Police Department will go completely paperless," says Ron Huberman, a uniformed officer who carries a gun and two master's degrees. "I am 100% confident Chicago will be the leader in police technology."
  
  Already, Chicago police officers can mine a database with 4 million arrest records to track down a suspect by nickname or the description of a tattoo.
  
  Mr. Huberman, who heads the office of information and strategic services, is working with California-based database software giant Oracle Corp. to put a laptop in every squad car, extending the computer revolution to all aspects of police work.
  
  That means detectives will start working a case five minutes after the beat officer files a crime report, instead of three days later, says Mr. Huberman. "They will spend more time solving crimes."
  
  The technology vision starts with Police Superintendent Terry Hillard, but Mr. Huberman's job is to make it work on the street.

So evidently, we went paperless in sometime in 2003, We have laptops in every squad car...oops, we mean every Tahoe, and the Detective division is working cases 5 minutes after we submit a report on AIRA.

That 5 minute window doesn't begin until we locate a Sergeant to approve the case report in AIRA, who spends 25 or 30 minutes attempting to locate the report after it disappears into cyberspace, and the hour or two the report bounces back and forth between rejections and final approval. And that doesn't include the massively overloaded and shorthanded Detective Division that hasn't seen a Detective promoted in 2 years and counting now. How's that clearance rate looking compared to 2002? 33% and falling? Wow.

And meanwhile, Huberman has gone through two more non-police jobs while simultaneously attempting to steal a police pension. Amazing.

J-Fed Wants an Extension

According to a few comments, an e-mail and at least one carrier pigeon letter, J-Fed is in negotiations for a contract extension, touting the low number of homicides on his watch.

At this point, we wouldn't bet against Daley giving it to him. The only thing that may justify not extending his stay would be his salary that far outpaces even the mayor's paycheck.

Attention SCC Fan

Contact us ASAP. Use e-mail link.

UPDATE: We have located the individual to whom we needed to speak to. Thanks for all the concerned e-mail. And don't worry, we've deleted all your e-mail addresses as we always do - we don't usually send them to overseas spammers.

Med Examiner Blames Police

Not only was this one of the fastest (if not THE fastest) declaration of suicide we've seen in a long time, it's also the quickest in blaming the police - not from some play cousin wasn't on the scene - but from an actual government employee involved in the investigation:

• The medical examiner says, after a complete autopsy with two police detectives present, all the forensic evidence leads to suicide. The police department does not want to make that same conclusion, however, until it is ready to tell Michael Scott's family that a thorough police investigation was conducted.

  Tuesday, the medical examiner says that investigation began with the police breaking the law.

That is a hell of an accusation to make right off the bat. The body is barely cold and the M.E. comes out with "it was suicide" and "the police broke the law." And how did they break the law?

• "Moving the body from a scene without notifying the medical examiner is actually a violation of our ordinance," said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Nancy Lynne Jones.

So the time stamps are off? We're pretty sure someone in 018 called the M.E. There wasn't any doubt the M.E. was going to want the body. Could we get some clarification on this? Because Doctor Jones is throwing out a bombshell here and remember, she works for an office that once declared that a TASER had killed a subject, completely disregarding the fact he had three times the lethal dose of methamphetamine in his system. All to facilitate a lawsuit.

She's hanging her hat on this tidbit:

• "This was a hard, contact-range gunshot to the head, which means the gun was held against the head and pressed into the head, which is something we see in suicides," Jones said.

Yeah, you see that in gangland-style executions, too. We're just throwing that out there. Has anyone seen a GSR report on Mr. Scott?

Another Oddity

Not only do you have the police brass actively holding up closure on this case...:

• But police brass decided not to close the investigation after speaking with friends and family, all of which had serious concerns that Scott -- a man with seemingly few troubles and no outward signs of distress -- wouldn't have killed himself.

  Police note that no suicide note was found on Scott's person or at his home. They're in the process of searching his Blackberry, the Sun-Times says.

(we're sure they're waiting a day or two for mail deliveries to family, friends and media)

You have this interesting bit of tape:



There's a whole series of these things on YouTube.com showing Arne Duncan, Danny Davis, Rickey Hendon all in the company of one Michael Scott.

Just what the hell is happening around here? Besides business as usual we mean - there's just an undercurrent of something. Something very wrong.

Another Nail in the Coffin

Chicago's convention business continues it's slide into irrelevance:

• McCormick Place is losing a second key piece of its convention business within a week, as the plastics industry trade show has decided to move to Orlando for 2012 and 2015 after nearly four decades in Chicago.
  
  The announcement this morning comes on the heels of a decision by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week to move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas.
  
  Plastics show officials said they expect the decision to yield up to $20 million in savings for exhibitors and attendees, with about half that coming from savings in travel-related costs.

Imagine that - saving $20 million just by not even showing up in Chicago. If that isn't the saddest commentary on Daley's Chicago, we don't know what is.

Whoops!

Don't know how this one slipped past us. Don't know why the media isn't giving it bigger coverage either:

• November 16, 2009 (WLS) -- State Representative Annazette Collins was robbed at gunpoint by a masked man on Chicago's South Side.

  The legislator from Chicago was with her sister walking near 61st and Woodlawn around 8 p.m. Sunday. They told police a gunman wearing a black ski mask and skull cap demanded a purse. He took Collins' bag and fled on foot.

  Neither woman was hurt.

  Investigators say the theft happened in a courtyard that was unsecured because of a glitch due to the new area code that requires 11-digit dialing.

Just kidding! We know exactly why no one is giving this big coverage. And so does everyone reading.

A Real Enforcement Tool

Someone grew a brain at Council Chambers evidently:

• People caught driving on a revoked or suspended license in Chicago could soon have their cars impounded.

  An ordinance to take that action was approved today by the Chicago city council's police and fire committee. A previous, similar proposal failed because the Department of Streets and Sanitation did not have sufficient room for impounded vehicles.

  The new ordinance goes before the full city council Wednesday.

Now will it pass the full Council? Remember, this is going to come down on those who think that driving is a right, not a privilege. And on owners who lend their cars to people who shouldn't be anywhere near a bicycle, let alone a vehicle. This could be interesting.

J-Fed's Handler

Masters Masters Masters:

• A lean policy wonk with a Harvard Law degree and a master's in international relations from Cambridge at the cop house?
  

A Harvard law degree? A Cambridge masters degree? And he's stuck here in Chicago as a civilian in a police job? Must have been a truly lousy lawyer. How do you feel about this J-Fed?

• Mr. Weis says it was he who wanted Mr. Masters: "I can count on him for what I really need: honest feedback. And that's hard, historically, in a department where, whatever the superintendent says, it's done."

Hahahaha. Oh lord, you must have earned every cent of your over-inflated salary the day you said those phrases - did it hurt? Did you need a shower afterward? Did you gargle with battery acid? Oh, and this Department was always run by the First Deputy...until Cline got here. Just so you don't look like more of a completely out-of-touch boob next time.

Continuing on:

• A meticulous bureaucrat who was a teenage troubleshooter for former Alderman Bernie Hansen (44th)...

Teenage troubleshooter? Meticulous bureaucrat? Gee, what's not to love? He has "Machine hack" tattooed all over his body. Which makes him what, boys and girls?

• "He's sort of like the eyes and ears of the superintendent, even if he's with the superintendent," says Alderman Walter Burnett...
  

That makes him a spy. For Shortshanks. Is he still running around with a pistol?

"Earned, Not Given" our asses.

UPDATE: At the request of Crain's Chicago Business, we've removed the copyrighted photo of Masters (Masters Masters). We've also removed most of the full text of the linked article so as to fall into the realm of "fair use."

4 and 2 Signed

NOTE: Post originally published 10:15 pm on 16 November - we moved it up near the top since it's very fresh and affects 80% or more of the Department.

Taking effect on 10 January. Here's how it affects everyone immediately:

• · 17 November: publish notice
  
  · 17 - 24 November: submit watch selections
  
  · 25 November - 02 December: process watches and make new day off group assignments
  
  · 02 December: post watch selections
  
  · 03 - 17 December: select furloughs
  
  · 17 - 22 December: process furloughs
  
  · 23 December: post furlough selections

FOP site has details.

Memorandum of Understanding is here.

Cozzi Bracelets

A worthy cause:

• You've expressed your outrage.
  Please show your support.
  
  We are now selling light blue rubber bracelets for Bill Cozzi. Some say, "Free Bill Cozzi" and some say "Remember Bill Cozzi." Bracelets will be sold for $10.00 each.
  
  The original intent was to raise money for Bill and put it into an account for when Bill gets released from prison. If Bill was unable to collect, the beneficiary of that account would be the Police Memorial Foundation. After talking to Bill and his family, Bill is declining the money but is asking that all proceeds go directly to the Police Memorial Foundation.
  
  Bill was a big supporter of the Police Memorial as he ran the 5K and donated money to the Foundation. What a kind and generous act on his part to think of the Police Memorial Foundation instead of himself while he is going through such a difficult period in his life.
  
  The selling of the bracelets will serve 2 great purposes. Wearing it will show support for Bill and buying it will support the Police Memorial Foundation.
  
  Please remember what happened to Bill can happen to any one of us and it's important not to forget about each other.
  
  These are being sold by a group of people who feel it's important to remember. Today is the first day of the sale. Bracelets will start filtering out to the districts this week. Of course, you can find them in Bill's old district.
  
  They will also be sold tomorrow, 17 November at the union meeting and in the union store.
  
  It would be a great show of force for all of us to stick together and wear these. Thanks for your support.

Is It Just Us...

...or was this about the quickest determination of "suicide" in a Chicago death investigation in recent years?

• The death of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott was ruled a suicide this afternoon by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

Of course, the web Scott operated in is now a hotbed of conspiracy theories. The list of people interviewed in the Sun Times article is a veritable "Who's Who" of political intrigue and insider connections:

• A stunned Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up at the scene...
• U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, issued a statement...
• Ron Huberman, who replaced Duncan as schools CEO, was at Scott’s Near West Side condominium this morning to offer condolences to family and friends. He was joined by schools spokeswoman Monique Bond...
• Cook County Board President Todd Stroger issued a statement...

The list of aldercreatures is extensive, too. And then there are the intriguing parts:

• Scott was Daley’s long-time go-to guy but raised eyebrows earlier this year when he disclosed to the Sun-Times that he had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating how students were selected for the system’s elite selective-enrollment high schools.

• In August, he was forced to answer questions about his involvement in a development proposal near the the proposed Douglas Park Olympic site.

  He insisted he would not profit from the deal.

• On Monday, Carothers cut off a conversation with a reporter when asked whether he had recorded any conversations with Scott.

Questions, and more questions. Especially about that wire Ike was wearing.

UPDATE: Even John Kass is wondering - especially about the location, location, location:

• And in Monday's daylight, after the TV cameras had left, it seemed reasonable that Scott could have easily made his way there.
  
  But the night before, in the dark, it would have been all but unnavigable. He would have had to walk right under the cement counterweight for that old drawbridge, then scramble underneath an iron fence, then down a little embankment overgrown with weeds and strewn with trash.
  
  He'd have walked over broken bottles, old rags from some homeless wanderer. There was a syringe on the ground.
  
  Scott would have walked out along part of the cement river wall running under the bridge. It is about 5 feet below street level, next to an old boarded-up bridge house. It's quiet, even in the day. At night it would be all but silent.

Even J-Fed contributes to the conspiracy!

• "We know what the ME ruled," said Police Superintendent Jody Weis. "But there are a lot of questions out there."

Hmmmmmm.

More Magic Money

Remember, Chicago is still broke according to the mayor:

• Chicago will be free to demolish hundreds of abandoned homes in suburban Bensenville to make way for new runways at O’Hare Airport, thanks to a $16 million settlement advanced by a City Council committee Monday.

  Peace has been in the works since last spring, when Frank Soto unseated Bensenville Village President John Geils, who led the charge against O’Hare expansion.

  [...] That includes traffic and landscaping plans and demolition controls, including temporary fencing. The Daley administration has also agreed to repair and replace Bensenville’s stormwater and wastewater infrastructure if it’s damaged during demolition.

If past history is any indicator, there are cost overruns even in knocking down empty buildings whenever Shortshanks is involved. This open-ended agreement to "repair and replace" seems to be rife with potential for "overruns."

But it is nice to see the Shortshanks's golden goose is still laying million dollar eggs.

Petition Total - 11,012 (UPDATE - 11,187)

We knew this was a quixotic endeavor. 122,000 signatures in 20 days was a near impossibility.

That being said, with no organization, no warning, no real motivation but disgust and anger with a system that has bled the city and taxpayers for decades and an aldercreature talking out of his ass, we managed to motivate a gathering of 11,000 signatures in 20 days. For a blog that generates 10,000 hits a day, that's not a bad showing. 11,000 votes can make a difference.

First up, thanks must be expressed to Sgt. John Northen (retired). John volunteered to collect, bind and submit the petitions. While we didn't reach the magic number, without his stepping up to be the person in front of the curtain, we wouldn't have had even this small showing. Hopefully, he inspires some others to take their place at the head of what may become a grass-roots-type effort the next time around.

Second, the circulators. You weren't willing to take the word of naysayers and pessimists of which there were plenty in our comment sections and in the field. Many of you probably had your doubts (well-founded doubts) but you did the work anyway. The longest journey starts with the smallest steps and this was a small step. A better organization with more time may very well make the difference next time. Hopefully that organization is being created right now.

A special thanks goes out to the Chicago Fire Department. They were overrepresented in their signatures and in their collecting of signatures. A lot of good-natured teasing goes on between our departments along with some underlying resentments. We have to learn that we are on the same side of many issues, and together we can make some lasting changes that will benefit all of us.

And finally, the signers. Whatever your motivation, courage, disgust, vengeance, putting the pen to paper is the simplest and most powerful of acts. Voting is another. Participation is the key and you participated.

We'll be posting on the effort again shortly and where we might be able to take it in the future. Thanks to everyone who participated. Believe us, it wasn't a waste of time. Not by a long shot.

UPDATE: An additional bunch signatures were received by Sgt. Northen this morning. Had this been actually filed this AM with the Board of Elections, they'd have been out of the running, but as we can't file so shortly, we'll add them to the total.

UPDATE: With a final hand delivery, the total became 11,187.

CBS 2 Declares War?

Looks like someone was cleaning out the old storage rooms at Channel 2 and located a set of testicles in a drawer that everyone had forgotten about.

First you have Pam Zekman doing a rehash of Fran Spielman's 29 October article pointing out the Department is short 600 officers. Combined with IOD, Medical and Limited Duty, the city is regularly short around 2,000 officers daily. Zekman dresses up her "investigation" with video and actual victims who have experienced the effects of the shortages firsthand - that's what television does, so we don't begrudge her that.

Then you have the Kurtis and Jacobson reunion. The newscast itself was a ratings stunt to recapture the old glory years, but Walter threw in a few punches with a return to his "Perspective" years, hammering Daley for making a whole bunch of stupid moves in recent months. Shortshanks was so upset that he had to throw in a few shots of his own the next day, which probably means Walter landed a few haymakers. Walter is no friend of the police and has his own axes to grind due to numerous drunk driving incidents and other arrests during the 1970s and 80s, but he did a good job rattling Daley's cage.

Now Jay Levine has a piece detailing the overabundance of "middle management" making 6-figure incomes while hourly workers are having hours cut, holidays canceled and being forced to take furlough days by the truckload:

• Too many bosses.
  
  That's how some describe efforts to cut the city's budget by laying off workers. Hourly workers are feeling much more of the pain than their six-figure-salaried bosses.
  
  [...] The bosses weren't talking -- nor were the bosses' bosses -- about what we found in the mayor's $6 billion budget. In three departments alone, more than 200 top managers are each pulling in around $100,000 a year.
  
  Mayor Daley dedicated a restored railroad bridge Friday – a $4 million project he called investing in the city's infrastructure.
  
  Also on hand was the commissioner of one of three departments who employ 20 deputy Commissioners; 18 assistant commissioners and 25 assistants to the commissioner.
  
  "We don't believe we have an excessive number of managers within the Department of Transportation," Acting Transportation Commissioner Thomas Powers said.

Could it be a new day is dawning in the Chicago media? CBS might be testing the waters to see if there's actually a market for negative stories about the political class? Walter and Bill used to preside over a station that was in the business doing hard hitting investigative reporting. Nowadays, it's hard to tell which media outlet, print, radio or television, is buried deepest in Daley's ass. Hopefully, someone was looking for some fresh air and found a way out.

Quotas Are Back in 017

That's what we hear at least:

• My sources tell me that the 017th District 3rd Watch W/C (KB) is calling officers in & telling them that if their activity does not improve he will have to place them in the "Personnal Concern" Program. Is this action a threat making the 3rd Watch a Hostile Work Enviroment, an EEOC Complaint or both. Is he acting on his own or with the Commanders Orders? Just asking??
  
  
• please address this scc,officers in 017 dist. called in by 2nd watch comm. 3rd watch comm.about performance, giving neg reviews.. this is a hostile work enviroment. activity, activity, numbers. numbers

We aren't sure, but this doesn't seem to rise to the level of a "Personnel Concern." Let's see...Administrative Order 05-04 - Personnel Concerns Program, Section V-C (we're summarizing here:)

1. sustained excessive force CRs
   
2. four instances of "program eligible conduct" from the "Nondisciplinary Intervention Pilot Program
3. sustained domestic violence CRs
4. sustained intoxication CRs
5. sustained penalties of 10 days or more
6. five sustained CRs in 5 years
7. two performance grades below a 76 (which hasn't been done in 10 years or more)
8. one performance grade below a 70 (again, a defunct system)
9. two SPARs for being AWOL
10. psych evaluation
11. Behavioral Intervention System failure
    

Nope, nothing in there about activity. In any case, always request Union representation, a witness if possible and notification in writing and make sure the captain cites the appropriate section of Administrative Order 04-05.

Sounds like the captain is about to make a whole bunch of coppers very happy this Christmas. Sounds like the Commander might be on the hook since he's allowing this to go on.