[CPRB] Springfield Police Review Commission

[Walling, Jennifer]

Hey everyone,

The Urbana City Attorney pointed me to some articles on Tuesday about the
city of Springfield and their efforts for a police review commission.  I
knew that some effort was going on there a few years ago, but I thought it
had died. Apparently, the council there just approved a police review board,
but it's being held up by the Illinois Labor Relations Board?  I think?  I'm
going to look more into the issue.

Apparently, there is some sort of 1983 agreement in Springfield that the
Police Union signed with the mayor that gave the mayor discipline authority
over the Springfield PD.  The Council thinks that the Police Review
Commission should just go ahead and the Police Union thinks it violates
their Collective Bargaining Agreement.  This may or may not be an issue in
Urbana, depending on the CBA.

I've copied below the article where it passed in February and links to the
others.

April 21
http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A4167

Feb. 3, 2005
http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A3941

January 20
http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A3901



Three strikes

BY DUSTY RHODES

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This week's meeting of Springfield City Council had the air of a lopsided
baseball game. Aldermen threw a series of breaking curve balls, and the
mayor went down swinging on a 3-0 count.

First, the 4.5 percent rate hike requested by City Water, Light and Power
failed 4-6. That request - the first of several planned to fund the
construction of a new power plant - is likely to resurface at the council's
February 15 meeting.

Next, the council refused to approve the annual budget appropriation,
instead taking a voice vote to send the ordinance back to committee for
further amendments. Mayor Tim Davlin called the move "disrespectful,"
chastising council members for not submitting amendments sooner. Council
coordinator Joe Davis spoke up in defense of the aldermen, saying
last-minute amendments are a council tradition.

Later, Ward 3 Alderman Frank Kunz called the mayor's complaint disingenuous.
"We've been yelling at each other for over a month about what's going to
come out of this budget and what wasn't," Kunz said. The mayor, he added,
"knew what most of us were going to do, whether it was written down or not."

Toward the end of the evening, the council approved a historic ordinance
creating for the first time in Springfield a citizen review board to examine
complaints against police. But that vote, too, marked a defeat for Davlin.
Even though the mayor supports the creation of the panel, he pleaded with
council members to send the ordinance back to committee to allow the city
time to negotiate with the police union.

The Police Benevolent and Protective Association Unit No. 5 considers
creation of a review board to be a mandatory topic of collective bargaining.