After years of asking for the establishment of a citizen panel to review complaints
against the Springfield Police Department, Ward 2 Alderman Frank McNeil believes
he finally sees light at the end of the tunnel.
He’s just not sure whether it’s the floodlight he hoped for, the fragile glow of a single candle, or a light with a rheostat, that can adjust depending on the mood. McNeil’s prepared for any of those options, and he told his colleagues to be ready to vote on one the next time they meet.
“We are prepared to move hopefully at the first meeting in February,” McNeil told council members at their regular meeting this week. “All we have to do is call it, and the amendment is there. So I’m anticipating that everyone will have their comments and be prepared to vote.”
After the meeting, McNeil said he has actually had three ordinances drafted, identical in every way except for the controversial matter of subpoena power. One would give the proposed Police Citizen Review Commission subpoena power, one would not, and the third ordinance includes subpoena power as an option to be exercised only with the approval of City Council.
McNeil feels certain that, by offering this array of choices, he will finally get some version of the board approved.
“I’m good,” he chuckled. “I’m gonna get one of them.”
Which one, he says, doesn’t matter so much, although he reiterated that outside consultants, who met city officials twice, recommended subpoena power. If the council decides to ignore their recommendation, then McNeil said he had a question: “Why did we call them back?”
He said his third option represents a compromise that should please anyone, thereby ensuring that a board will be established.
“The way I look at it, we’re going to get something. If you don’t like it this way, you don’t like it that way, you’ve got to like it this [third] way,” he said.
“Most council members should, in my mind, be comfortable with that. It can only be used if they approve it. I think it makes sense.”
But the same consultants who recommended subpoena power also warned that cooperation of the police union would be crucial, and it’s unclear whether that has happened. Bob Markovic, president of the Police Benevolent and Protective Association Unit #5, had little response when asked about McNeil’s proposal Tuesday night.
“That’s interesting. I wish our contract negotiations would work like that. We could give the city three proposals and tell them they have to pick one,” he says, referring to upcoming arbitration between the PBPA and the city. The contract between the patrol officers’ union and the city expired last March. The parties are scheduled to enter arbitration the anniversary of that expiration, March 1.
Similar negotiations might also be necessary for PBPA to accept any version of a citizen review board. The union has long taken the position that a citizen review board is “a mandatory topic of bargaining.” On Tuesday night, Markovic declined to comment on whether such negotiations have occurred.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2005.
