Evidence ignored in fight against staffing law

When Illinois firefighters in 1986 surrendered their right to strike, it represented the essence of service for the sake of the public's safety and well-being.

In return they received several collective bargaining considerations. Among those considerations was the implication that safe staffing levels could be negotiated with the employer and resolved through binding arbitration if the parties were unable to reach an agreement.

Illinois firefighters made the trade in good faith. In other words, firefighters took politicians at their word that the public's safety and well-being would be decided through a deliberative process; there would be no one-sided edicts from either side.

Late last month the Illinois General Assembly voted to put that process into writing. The reason? Frankly, it appears the local governments lost their memories. No longer did the local politicians wish to follow the spirit of a nearly 30-year-old law. Instead they have attempted to rewrite Illinois law through the court system instead of the General Assembly.

Your Nov. 21 editorial missed the mark when you said the General Assembly's action on firefighter staffing establishes the arbitration process for manning. It was already there, and has been there for nearly 30 years. For some reason you declared that legislative action to be "sinister".

Worse, your editorial bought into the fabrication the legislation will cost local governments untold chunks of money. In fact, the opposite is true.

Let's look at south suburban Oak Lawn, whose mayor and village trustees tried to end-run the arbitration process and were rejected by circuit, appellate and state courts.

The taxpayers of Oak Lawn lost an estimated $2.5 million in lawyers' fees and court awards, money that was wasted on attorneys to pursue litigation that any intelligent person knew was a loser. Put that in context: The money flushed to lawyers in Oak Lawn would have paid for 25 firefighters for a year - including salary and all related benefits.

Or it could have fixed dozens of potholes, replaced crumbling sewers and sidewalks or put a couple of bad guys in jail. Better yet, the money could have been abated back to the people who pay their property taxes with the expectation they'll get service, not pay for lawyers' vacation homes.

In fighting this legislation, local officials concocted baseless hypotheticals that the legislation was a budget buster. In fact, the only empirical evidence is that municipalities have wasted millions fighting a law that's been in place nearly three decades.

They made it up without evidence.

Lastly, your editorial implied the timing of the legislature's vote was a devious way to circumvent the process because it happened during a "lame duck session."

I must remind everyone that the bill received bipartisan support from 42 of the 57 Senators voting on the measure. The proposal was first introduced in January and has been thoroughly debated and discussed over the last 11 months. The bill passed on its own merits and well within the parliamentary rules of the General Assembly.

And rules are what separate our democracies from autocracies.

Rules and good faith.

Pat Devaney

President

Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois

Springfield