The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to shake up the city's police commission Tuesday, removing mayoral appointee Max Carter-Oberstone from his position.
Carter-Oberstone was first appointed by then-mayor London Breed, but there was no love lost between them, as the progressive commissioner clashed with her just as she sought to present a tough-on-crime front to address the city's public safety crisis.
Carter-Oberstone also exposed Breed's practice of mandating her commission appointees sign undated resignation letters, which the city attorney declared inconsistent with the city charter.
The supervisors voted 9-2, with queer District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder and District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar in dissent.
After Mayor Daniel Lurie replaced Breed, the new mayor sent a letter to the supervisors February 4 stating his intention to remove Carter-Oberstone.
"I appreciate Commissioner Carter-Oberstone's service to the city," Lurie stated. "I look forward to nominating a new commissioner in the near future who will work collaboratively to make our city safer."
However, even though he was a mayoral appointee, Carter-Oberstone couldn't be removed unilaterally. The Board of Supervisors gets a say, too, based on 2003 changes to the city charter.
Carter-Oberstone's term would've ended April 30, 2026. For his part, he argued before the board February 25 that Lurie was attacking the commissioners' independence.
"I've taken the responsibility to be independent extremely seriously," he said. "That means when SFPD engaged in unethical and unlawful conduct I asked the hard questions that needed to be asked, the questions the public deserved answers to."
Specifically, Carter-Oberstone said he asked questions about rape victims' DNA being used to investigate them.
"A lot of politicians don't like it," Carter-Oberstone said. "They told me that's just not how things are done in this city. But my job is not to become popular with the agency I'm supposed to be overseeing. It is to serve the public and to defend and protect the rule of law. Mayor Lurie never bothered to meet with me. ... He would prefer commissioners who follow orders and do as they're told."
Carter-Oberstone said the independence of every chartered commission is at stake. In remarks aimed at gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who previously said Carter-Oberstone's failure to resign was not "classy," Carter-Oberstone said, "There is nothing classy about bending the knee to a mayor who would rather have a rubber stamp."
(Before becoming a supervisor, Dorsey worked for San Francisco Police Chief William Scott as his communications director.)
During a two-hour public comment period, retired SFPD captain Yulanda Williams said, "It appears this action is intended to consolidate support within the commission to remove Chief William Scott and facilitate the appointment of chief of public safety Paul Yep."
Yep is Lurie's public safety chief. The San Francisco Standard has reported, citing anonymous sources, that Lurie has considered firing Scott, and speculated that this had led Lurie seeking to remove Carter-Oberstone in the first place. The commission would have the ability to pick the pool from which a new chief of police would be chosen in the event the incumbent is fired or decides of his own accord to leave office. Mission Local has reported it was "no secret" Lurie surrogates want Scott gone.
"This situation reflects the same old patterns," Williams said. "Do you want to be associated with such Trump-like divisive tactics? You said this was going to be a new San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie. Even Ray Charles could see through this if he was alive. ... And while you are doing all of this during Black History Month I want you to know that this is the most shameful Black History Month in 2025 that I have ever, ever witnessed and San Francisco you should be ashamed of yourself."
(Carter-Oberstone is Black. The late musician Charles was blind.)
Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto argued Carter-Oberstone is a "fearless and tireless advocate of independent police reform."
"We've not agreed on every single issue but he is someone who can be worked with," he said. "I can tell each member of the Board of Supervisors to look past the talking point, that he is collaborative."
Frank Noto, co-founder and board member of Stop Crime SF and Stop Crime Action, spoke during public comment in favor of Carter-Oberstone's removal.
"We need accountability," Noto said. "He's not independent of special interests. He failed to engage with interests across the city – especially on the westside. Again, we need accountability. We have the legal ability to remove him. I urge you to do the right thing."
Supervisors speak
After public comment, Dorsey was the first to speak. He reiterated that "members of the police commission generally serve at the pleasure of their mayoral authority," differentiating it from other commissions, such as the elections commission, where people can be removed only for official misconduct.
"That is by design," Dorsey said. "The narrow role we play here in this hearing is akin to an advice and consent role. ... There is no legitimate basis I have seen to dissent from the mayor's removal [request] here."
Dorsey said most appointments of this nature voluntarily decide to step aside when a mayoral administration turns over. It was unusual for Carter-Oberstone not to, he said.
"That's his right, but neither does it cause me to look favorably on his retention," he said. "Neither do I think it's a bid to remove Chief Bill Scott, who I do consider a once-in-a-generation talent."
Fielder voted to retain Carter-Oberstone.
"It is absolutely the right of the mayor to put forward this motion, and it's also our right to reject that," Fielder said. "San Franciscans have been told if we give law enforcement complete control ... that everything regarding public safety will be solved.
Fielder said that "numerous people have died at the hands of the SFPD" and that progress has been made due to the independence of the police commission.
"San Franciscans have essentially been told a story that an accountable police force is an ineffective police force," she said. "Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone both know that his removal is bigger than him and is going to lend toward a less accountable and less effective police force and a chilling effect that will put members of the public in danger."
Melgar said during the meeting, "I do not believe in removing commissioners, or supervisors, before their term is up when there has been no malfeasance." She said Lurie asked her for her vote Monday, but she turned him down, and that the mayor's reasoning was that Carter-Oberstone's "manner has been needlessly confrontational and difficult to work with" – an argument she had little sympathy for.
"We all ran for these jobs and knew that coming in," she said. "You don't have to agree with your colleagues all the time but that doesn't mean they aren't adding something valuable to the conversation."
A Lurie spokesperson didn't return a request for additional comment on Melgar's remarks or on the removal of Carter-Oberstone. However, Lurie did comment on the board's unanimous approval of Wilson Leung to the commission earlier in the meeting. (Leung was not chosen to replace Carter-Oberstone; he will be serving a separate term through April 2028.)
"Throughout the government, we are appointing leaders who will work with fellow commissioners and departments to deliver better services for our city, and Wilson's decades of work in compliance and oversight will make him an asset as we work together to protect San Franciscans," the mayor stated. "I want to thank the Board of Supervisors for their thorough consideration of Wilson and for their partnership in making San Francisco safer for everyone."
Lurie also thanked Leung for his work in helping to create the SFPD Hospitality Zone task force. As the B.A.R. reported, the zone is intended to improve safety and economic recovery from Union Square to the Moscone Center.
District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, who voted for removal, said that she agreed with Carter-Oberstone's priorities, but that "San Francisco is facing unprecedented threats on many fronts" and that, ergo, lawmakers need to "put aside our own egos to ... continue the incredibly important work of protecting our marginalized communities."
"One independent commissioner does not equate to an independent commission," Chan said. "Commissioner, I'm really grateful for your work and the role you have played. ... It is with great regret we are here."
Police commission forum
At a Stop Crime SF and Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People meeting February 24, lesbian former police commissioner Debra Walker discussed the work of the commission. As the B.A.R. reported late last year, Walker, another Breed appointee, resigned her post late last year and returned to the arts commission, where she had previously served.
"The police commission is responsible for setting priorities and doing discipline hearings, including appeals of discipline cases," she said. "The role of the board and the mayor in setting the rules, and what laws are enforced, isn't part of the commission's job, but some think it is, so it creates tension on the commission."
Walker said that in the 1980s she learned about the importance of LGBTQ diversity in the department's work – a diverse staff meant they understood the communities they were supposed to serve.
"When I first moved to San Francisco in 1981, it was during the beginning of the AIDS crisis and a lot of males in the department, especially our LGBTQ community, were affected, and it was the first sort of class of lesbian officers, and I knew a lot of them, they were friends of mine and so I heard the challenges that occurred at that time," she said. "I've seen sort of the steps forward we've made in the department of becoming more accepting."
Among those were the creation of women's and lesbian caucuses in the Police Officers Association, as well as the new goal of a department comprised of at least 30% women by 2030.
Walker said that while she was on the police panel, she was proud to have worked with the department in implementing 272 recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Justice after the SFPD asked it to review the department in 2016 following a series of officer-involved shootings and high-profile misconduct cases.
Retired police officer Lou Barberini said during the event that there were big changes to the police commission with Proposition H in 2003, which led to the current situation where the supervisors needed to approve Lurie's decision to remove Carter-Oberstone. Before then, the police commission had been comprised of five members, not seven, and were not confirmed by the board (though within 30 days the Board of Supervisors could reject them with a two-thirds vote).
"It's the most radical thing and I was there," he said. "It also changed the police commission's terms so it overlaps with the mayor's."
Barberini called Carter-Oberstone "kind of a Trojan horse."
Larry Yee is a current police commissioner who also spoke during the event. He encouraged members of the public to get and stay involved.
"It is not just the police who are here for your safety – it is all of us," he said. "If you see something, call it out. Protecting everyone and your community – that's the strength of our police department. Without our eyes and ears there's nothing for them to do. We [the SFPD] only respond afterwards."
Updated, 2/26/25: This article has been updated with the supervisors' approval of another man to serve as a police commissioner and the mayor's comments about that.
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