Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
As the vaccine mandate stand-off continues, the police union’s City Council allies are flexing their legislative muscle.
A Cook County judge on Thursday harangued the city and police union over the “sensationalization” of their vaccine mandate battle.
Judge Moshe Jacobius’ voice began to rise shortly after an attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 expressed his sense of frustration with the legal proceedings.
“You speak of frustration, I think there’s enough frustration to go around,” Jacobius said during the virtual hearing.
“Without commenting on anything specific, there’s been some comments about lowering the volume and lowering the flames and working in commonality for the people of the city of Chicago, both sides, and I think these parties should take that to heart,” he said.
“I’m not here to lecture or give sermons, that’s not my role, but when you see what’s going on and you see the sensationalization of this, people need to really consider, everybody that’s involved here is in public service,” he said.
“I think if people have goodwill and they approach it from consideration and a humanistic point of view, rather than a litigious [one] … then everyone’s going to be better off.”
Police union attorney Joel D’Alba assured Jacobius that both sides were in discussions away from courtrooms to try to hash out differences.
Jacobius’ mini tirade was an aside to the main order of business in his courtroom.
He granted a motion by attorneys for the city to have a single judge handle the two pending cases related to the vaccine mandate.
One case filed by the city seeks to extend a 10-day ban on police union President John Catanzara’s use of social media to discourage his members from reporting their vaccine status to the city and place similar restrictions to other union leaders. The next hearing in that case is scheduled for Monday, the same day the current 10-day ban — in the form of a temporary restraining order — is set to expire.
A separate lawsuit filed by the police union seeks a court-ordered suspension of the city’s vaccination policy pending further bargaining and arbitration.
Under Jacobius’ order, both cases will now be handled by Cook County Circuit Judge Cecilia Horan.
The order comes a day after Horan denied a request from the police union that she recuse herself.
Attorneys for the union had questioned her impartiality because the firm she was a partner at prior to becoming a judge, Hinshaw & Culbertson, created a report about police reform for the city’s Police Accountability Task Force that contributed to the creation of a federal consent decree the Police Department is still currently under.
Horan said the firm had more than 400 attorneys and she did not know about the report at all and had nothing to do with it while she was a partner at the firm. Horan further said she doesn’t know Mayor Lori Lightfoot and has never represented any of the parties involved in the case.
As the vaccine stand-off drags on, the police union’s City Council allies are flexing their legislative muscle.
Alderpersons Silvana Tabares (23rd) and Anthony Napolitano (41st) plan to introduce an ordinance at Monday’s City Council meeting that retroactively requires City Council approval of “all policies, rules and regulations governing discipline” of city employees.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of the city code to the contrary and subject to the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement approved by City Council, any new policy rule or regulation that provides for placing city employees on non-disciplinary, no-pay status requires City Council approval,” the ordinance states.
Lightfoot’s mandate that city employees report their vaccination status on the city’s data portal took effect Oct 8. The ordinance “shall be retroactive” to Oct. 1.
Also on Monday, indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th) plans to introduce an ordinance that would require the continuation of health care benefits for the dependents of city employees for the duration of the dispute.
“Many of these beneficiaries are being treated for life-threatening diseases, mental health illnesses and are receiving hospital and in-patient treatment which will be at risk. The City Council has enacted no resolution or ordinance to permit this to occur. Humanitarian interests demand the continued care and treatment of these current dependents,” the resolution states.
“No provision of the municipal code authorizes the Mayor of Chicago to take this Draconian action. And furthermore, no action of the municipal code requires city employees to submit the information” on their vaccine status.
