Commissioner who exposed ex-mayor’s practice of making appointees sign resignation letters is asked to resign by new mayor.
by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN FEBRUARY 4, 2025, 6:04 PM (MissionLocal.org)
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Mayor Daniel Lurie today moved to oust outspoken police commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone as part of an attempted overhaul of the body that oversees the San Francisco Police Department.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, which must vote to approve Carter-Oberstone’s removal, Lurie wrote today that he will seek a replacement “who will work collaboratively to make our city safer.” Carter-Oberstone, a progressive focused on police reform who frequently clashed with Mayor London Breed, could be removed with six votes, and Lurie enjoys a Board of Supervisors with six moderate votes.
A source close to the mayor’s office said Lurie did not believe Carter-Oberstone would cooperate with others on the mayor’s public-safety agenda.
Carter-Oberstone said he did not know why he was facing removal. But he said that Staci Slaughter, Lurie’s chief of staff, last week asked him about resigning.
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“She asked that if [Lurie] were to ask me to resign, what would I do?” said Carter-Oberstone, who was twice appointed to the police commission by Mayor London Breed and whose term expires in 2026. “I said that I would decline.”
Today, in an email to Carter-Oberstone, Slaughter wrote: “You made clear that you would not resign at the Mayor’s request. The mayor appreciates your service over the last three years, but he hopes to appoint a new commissioner who will collaborate to make our city safer.”
There is some degree of irony in the mayoral request for Carter-Oberstone to resign as, in 2022, he exposed then-Mayor Breed’s practice of asking her appointees to sign undated resignation letters to ostensibly maintain control over them.
“I’m proud of the work that I’ve done on the commission. I think I’ve served the public with integrity and always done what was right on the behalf of the public, without regard to politics,” Carter-Oberstone said.
Breed appointed Carter-Oberstone to the commission in 2021, and again in 2022, but the two broke ties after he refused to back her pick for the commission president. He later won the James Madison Freedom of Information Award as a public official who exposed Breed’s now-banned practice, which the City Attorney’s Office deemed “inconsistent” with the city charter.
Over the next couple years, Carter-Oberstone and three board-appointed commissioners voted as a bloc to pass through reform-minded policies, like curtailing pretext traffic stops, over Breed’s and the police union’s objections. Carter-Oberstone vehemently opposed Breed’s Prop. E of 2024, which loosened restrictions on police vehicle chases and weakened Police Commission civilian oversight.
Lurie started his own independent-expenditure campaign to back that measure. It easily passed in the March 2024 election.
Lurie’s move comes a day after he appointed Wilson Leung, a former federal prosecutor, to the commission. The mayor appoints four seats on the seven-member commission.
The changes to the commission could indicate the imminent departure of Police Chief Bill Scott, on the heels of the departures of Municipal Transit Agency director Jeffrey Tumlin and Department of Public Health director Dr. Grant Colfax.
The hiring process for a San Francisco police chief requires the Police Commission to advance a list of three names to the mayor, who hires his preferred candidate or rejects the list. It is paramount for the mayor to ensure an acceptable candidate is included on the commission’s shortlist.
Lurie is counting on the Board of Supervisors’ support to remove Carter-Oberstone and replace him with a more agreeable commissioner. Board president Rafael Mandelman defended Lurie’s move, and told Mission Local it is “important for the mayor to have confidence in his commissioners.”
Carter-Oberstone, meanwhile, appears poised to fight Lurie’s decision.
“It’s tough for me to react, not knowing what the basis for the decision is,” Carter-Oberstone said. “I intend to make my case on why I deserve to finish my term.”
