Police union wins against City (and WPD)

An arbitrator’s decision was announced last week in a case brought by the Woodstock police officers’ union against the City of Woodstock. The decision by arbitrator Marvin Hill, Jr. was favorable to the Union and against the City; i.e., against the position held by the Chief and the Police Department.

The case involved a challenge by the union, on behalf of certain officers, regarding the involvement of Permanent Beat Officers (PBOs) in the monthly Coffee with the Chief programs that were started when Chief Robert Lowen came to Woodstock.

Originally, PBOs were to create direct relationships with residents in their own neighborhoods, becoming the face on the street. It was thought that building personal relationships with residents through smaller (in-home or at businesses) meetings would increase police effectiveness and efficiency.

Apparently, officers were not successful quickly enough at establishing meetings within their Beats (Woodstock is divided into four police “beats”, plus the Square during the summer), and the chief made a decision to incorporate the “beat” officers into the monthly Coffee meetings (second Monday of the month, 7:00PM, at the police station).

And, to quote a well-known phrase, “therein lies the rub.”

In order to get all three officers from the same beat at a Monday evening Coffee with the Chief meeting, two of them would have to come in on overtime pay. However, the overtime agreement (negotiated contract) between the police union and the Police Department requires overtime to go to the most senior, qualified officer.

The rub? More-senior officers were available than the assigned beat officers, and so the police union, Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, #191, cranked up its engines.

The union claimed that Chief Lowen had circumvented an agreement with the union that overtime would be scheduled by seniority, and the arbitrator agreed. The arbitrator awarded overtime to the senior officers who would have been called for duty to attend the monthly Coffee meetings, except for the Chief’s decision to call in the less-senior PBOs.

The City will now pay those senior officers and, of course, it will pay the attorney who represented the City, John Kelly, of the Naperville law firm of Ottosen Britz Kelly Cooper & Gilbert, Ltd. Mr. Kelly is also the attorney for the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.

There was obviously a cost involved in resolving this disagreement – payroll, legal fees and, most importantly, morale.