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FW: FOP support letter
Taber, Toni <[email protected]>
Tue 2/15/2022 6:38 PM
To: Rules and Open Government Committee Agendas <[email protected]> 1 attachments (146 KB)
FOP Letter2 to Mayor-COVID_15Feb2022.pdf;
From: Peralez, Raul <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 6:17 PM
To: Taber, Toni <[email protected]>
Cc: Ramos, Christina M <[email protected]> Subject: Fwd: FOP support letter
To be included for rules tomorrow
Raul Peralez
Councilmember, District 3
City of San José
Raul Peralez
Councilmember, District 3
City of San José
Begin forwarded message:
From: Tim Jackson < >
Date: February 15, 2022 at 5:27:38 PM PST
To: "Peralez, Raul" <[email protected]>
Subject: FOP support letter
2/16/22, 8:21 AM Mail - Rules and Open Government Committee Agendas - Outlook https://outlook.office365.com/mail/[email protected]/inbox/id/AAQkADhhYzk3NTk1LTBmZDAtNDc4Yi1hN2Q0LTZjNmZjNTk5MT… 2/2 Tj
Fraternal Order of Police
Silicon Valley, Lodge 52
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
To: Honorable Mayor and City Council
Re: COVID TESTING
Dear Mayor and City Council:
As representatives of the membership of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, we wish to register our strong support for the COVID testing option recently submitted by Councilmember Raul Peralez, a proposal we view as a fair, effective, and sensible modification of existing policy.
As elucidated in the councilmember’s memorandum of February 10, 2022, the evolving saga of the pandemic — at levels viral, scientific, and societal — has unfailingly frustrated the pursuit of absolute immunity, immutable science, and infallible policy. Two years after its introduction into the human environment, the virus has proved its strategy of deft modification, indiscriminate dissemination, and confounding unpredictability as being far superior to human strategies that rely on rigid rules, divisive measures, and dogmatic beliefs.
Members of our organization salute the council for its honorable goal of providing the public a safe workforce, however we do agree with Councilmember Peralez that meeting this goal requires flexibility, not a line in the sand. No number of terminations will change the fact that vaccinated employees remain susceptible to contracting and spreading the virus. No exodus of one group of employees will improve the safety of others. No loss of trained, skilled, and battle-tested police officers, firefighters, or other city employees will bring benefit to the City or the public.
We believe the testing protocols suggested by Councilmember Peralez offer the City the best defense against the spread of the virus, no matter the vaccination status of the employee tested. For what is offered by regular testing is a selection process that mimics that found in nature: a contemporaneous measurement of fitness for a given environment. Considering the transitory protection offered by current vaccines (invalidating their use as a measure of susceptibility to infection), the superior level of certainty offered by testing — real time evidence recognized as reliable by the federal government — represents the best evidence of COVID status and workplace risk.
In closing, our membership, as well as the many supporters of our organization, respectfully urge you to expeditiously approve and adopt this most reasonable of modifications. Keep this city safe, keep employment policies reasonable, and keep our police officers, firefighters, and civilian employees on the job. We ask that no further hardships be inflicted on the fine men and women who have, for more than two years, courageously served on the frontlines while seeing the City through this crisis.
Respectfully,
FOP Lodge 52 Board of Directors
FOP Board of Directors:
President Cindy Calderon, Vice-President Tim Jackson, Secretary Bill Waggoner, Treasurer Burga Santiago Board Members: Eric Emmanuel, Sal Mosto, Lou Hernandez, Scott Berget