SF Police Commission VP Max Carter-Oberstone was just removed from the commission Tuesday afternoon during a very rowdy hearing, after Carter-Oberstone crossed Mayor Breed who appointed him, and new Mayor Lurie settled the old political score for her.

Any of us would be hard-pressed to name even one member of the San Francisco Police Commission, the civilian commission that sets policy for the SF Police Department. But SF Police Commission Vice President Max Carter-Oberstone certainly had his 15 minutes of local fame in 2022 when he blew the whistle on then-Mayor London Breed’s practice of forcing City Hall commissioners to sign undated letters of resignation so she could fire their asses should they ever displease her. Carter-Oberstone survived that political kerfuffle, but he was on the outs with Mayor Breed, who appointed him, from that point forward.

And for whatever reason, he was on the outs with new SF Mayor Daniel Lurie too, as Lurie made moves to fire Carter-Oberstone at the beginning of this month. Mission Local unearthed a February 4 letter from Lurie to the Board of Supervisors declaring, "I hereby remove Max Carter-Oberstone from the Police Commission, subject to the consent of the Board of Supervisors." (The firing would require the supervisors’ approval). And Lurie had the votes on the new more moderate board to do it, with Carter-Oberstone telling Mission Local this week that “I don’t think I’m going to survive” Tuesday’s vote.    

Yet Carter-Oberstone was defiant in his final address to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, before they did in fact remove him by a 9-2 vote. He took the podium to an extended 35 seconds of raucous audience applause, and had clearly packed the house with supporters who gave nearly two hours of public comment urging the board to retain him.

“In my three years on this commision, I’ve taken the responsibility to be independent very seriously,” Carter-Oberstone said, citing his votes on when the SFPD was using rape victims’ DNA to proscute those victims for crimes, when the department used facial recognition and drones without the required supervisorial approval, and when their affiliated nonprofit spent taxpayer dollars on luxury vacations and limos.

“These efforts to hold SFPD accountable have not endeared me to the leadership of our police department. A lot of politicians don’t like it either,” he added. “Mayor Lurie never bothered to meet with me, and he hasn’t bothered to justify why he is removing me.”  

The supervisors didn’t really justify their vote to remove Carter-Oberstone, either. Even though nine supervisors voted to remove him, only Supervisor Matt Dorsey had the courage to say anything to defend this decision.

“Members of our police commission generally serve at the pleasure of their appointing authority. In other words, they may be removed without cause,” Dorsey said before the vote. (Carter-Oberstone was appointed by Mayor Breed, not the Board of Supervisors. So he is technically a mayoral appointment.) “Some commissions are intended to have independently empowered appointees, and some other commissions — including the police commission — are not designed that way.”

Yet Carter-Oberstone got in a parting shot at Dorsey, the author of the above tweet that says, “The only thing unusual about this removal is that *most* conscientious commissioners would do the classy thing and offer to step aside under a newly elected mayor.” (No other police commissioners have stepped aside since Lurie was inaugurated.)

“I would like to address head-on a comment made by one supervisor who said that my failure to resign showed that I was not ‘classy,’ in his words,” Carter-Oberstone said Tuesday. “There is nothing classy about quitting. There is nothing classy about abandoning the people of San Francisco to serve out my term with integrity and independence. And there is nothing classy about bending the knee to a mayor who would rather have a rubber stamp in my place.”

And with that, Max Carter-Oberstone received another 30 seconds of thunderous applause, and was promptly kicked off  the police commission by the aforementioned 9-2 vote. Only supervisors Myrna Melgar and Jackie Fielder voted against removing Carter-Oberstone.

Related: Mayor Lurie Is Determined to Fire Police Commission VP Max Carter-Oberstone [SFist]

Image: SFGovTV