Shawn and Wayne, a short story still being written.

Many of my brother and sister officers have asked me what is the story about Shawn and Wayne. Well the matter is still in the courts but here is some of what has been going on. There is more legal mumbo jumbo involved, but this is the basic story.

JUST THE FACTS, MAAM

Since 05 July, 1994, Shawn Hallinan has been a police officer of the City of Chicago. He was a member in good standing of FOP Lodge 7 until he was suspended from FOP Lodge 7 in June 2005. He was expelled from FOP Lodge 7 on 06 September, 2005. Wayne Harej became a police officer on 26 July, 1971. He was a member in good standing of FOP Lodge 7 until he was also suspended in June 2005 and expelled on 06 September, 2005.

Hallinan was one of the leaders of The IOU Team, a rank and file team in opposition to FOP Lodge 7 President Mark Donahue and his group, The City Wide Team. On 25 March, 2005, FOP Lodge 7 held elections for union officers. Hallinan formed The IOU Team of 20 candidates to oppose Donahue and The City Wide Team. Hallinan ran against Donahue for FOP Lodge 7 president. Harej ran for financial secretary. On 25 March, 2005, The IOU Team generally lost to The City Wide Team, but won seven positions on the Board of Directors. Hallinan himself received 43 percent of the vote for president. Harej received 41 percent of the vote for financial secretary.

Donahue and his fellow City Wide teammates then proceeded immediately to expel Hallinan and Harej from the Lodge. On 19 April, 2005, at the first Lodge meeting after the election, Hallinan and Harej were served with charges accusing both men of improper criticism of their election opponents and discussing such matters in public with the media and going outside the Lodge and bringing the Lodge into disrepute.

These charges referred to a major campaign issue, namely, an accusation that Donahue had grossly underreported his union salary on a report that the Lodge was required to file with the Illinois Attorney General. Under Illinois law the Lodge is required as a charitable organization to file a form G 990 with the Illinois Attorney General and report the salaries of the organization’s officers. The Lodge reported Donahue’s salary as being only $53,000 a year when Donahue was actually earning a total salary of $138,000 as lodge president. In December 2004, prior to the March 2005, election, Harej filed a complaint with the Lodge that Donahue had under reported his income to the Attorney General. When the Lodge ignored the complaint, Harej reported the discrepancy to the Attorney General, who then began an investigation. Under pressure, the Lodge had to file not one, but two, corrected returns. The first corrected return continued to under-report Donahue’s salary at $68,000. The final corrected return acknowledged that his salary was $138,000 as Hallinan and Harej contended.

The return was corrected under pressure. The undisputed under reporting of income became a major campaign issue. Hallinan and Harej went to roll calls to discuss this and other issues, including Donahue’s handling of the collective bargaining agreement. Hallinan and Harej also spoke to reporters who were covering the campaign. FOP Lodge 7 represents over 11,000 Chicago police officers. The battle for leadership of the city’s police union was of interest to the public, as shown by stories about the election in the Chicago Sun-Times and elsewhere.

Stung by these attacks, Donahue and his team members acted to expel Hallinan and Harej as soon as the election was over. As noted above, Lodge officers filed charges at the meeting of 19 April, 2005. Then in June 2005, even before there was a hearing, the Lodge suspended both Hallinan and Harej from membership and refused to let them attend meetings. In July 2005 the Lodge held hearings on the charges. Donahue appointed his teammates to the committee that would decide on the charges. All the panel members were involved in the criticism and campaign attacks for which Hallinan and Harej were being tried. Shawn and Wayne protested that they were being tried by their political opponents, but nevertheless the union went forward with the hearings. On 06 September, 2005, the committee recommended to Donahue and the Board of Directors that the two men be expelled. The Board then voted to expel Hallinan and Harej. The decision was not unanimous, as some of Hallinan's IOU team members had been elected to the Board.

In addition to filing charges with the Board, both Hallinan and Harej appealed the Lodge’s actions to the State Lodge. On 02 December, 2005, the State Lodge held a hearing on the appeal. The State committee recommended that the appeal be denied but gave no reason for its decision.