Push to fast-track San Francisco police commissioner reappointment draws criticism

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The president of the San Francisco Police Fee is up for one more time period in April. However there is a push by some progressives on the Board of Supervisors to fast-track her reappointment, which is bringing sharp criticism from moderates.

Cindy Elias is among the longest-serving members of the police fee. Twice the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously supported her.

Besides that now Supervisor Aaron Peskin has pushed forward with a vote to have Elias reappointed, 4 months earlier than her time period expires.

“She’s doing a wonderful job and deserves to proceed and deserves to have the help of this Board of Supervisors,” mentioned Supervisor Peskin remotely by way of Zoom. Peskin was not capable of attend Monday morning’s listening to due to COVID.

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Whereas this has been completed earlier than, the optics and the timing on this case will not be good.

“That is simply naked politics, it is so simple as that. The present board, which is leaning to the progressive aspect, is afraid that within the coming month, there shall be new members that may not share that philosophy, and so they need to preempt the concept of any individual else turning into a vital vote on the police fee,” defined ABC7 Information contributor Phil Matier.

Six months in the past, the board had seven progressives, however with Gordon Mar and Matt Haney out, the 2 new elected supervisors, Joel Engardio and Matt Dorsey, are extra to the middle. This implies there shall be six moderates and solely 5 progressives.

On Monday, the three members on the principles committee voted on the problem to reappoint Elias, with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, a average, in opposition.

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Supervisor Connie Chan, a progressive, defended Elias as somebody with wanted institutional information.

“Most significantly is that we even have somebody that is aware of and has been by means of the method of justice reform to finish the reform course of,” added Chan.

Supervisor Peskin mentioned there was no “hanky panky” concerned in his determination and introduced that the brand new board shall be allowed to vote after Jan. 9 when the brand new time period begins, however made it clear they’d not wait till her time period expires in April.

So the query now could be, by having the help of the principles dedicated early on, would this discourage different potential candidates from making use of?

“Oh, fairly clearly it shuts down the dialog on any different to her,” mentioned Mandelman.

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