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While the Springfield City Council focuses on
selecting the next police chief, rank-and-file members of the Springfield
Police Department are embroiled in a controversy that hits closer to home:
who will run the patrol officers’ union. Sgt. Al Jones, elected president of the
Policemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association Unit 5 in August
2006, was this week not only ousted from office but actually expelled from
the union by the board of directors. Sgt. Chris Mueller, who had been vice
president, is now president (he prefers the term “interim
president”) of Unit 5. “It was kind of a last-resort hard decision to
make,” Mueller says. “We’re on speaking terms. Al’s
a nice guy. I’ve always gotten along with him. In a professional
capacity is just where things didn’t work out. That’s why
things went the way they did.”
Jones also sounds more sad than angry about his
ouster, saying the board gave him several opportunities to resign his
position instead of being expelled from the organization. He refused. “My loyalty is to the membership, not to this
board,” Jones says. The main issue behind the unprecedented coup was the
question of legal representation for police officers. Springfield attorney
Ron Stone has handled PBPA’s legal chores for almost 20 years, but
Jones’ campaign was based on a promise to explore other options,
specifically service offered by the Policemen’s Benevolent Labor
Committee, the legal team of the statewide PBPA. Jones says that the PBLC
plan provides virtually unlimited legal representation but requires each
union member to pay a flat rate of $25 per month. Stone charges separately
for each arbitration hearing, court appearance, or other legal service. “On a lot of years, Stone’s going to be
cheaper,” Jones says, “but it only takes a couple of bad years
to screw things up.”
Furthermore, Jones says, changing to the PBLC plan
would’ve given all union members equal access to an attorney instead
of having the board decide which grievances to support. “If you’re an officer and you need
representation, the board can decide,” Jones says, “and if
you’re not on the board’s Christmas-card list your chances are
rapidly diminishing. With PBLC, you wouldn’t have to ask the
board.”
Mueller calls Jones’ version “too
simplistic” and says that the board’s decisions are based not
on personal friendships but on the good of the membership. “We don’t pick and choose based on like;
we have to protect our contractual interest and how we feel we could do in
an arbitration,” he says.
In May, the membership voted 149 to 86 to stay with
Stone, and Jones says that he was ready to drop the issue. Instead, on his
first day back at work, he was confronted by Mueller and another board
member, asking him to resign. Over the next few weeks, board members made several
informal requests of Jones to resign, and he continued to refuse. On June
13 they presented him with a three-page letter accusing him of
“disloyalty” and being “detrimental” to the union
— charges that amount to grounds for expulsion. His chance to answer
those charges came on June 18, in a meeting at Stone’s office. Citing
an article in the PBPA bylaws promising legal representation for board
members, Jones told Mueller he planned to bring his attorney, James Baker,
and asked Mueller if the board would pay Baker’s fees. Mueller said
no. “That [clause] probably was not meant to cover internal type
strike,” Mueller says. “Why would we pay to fight
ourselves?” Jones presented a page-long statement calling the charges
“false and without merit,” then left, declining to answer
questions. Over the next few hours Mueller called Jones,
reiterating the offer to avoid expulsion by resigning and even giving him
the chance to give the board a list of five officers he liked, promising
that the board would select one of those officers as a board trustee. “If I’m this evil entity, why are they
trying to make deals with me?” Jones asks. “If I’d really
done anything wrong, they would have gone after me and there wouldn’t
be any deals.”
Mueller says that he made the offer because the board
is genuinely interested in “fair share.” Jones still refused. Before his election as president, Jones had never
held a board position and was seen as an outsider to the PBPA power
structure [see Dusty Rhodes, “Out of the blue,” Nov. 2, 2006].
Mueller, who served two terms on the board and ran for president in 2004,
is firmly aligned with the two past presidents, Sgt. Bob Markovic and
recently retired Chief Don Kliment. Still, he says, he never wanted to become union president in such a messy way. “This isn’t what I had in mind,” he
says.
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2007.
