"Transparent" Police Commission Process on Chief Hiring Leaves More Mystery than Transparency

Audience without Participation

A community forum for Police Chief candidates put on by an ad hoc committee within the Oakland Police Commission [OPC] left more questions than it answered Thursday night. The meeting, billed by OPC Chair Marsha Peterson as a “transparent” opportunity for a preliminary round slate of candidates allowed the candidates to describe themselves in response to a set of prepared questions read to them by Chair Peterson. The audience of about 40 people was just that, a group of people sitting and watching the exchanges with no ability to participate in Council chambers—there was no Brown Act required public comment period, because the meeting was of the ad-hoc “hiring” committee composed of Peterson, Regina Jackson and Karely Ordaz, not an official meeting of the OPC.

Although the ad hoc could have allowed public comment, there were no opportunities despite the meeting ending an hour earlier than expected. The public was allowed to fill out a survey about the candidates online, however. But the surprisingly spare survey asked only for a ranking of candidates, and two mirrored questions about what the public "liked most/least" about the candidates.

Although corporate media created narrative reporting about Thao's statement "snub" of the event, it's clear that participation would have been ceremonial only. Former Mayor Libby Schaaf's participation in a similar forum occurred during Covid complete lockdown procedures for an event that was completely broadcast by Zoom and not public. Schaaf, in fact, asked no questions of the candidates, did not participate and used most of her commentary as an ad hoc state of the city address.

Put before the body were the four candidates the Chief hiring ad-hoc committee has chosen for what Peterson called the “final round” of the selection process. These were Cincinnati Assistant Chief Lisa Davis; former San Leandro Chief Abdul Pridgen; New York’s former jails Commissioner and current Assistant Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Louis Molina, and the Lubbock, Texas former Chief, Floyd Mitchell.

There were no outstanding gafs, or performances in what seemed to be practiced statements that all reflected familiarity with a national consensus on policing that stresses oversight, community input, accountability, diversion, acknowledgement of social forces driving crime and civilianizing certain policing roles. All the candidates were asked about a post-NSA period and stewardship. You can listen to responses in this video.

Worrisome History of Candidates Ignored

Chair Peterson described the candidates as “change agents” who have “compassion and fire” for the OPD Chief role. But the most pressing details of the hires—the well publicized reputational issues of at least three of the candidates—remained unspoken by the Commissioners and elided by the candidates. Pridgen, Molina and Mitchell come to the process with concerning histories:

—Abdul Prigden, the former San Leandro police chief left the job under an investigatory cloud just two weeks ago.

—Louis Molina, the embattled former head of NYC’s troubled jail system, including Ryker’s where 19 inmates died during his tenure, with well-reported attempts by Molina to cover up the deaths. Molina was elevated from the position by his patron Mayor Eric Adams as the jail system floundered.

—Floyd Mitchell, the embattled Lubbock police chief oversaw 30,000 abandoned 911 calls from a dispatch center under his stewardship. He resigned from his position just six months ago.

Lisa Davis, an assistant chief from Cincinnati was the only one of the candidates who does not have a well-documented questionable history, though she has been passed over for the chief position in her own police department. But none of these issues for the others were brought to the fore during the meeting and they were not even detailed in the descriptive blurbs posted by the OPC on their website.

Reissa Jaffe, a resident who watched the meeting on zoom said she appreciated some of the information presented but felt there were no opportunities to confront the obvious issues with each candidate.

“While I heard some good things, I came away with seeing the forum as a performative presentation,” Jaffe said.

Jaffe added that she declined to fill out a survey the committee had provided to gauge public interest because there was not enough information presented to do so.

"Hiring Committee" Members are at Center of Troubled Hiring Process

Despite claims of transparency, many issues remain a mystery, including facts around the deliberate undermining of the previous process by the current hiring committee. The members of the current hiring ad hoc are the same three Police Commission members who led a well documented boycott of police commission meetings while the former hiring ad hoc tried to finish its selection work last fall, delaying the vote required to issue a final list by at least one month. That committee was led by Chair Tyfarah Milele, David Jordan and Commissioner Rudy Howell; the former Commissioner's terms expired in October [and Howell also resigned as protest].

According to former Chair and hiring committee member Tyfahra Milele, the boycott prevented the hiring committee from bringing their final list to the full OPC for approval in October. Milele sent an unofficial list to Thao anyway before her term expired that included 7 candidates, including Armstrong who had applied for the job.

After the delays from their boycott and the departure of the former Chair and Vice Chair after their expired terms, Peterson was named Chair by the larger body. Peterson then immediately used her discretion to create a hiring committee of herself, Jackson and Ordaz, the same Commissioners who'd delayed the hiring process. But whether the process simply picked up after the previous frustrated attempts ended in October or was begun anew has never been explained by the Committee or Peterson.

After several more months, in December, the new hiring committee created a slate of three that also included the former Antioch Chief who left his position after an extensive racist texting and scam scandal occurred under his leadership, former Oakland Police Chief Leronne Armstrong and a third candidate—but the committee pursued that process behind closed doors and did not give the public any opportunity to weigh in. The slate only became public through leaks to local media. Thao rejected that slate completely—as is allowed in the charter—but neither the committee nor Chair Peterson has explained why that process proceeded in absolute secrecy, while this one was billed as transparent.

Notably, the Oakland Observer has learned that Angela Averiett, the current Chief of Los Altos PD, and a former Deputy Chief at BART, was in the original unofficial list of 7 sent by the previous hiring committee to Thao during the boycott, before the terms of Milele and Jordan expired. In an odd twist, Averiett, who is no longer being considered for the Oakland Chief position, stepped into the interim Chief role at SLPD as Pridgen left it last week.

Two sources with direct knowledge of events have confirmed Thao's claim that at least one qualified applicant considered a favorite dropped out of the process when they learned the ad hoc committee would make a portion of the selection process public, though the identity of that candidate is not known.

Following the rejected slate, the OPC under Peterson elected to institute another fairly untransparent process, again with little information to the public about why and how the process would apparently begin again.

According to Peterson in comments made from the dais at a February OPC meeting, the ad hoc committee began with a semi-finalist list of 8 candidates last week that they whittled down to four in a two-round process by the beginning of last week. About an hour after Thursday's forum event wrapped up, the full Police Commission met in a closed session meeting to actually vote on the final slate—that also brings up questions of why the candidate forum was claimed as the final group for presentation to the mayor before the Police Commission had actually voted to create a candidate list. It’s not clear if members of the Commission could challenge the slate completely during the session, delete or add candidates from the list already rejected by the ad hoc. A Police Commissioner voted against the last slate the hiring committee presented in closed session.

After the meeting, the OPC released a statement that only claimed 4 candidates had been forwarded to the mayor. The four are likely the same four that had participated, but it’s not confirmed—its also not known whether the OPC considered other candidates in closed session. A request for the answers to these and other questions was not answered by press time.