Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is being accused of betraying the city’s police officers disabled by COVID-19 by directing city representatives to offer minimal disability pay and benefits.
Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza publicly slammed the mayor after Mendoza’s brother, an officer who was disabled after suffering multiple strokes after being infected with COVID, was denied “duty disability” compensation by the city.
That level of disability would have given him 75% of his salary and free health care, but the city gave him regular disability, which means just half his salary and no health care, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The mayor’s office has rejected accusations that she is pushing for reduced disability payouts and says Lightfoot urged representatives on the city’s pension boards to consult with outside medical experts about these cases.
“What the mayor has urged of the city representatives across all pension boards is that those pension boards consult outside medical experts to advise the boards on COVID-related disability claims and be transparent with claimants about the standards that must be met to have consideration for full or partial disability,” her office said previously in a statement.
However, Eugene “Gene” Roy, a retired Chicago police chief of detectives who spent 35 years in law enforcement, told Fox News Digital the statement from Lightfoot’s office is a “tacit admission” that the mayor is against awarding the more generous duty disability benefits.
Roy said all claimants are examined by medical experts, after which there is a public hearing to examine their claims. Roy said he believes the hearing process is being used aggressively by the city to block higher disability awards.
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“There is a hearing — a legal process much like a courtroom trial — and the emphasis on ‘transparency’ has been interpreted as an attempt to discourage filing a disability claim for COVID,” he said.
Roy added that, under the leadership of Lightfoot, Chicago has “failed” to honor its contract with police.
“Police officers, firefighters and paramedics have the terms of their salary and working conditions outlined in written contracts. But there is a much more important contract between first responders and their employers,” said Roy.
“It’s not written, but it’s implicit — a social contract,” he said. “Basically, it says, ‘I am going to put my life and my health on the line to protect our community and, in return, you (the city) agree to provide for my family in the event of my death or if I’m physically disabled to the point where I can’t work as a result of my service to the community.’
“The City of Chicago has clearly failed to honor that contract.”
Mendoza, who ran against Lightfoot in 2019, went public with her complaint against the mayor this week.
“I told her that, not only did you not have my brother’s back and any other police officers like him, you stabbed him in the back, and you twisted it into his heart,” she said, according to the Sun-Times.
Mendoza is urging support for a new law that would protect disabled officers like her brother.
Lightfoot’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.