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by\u00a0ELENI BALAKRISHNAN<\/a><\/strong> FEBRUARY 4, 2025, 6:04 PM (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/mco.jpg\")
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Help grow our newsroom<\/strong>, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate today!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a letter<\/a> to the Board of Supervisors, which must vote to approve Carter-Oberstone\u2019s removal, Lurie wrote today that he will seek a replacement \u201cwho will work collaboratively to make our city safer.\u201d 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>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A source close to the mayor\u2019s office said Lurie did not believe Carter-Oberstone would cooperate with others on the mayor\u2019s public-safety agenda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carter-Oberstone said he did not know why he was facing removal. But he said that Staci Slaughter, Lurie\u2019s chief of staff, last week asked him about resigning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe asked that if [Lurie] were to ask me to resign, what would I do?\u201d said Carter-Oberstone, who was twice appointed to the police commission by Mayor London Breed and whose term expires in 2026. \u201cI said that I would decline.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, in an email to Carter-Oberstone, Slaughter wrote: \u201cYou made clear that you would not resign at the Mayor\u2019s 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is some degree of irony in the mayoral request for Carter-Oberstone to resign as, in 2022, he exposed then-Mayor Breed\u2019s practice of asking her appointees to sign undated resignation letters<\/a> to ostensibly maintain control over them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m proud of the work that I\u2019ve done on the commission. I think I\u2019ve served the public with integrity and always done what was right on the behalf of the public, without regard to politics,\u201d Carter-Oberstone said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Breed appointed Carter-Oberstone to the commission in 2021, and again in 2022, but the two broke ties after he refused<\/a> 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\u2019s now-banned practice, which the City Attorney\u2019s Office deemed \u201cinconsistent<\/a>\u201d with the city charter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next couple years, Carter-Oberstone and three board-appointed commissioners voted as a bloc to pass through reform-minded policies<\/a>, like curtailing pretext traffic stops, over Breed\u2019s and the police union\u2019s objections. Carter-Oberstone vehemently opposed Breed\u2019s Prop. E of 2024, which loosened restrictions on police vehicle chases<\/a> and weakened Police Commission civilian oversight<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lurie started his own independent-expenditure campaign<\/a> to back that measure. It easily passed in the March 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lurie\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s shortlist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lurie is counting on the Board of Supervisors\u2019 support to remove Carter-Oberstone and replace him with a more agreeable commissioner. Board president Rafael Mandelman defended Lurie\u2019s move, and told Mission Local<\/em> it is \u201cimportant for the mayor to have confidence in his commissioners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carter-Oberstone, meanwhile, appears poised to fight Lurie\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough for me to react, not knowing what the basis for the decision is,\u201d Carter-Oberstone said. \u201cI intend to make my case on why I deserve to finish my term.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Commissioner who exposed ex-mayor\u2019s practice of making appointees sign resignation letters is asked to resign by new mayor. by\u00a0ELENI BALAKRISHNAN FEBRUARY 4, 2025, 6:04 PM (MissionLocal.org) Read Mission Local often? Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below. Donate today! 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