Politics
Oakland Council Sends Police Commission Search Back for Review
Oakland officials rejected a two-person slate for the Police Commission after questions arose about whether one nominee’s legal work for a firm involved in litigation against the city could create a conflict. The move gives the selection panel time to assess the issue and potentially return both candidates for another vote.
Oakland’s City Council rejected two nominees to the city’s Police Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after the city attorney said there had not been enough time to assess a possible conflict of interest involving one candidate.
The nominees were former Mayor Jean Quan and Nicholas O’Brien-Kovari, a former deputy public defender who now works at a private law firm involved in active litigation against the city. O’Brien-Kovari asked the city attorney’s office on Monday whether his work could make him ineligible to serve, according to a letter reviewed by KQED.
Oakland’s city charter requires the commission’s nominees to be sent to the council together as a slate. At Tuesday’s hearing, City Attorney Ryan Richardson said his office had not completed an analysis of O’Brien-Kovari’s potential conflict and could not confirm whether his withdrawal from consideration could be reversed.
Richardson advised the council to reject the slate and restart the process. “If both candidates are qualified, the selection panel can send them both back, and the council can vote them up or down,” he said.
The council’s action does not settle whether O’Brien-Kovari is eligible. The Police Commission can now review the issue and, if needed, choose a replacement from its candidate pool before submitting nominees again.
O’Brien-Kovari said he remains interested in serving but would not join the commission without clarity about whether his legal work presents a conflict. “I really did want to serve,” he said. He described himself as passionate about police reform.
Quan told council members that she volunteered after Mayor Barbara Lee asked her to consider the role. She said she would be honored to help stabilize constitutional policing in Oakland during the first year after the city’s police department left a negotiated settlement and ended two decades of federal oversight. Quan also pushed back against criticism of her record during the 2011 Occupy Oakland protests, saying she was in Washington, D.C., at the time lobbying for more police funding.
The appointment dispute comes after repeated tensions between city leaders and the voter-mandated commission. The council previously rejected two slates, with some members criticizing the recruitment process; the selection system was subsequently revised to broaden and diversify the pool of candidates.
The commission has substantial authority over the Oakland Police Department, including the power to help hire and fire the police chief, shape use-of-force policy and investigate allegations of misconduct. With federal oversight recently concluded, the commission is expected to play a central role in public accountability for the department.