Supervisors unanimously send police oversight charter amendment renaming OCC to Department of Police Accountability to ballot

On July 29, 2016, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously (11-0) to submit a charter amendment to the Nov. 8, 2016 ballot that would rename the Office of Citizens' Complaints (OCC) as the Department of Police Accountability (DPA), give the office direct authority over its proposed budget, and require the office to conduct a performance audit every two years of how the police department has handled claims of officer misconduct and use of force.

Deputy City Attorney John Givner told the board that the Police Officers Association had met and conferred with Department of Human Resources on the measure and raised "no questions that need to be addressed at this meeting." Givner stated on the record that "the new department DPA will handle investigations of individual police misconduct." The transcript records Givner restating the meet-and-confer outcome for the record before the roll call.

The clerk ran a roll call and recorded 11 ayes. The clerk announced, "There are 11 ayes," and the charter amendment "will be submitted." The ballot language read on the record described renaming the OCC to the Department of Police Accountability and adding authorities and audit requirements; the operative election date was set for Nov. 8, 2016.

During the public comment period that followed, one speaker addressed police policy and suggested removing guns from patrol officers as a public-safety measure; the speaker's remarks were part of public comment and did not change the board's formal action to submit the charter amendment to the ballot.

The transcript does not record a motion maker or seconder; the clerk conducted a roll call vote as recorded above.