[CPRB] Urbana police contract and side letter

[Brandon Bowersox]

Dear CPRB coalition,

At tonight's Urbana City Council meeting an important question was  
raised about the ability of people with a prior felony conviction to  
serve on the Civilian Review Board.  This issue was raised by a  
number of speakers.

I want to publicly share with you the contract the City signed with  
the police officer's labor union, the Fraternal Order of Police,  
through June 30, 2010:
http://www.city.urbana.il.us/urbana/executive/human_resources/ 
contracts/fop_contract.pdf
( or http://tinyurl.com/26en3a )

Within this contract, section 22.1 (page 42 of the PDF) is the start  
of the section on the CPRB within the contract; after the attachments  
is the Side Letter (page 52 of the PDF) which contains the most  
significant limitations.

This contract limits the ability of the City Council in enacting a  
CPRB, including the issue of felony conviction.  As you advocate for  
changes to the proposed CPRB draft, you should be aware that the City  
Council can only enact a CPRB within these limitations, at least  
through June 30, 2010.

Late last year, on December 30, 2006, there was a more complete  
discussion of the contract and side letter on this email list when it  
was first publicized:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/cprb/2006-December/000440.html

Thank You for your energy and enthusiasm for enacting an effective  
ordinance that will improve the community-police relationship.

Brandon

Brandon Bowersox
Urbana City Council
http://ward4.org/, bowersox at prairienet.org