Police discipline changes on hold, for now

Pub date December 8, 2009
WriterTim Redmond
SectionPolitics Blog

By Tim Redmond

I picked up a lot of interesting gossip at a Friday night birthday party for Police Commissioner David Onek, starting with the blazing news that former Mayor Art Agnos really wants to get it on with Beth Spotswood, who once called him “hot.”

And Joe Veronese told me he’s “thinking seriously about” running for supervisor in District Two.

But the real news, which I picked up floating around here and there and was able to confirm this week, is that the efforts by Chief Gascon and the Police Officers Assocation to change the cop disciplinary process are on hold, at least for the moment.

Apparently, sources tell me, the chief and the POA aren’t entirely on the same page, and both sides realize that any move to strip the Police Commission and the Office of Citizen Complaints of their disciplinary authority won’t go anywhere with this Board of Supervisors.

So all the parties are back to square one, leaving me to ask, as we did in our editorial (linked above): Why not just give the chief the authority he wants, and leave the commission and the OCC alone?