Chicago Bombshell: FOP president says contracts ‘fixed’

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Fighting for survival, Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields is making an explosive allegation: that the last two police contracts dictated by an independent arbitrator were “fixed” and that the recent sergeants’ contract may also have been “rigged.”

Shields leveled the stunning charges Monday in a letter to Inspector General Joe Ferguson, demanding an investigation. A copy was delivered to FOP board members, including a handful of potential rivals whom Shields is now accusing of being in cahoots with the city.

“I was advised by the organization’s general counsel Paul Geiger that the last two arbitrations involving the City of Chicago were . . . fixed,” Shields wrote in the letter to the inspector general, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Specifically, Mr. Geiger informed me that past president Mark Donahue, current and past First Vice-President Bill Dougherty, current and past Financial-Secretary Rich Aguilar and past Third Vice-President Greg Bella had entered into ‘pre-determined’ and backroom deal’ arbitrations — which included precise, agreed-to findings and language — with the city and an arbitrator.

Gulp.