Lurie Aims to Oust SF Police Commissioner Who Pushed for Reforms, Clashed With Breed

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is pushing to remove a member of the city’s Police Commission known for butting heads with his predecessor, London Breed.

Max Carter-Oberstone, an advocate for police reform on the civilian-led commission, said the mayor’s office asked him to resign in a meeting last week, but he refused. Breed appointed him but he publicly opposed several of her administration’s policy efforts, pushed for limits on “pretextual stops” by police and exposed a controversial practice by the former mayor to have commission appointees preemptively sign undated resignation letters.

“What I said in my meeting with [Lurie’s] staff on Friday is that I would be happy to work with and collaborate with the mayor’s office on any range of initiatives,” Carter-Oberstone said. “But that, at the end of the day, the charter of San Francisco makes the Police Commission an independent body for some very important reasons. And so, at the end of the day, I have to make a final decision about how I vote on a commission.”

That message was seemingly unsatisfactory for Lurie’s chief of staff, Staci Slaughter, who emailed Carter-Oberstone on Tuesday to say the mayor’s office planned to remove him. The move will require the Board of Supervisors to pass a motion approving it.

“During our meeting, you made clear that you would not resign at the mayor’s request,” Slaughter wrote in the email, which KQED obtained. “The Mayor appreciates your service over the last three years, but he hopes to appoint a commissioner who will collaborate to make our city safer.”

Lurie has not publicly stated the reason he aims to remove Carter-Oberstone from the Police Commission, and his office declined a request for comment.

Several supervisors have already said they support the mayor’s push.

“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,” Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who previously worked as a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, said in a social media post sharing a story from the San Francisco Standard, which first reported the move. “That Mr. Carter-Oberstone *won’t* tells me all I need to know about why he should go.”

Supervisor Stephen Sherrill said he supports Lurie “in building a police commission that aligns with our shared top priority: public safety.”

“We need Commissioners who support the best interest of San Francisco, and frankly, I think this is long overdue,” Sherrill said.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman also said he supports the mayor’s push to remove Carter-Oberstone and wasn’t surprised by it.

“Mayor Breed had tried to remove him and had been unsuccessful. You know, he’s a figure of considerable controversy and, by all accounts, very smart, but not in line with really the priorities of the Breed administration or the Lurie administration,” Mandelman said.

The motion to remove Carter-Oberstone would require six votes on the 11-member Board of Supervisors to pass.

“Mayor Lurie has said he’s very confident that he’s already locked up the votes,” Carter-Oberstone said. “But to me, this process is less about saving my job and more about defending the integrity and independence of the Police Commission.”

Breed appointed Carter-Oberstone to the commission in 2021, but the two had a public dispute in late 2022 when he sided with other commissioners in choosing a new commission president, foiling an attempt by the mayor to install her own choice.

In the wake of that clash, Carter-Oberstone revealed the mayor’s practice of having her appointees pre-sign undated resignation letters in an apparent attempt to hold some sway over them. The mayor later ended that practice.

Carter-Oberstone also opposed Proposition E, a measure backed by both Breed and Lurie that passed in March and reduced the Police Commission’s oversight powers over the SFPD, reduced use-of-force reporting requirements and allowed for more surveillance technology and police chases. Last year’s policy limiting pretextual stops was one of the last the commission passed independently before its power to do so was considerably reduced by Proposition E.