Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby dismissed City Council’s passage of a bill requiring a public hearing on its labor contract.
“It affects us not one bit,” he said during a Sept. 17 news conference at the FOP. “What they did was an absolute waste of time.”
Councilwoman Katherine Gilmore Richardson’s legislation passed 15-2. Councilmen Brian O’Neill and Bobby Henon supplied the no votes.
The bill will require a public hearing at least 30 days before the mayoral administration proposes a new contract.
The FOP contract is determined through arbitration, not private negotiations or a public hearing.
McNesby said he will not testify at a public hearing. He criticized Council for singling out the FOP for a public hearing, saying it makes police officers out to be “the bad guys.” He called the idea of defunding the police “absurd.”
Instead, McNesby said, Council should hold a hearing on District Attorney Larry Krasner, who he said is single-handedly ruining Philadelphia because of his “sweetheart” deals with defendants. The union leader said shootings are on the rise because criminals have little fear of prosecution.
McNesby credited the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s office with pursuing “real time” sentences for violent criminals. ••
