Dear Sisters and Brothers:
By now you have probably heard that I will be taking on a supervisor position in the Homicide Task Force. And also, that our Secretary, Amy Thompson, is leaving to supervise in Multiple Defendant Division. Therefore, in the next few days I will resign as President of the Local and you will be left in the good hands of our Vice President, Brendan Max, who will take over as President. No conclave will be necessary. My term would have ended in July and so this is a good time for our Local to undergo this transition. Notice of the upcoming election and related meetings was mailed to each member’s home recently.
It is a bittersweet moment for me, as you can imagine, because while I will no longer be able to lead this Local, I will be able to pursue some other goals I have chosen to take on. These past 15 years, serving the members as Trustee, Executive-at-Large, Chief Steward, Vice-President and President for nearly half the Local’s 25 year history, have given me an enormous amount of personal satisfaction, wisdom for life’s continuing challenges, and respect for the work that each of you do as assistant public defenders in Cook County.
Over those 15 years, this union has bargained for the compensation that transformed our workplace from a place that lawyers came for two to three years, leaving to get jobs that put food on the table, to one where those with experience stayed and and could actually make a career out of public service. We, together, have endured budget cuts, layoffs, picketed, demonstrated, gone on strike, and grieved and arbitrated our way to fairness in the office. For our newer members, ask public defenders of the seventies and early eighties what the office was like – you will not believe what you hear. It was that different. The union has, is and always will be, an important part of your workplace.
And it t has been my honor to represent you.
In Solidarity, I bid you Adieu as your President,
K. S. Galhotra