Members of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability blasted a recent arbitrator’s ruling that, if approved by the City Council, would allow for officers accused of serious misconduct to have their disciplinary cases decided behind closed doors.

Earlier this summer, as the city continues to negotiate a new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, an arbitrator ruled that state law mandates that police officers accused of serious misconduct should have the option to have their cases heard in private. The arbitration award is not yet binding as the City Council hasn’t voted on the contract yet.

“This is not an attack on the Chicago Police Department or an attack on Chicago police officers. In fact, it is my belief that enhanced oversight benefits everyone,” Anthony Driver Jr., leader of the commission tasked with police oversight, said at the group’s monthly meeting late Thursday. “This arbitration decision, if allowed to stand and if subsequently approved by City Council, will set our city back decades.”

“When your job comes with the power to take away someone’s property, the power to take away someone’s freedom, the power to take away someone’s life, that bar must be higher,” Driver added at the meeting held at Richard J. Daley College on the Southwest Side. “Just like doctors, lawyers and politicians, that bar must be higher. And having a higher bar means having a more transparent approach to discipline.”

Yvette Loizon, another CCPSA commissioner, echoed much of what Driver said, and said that, despite the arbitrator’s award, the disciplinary process must be “fair across the board for both community [members] and police officers.”

The FOP, which represents rank-and-file officers, detectives and retirees, filed a motion earlier this summer seeking to pause the disciplinary proceedings of 22 CPD officers in light of a recent arbitrator’s award.

Tim Grace, a union attorney, previously argued that the recent arbitration award was unequivocal: CPD officers accused of serious misconduct should be given the choice to have their cases heard by the board or by an independent third party. For those officers who choose the third party, their cases would be tried out of public view and the majority of records related to those cases would not be available to the public.

“We all know where this is going to go: Arbitration,” Grace said Monday. “The officers will have a right to choose between the police board and arbitration. I think we’ll be trying a lot of cases at the police board, still, in the future, but I think that there are going to be some officers that want arbitration.”

The nine-person police board was previously appointed by the mayor, but now falls under the purview of the CCPSA, as does the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. The police board is only involved in the most severe disciplinary cases where the CPD seeks to fire an officer or see them suspended for at least one year.

Thursday’s meeting also featured several district council members — civilian liaisons between police and civilians in each of the CPD’s 22 police districts — criticize the arbitration award and call it a step backwards for the city.

“The ability to have officers skirt accountability and go through arbitration, for me, undermines the progress that we’ve made in not only creating the CCPSA, but the police board, as well,” Alexander Perez, a council member in the CPD’s Wentworth District, said Thursday.

Lee Bielecki, a retired CPD sergeant who serves as a district council member in the Morgan Park District, said officers deserve arbitration, especially because those who oversee those cases wouldn’t be subject to public pressure.

The police board has shown in past cases that they have been swayed by public, political and media opinion. The police deserve a fair and more equitable system for discipline,” Bielecki said.

The arbitration award is expected to be discussed further at the CCPSA’s next meeting on Sept. 7, when Larry Snelling, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s nominee to be superintendent, will field questions from members of the public.