2nd District Council Agenda

Alexander J. Perez - Chair

Perez worked for Aurora’s mayoral department of communications for four years and was the director of community engagement for West Aurora School District 129 for over a year. Alderpersons Pat Dowell and Jeanette Taylor have endorsed.

• Is CPD adequately funded? Yes: funding should stay about the same.

• CPD reform: The police need training and some reform.

I do not believe that we need to expand hiring; I think we should focus on filling in the vacancies that we currently have.

What do you consider the primary role of a police district councilor to be?

Establishing civilian control of the department

Helping the police do a better job

Communicating with the department on behalf of the community

Why are you running for Police District Council?

To increase transparency and accountability through modernization of communication and outreach efforts.

Ephraim Lee – Nominating Committee

A Navy reservist for 24 years, Lee is pursuing a master’s degree in social work. He is the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy beat 215 facilitator.

• Is CPD adequately funded? Yes: funding should stay about the same.

• CPD reform: The police need training and some reform.

What do you consider the primary role of a police district councilor to be?

Communicating with the department on behalf of the community

Helping police do a better job

“To act as an honest and trustworthy bridge between the citizens of the district and the police.”

Why are you running for Police District Council?

“I am running for the Second District Police Council because I believe that there are parts/agencies of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) that lack strong, decisive, leadership, and ethical guidance. For too many years, our police department has failed to champion and live up to a clear and unfettered code of fairness, accountability, and values, throughout the entire department.

This failure of having high standards of professionalism, has placed the department, its members, and the citizens that it has sworn to protect, at odds with one another and this division has led to increased crime, deep-seated anger, and issues of distrust that have grown over time. I firmly believe that only through a dedicated urgency of transparency, and a renewed focus on justice, fairness, and respect, can these decades of wounds be fully healed. I hope to be a part of this change.”

Julia Kline - Community Engagement

A former CPS teacher, Kline is a community organizer, sales and marketing consultant, and voting rights activist. She is a cofounder along with Jocelyn McClelland and Morrow Cleveland of Neighbors Who Vote, which works on voter registration and turnout, cross-neighborhood organizing, and amplifying the work of other groups. In 2018 and 2019 Kline was on the marketing and communications team for Indivisible Chicago, helping to organize a number of street protests.

• Is CPD adequately funded? Yes: funding should be reduced.

• CPD reform: The police need significant reform.

What do you consider the primary role of a police district councilor to be?

Establishing civilian control of the police department.

“Policing is never going to be the path to real safety. Rather, we in this Council must work to create an entirely separate safety infrastructure: one based in restorative justice, mental health resources, violence interruption and outreach. For evidence of the effectiveness of this approach, look at Lawndale. They have seen a 40 percent drop in the incidence of violence since having invested heavily in these types of approaches just two years ago.”

Why are you running for Police District Council?

To look at me, many might assume I’ve never experienced police violence firsthand. But when I was 15 and got caught for smoking weed, I was almost raped by those two police officers. So I have a visceral understanding of the kind of reverberating trauma that is inflicted by abuse of power at the hands of police officers.

It infuriates me that MANY officers remain on CPD payroll despite multiple dozens of accusations of misconduct against them; and even officers still collecting either a paycheck or pension, despite having been convicted of criminal wrongdoing. Most recently, a whistleblower cop (yes, of course there are some good cops) named Sergeant Isaac Lambert was awarded $910,000 by a jury, after attempting to call out the wrongdoing of three fellow officers. Yet those three bad cops are all still employed by CPD!!!

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#TogetherWeCan.