To the surprise of nobody in local politics, the Board of Supes voted 9-2 to support Mayor Daniel Lurie’s move to fire Max Carter-Oberstone from the Police Commission.
Only Sups. Jackie Fielder and Myrna Melgar voted No.
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The vote was a second major victory for Lurie, who has moved quickly to increase the power of the mayor.
Sup. Matt Dorsey made the motion to approve the removal, and Stephen Sherill seconded it. Dorsey said that the “comity of the two branches of government” required that the supes support the mayor’s wishes.
Sup. Jackie Fielder said that the mayor had every right to seek to remove a Police Commission member—”and we have the right to refuse it.” She pointed particularly to the recent crash in the Mission after a high-speed police chase that send six people to the hospital, saying that Carter-Oberstone had warned about those chases.
Fielder said that holding police forces accountable doesn’t undermine public safety. “We have made tremendous progress in the past few years under an independent Police Commission.”
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The removal of Carter-Oberstone will have a “chilling effect on any oversight,” she said, putting the public at risk.
Sup. Myrna Melgar said, “I do not believe in removing commissioners or supervisors before the end of their term.” She said that Lurie told her Carter-Oberstone was “too confrontational,” but said that wasn’t valid. Carter-Oberstone was exceptionally qualified, she said, and belonged on the commission. “We all have to live with the constraints on our power. This is unprecedented.”
Sup. Connie Chan said, “it pains me greatly” to be here today.” But she said reform “does not hinge on one person … one independent commissioner does not equate to an independent commission.” She voted Yes.
The gallery was packed for the hearing, and Carter-Oberstone was met with loud and sustained applause when he stood to address the board.
After he was appointed, Carte-Oberstone said, “I threw myself into this job, with the devotion and the seriousness it requires.” He exdplained that his efforts to hold the San Francisco Police Department accountable “did not endear me to the leadership of the department, or to some politicians who said this is just not how things are done.”
Lurie, he said, never bothered to meet with him or give a reason for his removal. “He would prefer a commissioner who follows orders,” Carter-Oberstone said. The vote, he said, “has much broader implications for the public right to independent oversight,” calling the mayors move “a power grab.”
A long line of community members spoke in favor of Carter-Oberstone.
Retired Police Captain Yulanda Williams, who for years was president of Officers for Justice, said “the motivation is becoming increasingly clear, to consolidate support on the commission to get rid of Chief William Scott and the appointment of [Lurie’s new public safety chief] Paul Yip. The discussion is behind closed doors and the public is left behind.”
Yoel Haile, director of the criminal justice program at the ACLU of Northern California, pointed out that Carter-Oberstone is one of four commissioners appointed by the mayor—but he’s the only one who is facing dismissal. Commissioner Larry Yee, Haile said, has the same term as Carter-Oberstone, but he’s not leaving. The difference, according to Haile: Carter Oberstone led the campaign to end “pretext stops,” and Yee opposed that policy.
Angela Chan, a former Police Commission member who now works in the Public Defender’s Office, said that, with the power the police have, “we need rigorous oversight. As a former member, I have seen serious and sometimes violent misconduct.”
Former Sup. John Avalos noted that the mayor has offered no reason to request the removal. “If he has shared with you a reason,” Avalos told the supervisors, “then you should be transparent about it.”
Only four people spoke in favor of his removal, and two of them talked specifically about the Pretext-Stop Policy. They argued that banning what are often racist practices have “demoralized” officers. I suspect that if Carter-Oberstone is removed, a new 4-3 majority on the commission may reverse that policy.
Although Dorsey spoke of how great Chief Scott (his former employer) has been for the city, the outcome of this vote means that Scott likely will soon be gone, and there will be no national search for a chief, no possibility of someone from the outside taking the job. If Williams is right, Paul Yip, who came up through the local ranks and was part of the SF Police Officers Association, will be the next chief.