Is the Police Commission Snubbing Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi?

Sandbox fight

​As the old adage goes, all politics is personal. Suffice to say that the city's Police Commission is taking Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's recent criticisms of the group hard.

Mirkarimi publicly admonished the Police Commission for its process of selecting the new police chief. Last week, he used his time at the Board of Supervisors meeting to note a list of candidates -- veteran cops -- who were not even on the short list for interviews.

And that hasn't sat well with the Police Commission, which cannot disclose names of candidates.

The day after Mirkarimi's public diatribe, the commission voted 4-3 not to show up at the supervisors special hearing tonight on community policing.

They had been invited, and it was supposed to be a joint session where the commission and city supervisors were to discuss strategies and recommendations for community policing throughout city neighborhoods.

So why is the commission planning to be a no-show? 

Mirkarimi wasn't going to speak for commissioners, but then he did -- saying they probably don't want get another tongue-lashing from Mirkarimi, who is running for San Francisco sheriff.

"The meeting will include an update on the chief selection process, and I suspect the commission doesn't want to be asked any questions," Mirkarimi told SF Weekly.

Off the record sources told SF Weekly that some commissioners are upset that Mirkarimi made public a list of candidate names last week.

And others, including the commission's vice president Joe Marshall, said they are trying to do this confidential process "above board" and Mirkarimi's judgments don't help.

"It baffles me," Marshall said. "We are being above board and someone is criticizing it and I don't know why."

Mirkarimi said that he had a "collegial" conversation with the commission president Thomas Mazzucco who told him that the commission didn't want to have a hearing on community policing until there is a sitting chief who can chime in on the conversation.

The members who did vote in favor of having the commission participate in tonight's meeting still plan to make an unofficial appearance.

"Frankly, we don't understand it," Mirkarimi said. "The meeting is about community policing which will instruct and inform the chief selection process...so this adds to my concerns."

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