San Francisco police union endorses Mayor Breed, but cops cry foul
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San Francisco police officersreceived an email this afternoon from their union leadership, confirming that the San Francisco Police Officers Association will endorse incumbent Mayor London Breed in her re-election campaign.
“Mayor Breed has been a champion for the members of the SFPOA,”concludes the email from union president Tracy McCray. “It’s the truth, and that’s why she earned our support.”
The question ofhowBreed earned that support, however, is rankling fellow members of the police union. Messages for McCray were not returned.
Alex Tourk, a spokesperson for the police union, stated that McCray “made her recommendation to the Full Board, and they voted as a Full Board to endorse Mayor Breed.” He added that the union’s lawyer “participated in the meeting, ensuring appropriate processes.”
But union members attending the POA’s monthly meeting on Wednesday recalled things differently.
“There was never a formal vote done,” says one attendee, who requested anonymity to speak about the matter. “No board members made a motion to have a formal vote.”
And yet, Tourk’s claim about “appropriate processes” appears to be valid. POA members say that “nothing in our bylaws says we have to have a formal vote. It rests solely in the president.”
This is something McCray told her membership long ago. A summary of the May POA meeting obtained byMission Local states that McCray told the gathered 30-odd members of the union’s Board of Directors that, as POA president, she had the authority to unilaterally endorse a mayoral candidate.
The May minutes also record her saying that she goes way back with Breed, and could have endorsed her already, but had not done so because of what she described as the mayor’s dalliance with defunding the police.
Veteran officers said that McCray’s desire to unilaterally endorse Breed was spoken of through the department months ago.
WhileMission Local has spoken to members of the POA Board of Directors who are bewildered at the unilateral nature of this endorsement, that feeling is not unanimous.
“I trust our president,” one says.
The Breed endorsement is a setback for mayoral challenger Mark Farrell, who has already racked up the endorsements of the Deputy Sheriffs Association and theSan Francisco Fire Department Local No. 798.
“I have a message for every rank-and-file police officer,” reads a statement from Farrell following the endorsement. “Even though you didn’t get a chance to be heard in this endorsement process, I have heard you loud and clear about the state of public safety in our neighborhoods, and I will always fight for you in City Hall.”
With public safety now the consensus No. 1 campaign issue — and Breed arguing that the city’scrime statistics are improving, againstFarrell’s more visceral arguments that people do notfeelsafe — today’s endorsement is a significant pickup for the mayor.
It remains to be seen, however, if the methodology behind the endorsement tarnishes it. Past POA presidents contacted byMission Local were taken aback at McCray’s move.
“What she did was out of line and over the top,” says Gary Delagnes, the union president from 2004 to 2013. Delagnes makes no secret of his preference for Farrell, “but I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on, this is wrong. This is not a democracy, it’s a banana republic.”
Al Casciato, the union president from 1983 to 1984, was also confused.
“When Frank Jordan and Willie Brown were running [in 1995], we had a forum. All the district station reps went to their stations and took a poll of all their members and brought it back,” he says.
Regarding this year’s endorsement, “They musthave hadsome type of a process. I don’t see how you can say it by yourself.”
This story has been updated with a statement from Mark Farrell.
