Mayor denies playing politics with police pension board
Chicago has a “long and sordid history” of politicians “bending the pension code to their will,” but “those days are over,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared Tuesday.
One week before the mayoral election, Lightfoot personally denied allegations by Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
Mendoza told the Sun-Times Lightfoot was responsible for failing Mendoza’s brother and other Chicago Police Department officers by directing her appointments to the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago to vote against a “duty disability” that would provide pay and health insurance to officers facing career-ending complications from COVID-19.
“Any suggestion that I or anyone in my administration was indifferent to the cause of suffering of first responders when it comes to COVID issues is just utter nonsense,” Lightfoot said.
“In my administration, we simply don’t play politics with the pension code. And we don’t play politics with the law. Our city and our state, unfortunately as many of you know and have reported on, have a long, sordid history of politicians and other clouted individuals bending the pension system to their will to the total disadvantage of taxpayers. And as far as I’m concerned, those days are over,” the mayor said.
Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza is a 22-year veteran Chicago police officer who was hospitalized for 72 days and lost the use of his kidneys and his left arm after contracting COVID-19 on the job, according to his lawyers. He has been unable to work since contracting the illness in November 2020, before vaccines were available.
Susana Mendoza, who ran for mayor against Lightfoot in 2019, said she holds Lightfoot “100 percent accountable” for the board’s decision to deny a “duty disability” to her brother and other officers facing careerending COVID-19 complications.
Lightfoot said Tuesday that she saw Susana Mendoza at a Hispanic American Construction Industry Association banquet at the Hilton Chicago on March 8, 2022, a few weeks after the pension board rejected her brother’s duty disability request.
But, the mayor did not acknowledge having offered to “try to fix it,” as Mendoza claims, during their brief, but volatile, encounter.
“I want to give her some grace here. But she was extraordinarily emotional and let fly some accusations. And I thought, in that circumstance, it was probably best if I just let her be, and I walked away,” Lightfoot said.
“You’re gonna have to ask the comptroller about the curious timing of her decision [to go public]. It’s not lost on me that this is a press conference at City Hall a week before the election. You can draw your own conclusions as to why that’s happening,” said Lightfoot.