Mayoral appointee Larry Yee not able to secure the votes to chair Police Commission

(SAN FRANCISCO) Traditionally, the powerful San Francisco Police Commission is chaired by the mayoral appointee. The internal election of the new leadership at the Police Commission was held last week. The outcome led to the Board of Supervisors appointee Cindy Elias taking the President position and mayoral appointee Larry Yee failing to secure enough votes to be the President.

The latest election of the new leadership at the Police Commission broke the tradition and it was an indicator that Mayor London Breed might not be easy to influence the policy within the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).

The 7-member Police Commission is an oversight body at the SFPD. Under the current system, four members of the Police Commission are appointed by the mayor and three members are selected by the Board of Supervisor via an open application process.

Former Police Commission President Malia Cohen, who is also an elected member of the State Board of Equalization, resigned from the commission in February 2022 to file papers to run for the State Controller in June 7 election earlier this year.

Vice President Elias, who was appointed by the Board of Supervisors in 2019, has served as the Interim President of the Police Commission since then.

In the September 14 meeting, Asian Commissioner Kevin Benedicto made a motion to elect Elias as President and Max Carter-Oberstone as Vice President.

Benedicto, who is a civil rights attorney of Filipino and Chinese descent, was appointed to the Police Commission by the Board of Supervisors in April this year to take over the seat vacated by Japanese American Attorney John Hamasaki.

Elias, a former public defender and currently a labor attorney with the state Department of Industrial Relations, and Larry Yee, a Chinese American retiree from the telecommunication industry who was appointed by Breed in April 2021, are the two most tenured members among seven Police Commissioners.

Debra Walker, an artist and the newest member of the commission who was appointed by Breed in July this year, made a motion to elect Yee as the President and Elias as the Vice President. "I have worked with Commissioner Yee for a long time. He has done so much work for the community," Walker spoke at the meeting. "We have seen a lot of attacks on the folks in the Asian community. And the leadership of someone like Larry Yee can move forward, I believe in discussion and solutions."

Carter-Oberstone is a lawyer specialized in appeal litigation who was appointed by Breed in November 2021.

The motion made by Benedicto was passed by the majority of the Commission with four votes, including Carter-Oberstone who voted for himself as the Vice President and Elias as President. Carter-Oberstone also casted a decisive vote that broke the tradition of the leadership at the Police Commission. The last Police Commission President who was appointed by the Board of Supervisors was Julius Turman, who resigned shortly before his death in 2018.

Wind Newspaper sent an inquiry to Benedicto for comments on his motion. Benedicto did not respond to the request by press time.