Mayor Barbara Lee has nominated two new members to the Police Commission: Evelio Grillo, a retired Alameda County Superior Court judge, and Douglas Wong, a retired fire engineer with the Contra Costa Fire Protection District.
Lee’s picks were introduced at Thursday’s Rules and Legislation Committee meeting, which schedules agenda items for future City Council meetings. Wong was at the meeting and answered questions from council members about his views on constitutional policing and collaboration with the City Council.
The mayor’s nominations sailed smoothly through the committee, with its four members unanimously voting to forward their appointments to the next City Council meeting on Jan. 20, on the consent agenda. Consent items are routine, non-controversial, and normally approved by a single vote without debate.
But the fates of two other Police Commission nominees are still up in the air.
On Dec. 18, the Police Commission Selection Panel, a nine-member volunteer board in charge of picking nominees for four of the seven seats on the Police Commission, recommended the reappointments of Ricardo Garcia-Acosta, currently the commission’s chair, and Omar Farmer, currently an alternate commissioner. Both are serving in a hold-over capacity since their terms expired on Oct. 16.
It was the third time the selection panel unanimously voted to recommend their reappointments.
On Oct. 21, the council unanimously declined to renew their appointments. Some council members told The Oaklandside they had concerns with the selection panel’s application and recruitment process. Councilmember Ken Houston wrote in a social media post that he took issue with what he described as “passive aggressive disrespect” from Farmer and Garcia-Acosta toward city staff.
The council may also have been swayed by the arguments of Rajni Mandal, a Montclair resident and public safety activist who has spoken critically of the commission at past meetings. In October, Mandal, a frequent author for Oakland Report, a publication highly critical of civilian police oversight, sent the council members a letter highly critical of Farmer, urging them to vote against any recommended reappointments from the selection panel that included him. The Police Commission’s independent legal counsel sent Council President Kevin Jenkins a letter several days later, rebutting Mandal’s claims.
Following the council’s rejection, the selection panel again forwarded Farmer and Garcia-Acosta’s nominations.
Today, the council’s Rules and Legislation Committee voted to forward their nominations to the next council meeting on the non-consent agenda, meaning there could be debate, and there’s a chance they might be rejected again.
Garcia-Acosta and Farmer did not attend today’s committee meeting.
A larger debate about the Police Commission’s role
Oakland Police Commission Chair Ricardo Garcia-Acosta speaks at a police pursuit policy town hall at the East Bay Church of Religious Science on Jan. 15, 2025. Credit: Jose Fermoso/The Oaklandside
Some Oakland residents view the Police Commission as overly adversarial toward the police department, with some arguing it needs to be disbanded entirely. Other community members believe the commission ought to maintain its powers, as its primary role is to hold the department accountable and ask hard questions of the police.
These tensions have taken center stage at recent City Council and Police Commission meetings, where city leaders and members of the public have sparred over whether Farmer and Garcia-Acosta should remain on the commission.
At Thursday’s meeting, Jenkins, who also serves as chair of the Rules and Legislation Committee, asked Wong to weigh in on the dynamics between the commission and the council. Wong said he’s noticed “animosity” between commissioners, council members, and the public at past Police Commission meetings.
“We all have to work hand in hand,” he said. “Being a firefighter, I’ve been in situations where everybody wants you to do something, and you can’t, so you have to prioritize what you have to do.”
Mandal said she felt hopeful about the mayor’s appointments to the commission.
“I think these two mayoral appointments are excellent, and I really look forward to seeing what they get to do,” Mandal said at the meeting.
Grillo told The Oaklandside he was unable to attend Thursday’s meeting because he is traveling. He will take over the seat formerly held by Brenda Harbin-Forte, also a retired superior court judge who was appointed to the commission by former Mayor Libby Schaaf in 2020, but was removed by former Mayor Sheng Thao three years later.
Wong had friends harmed by police misconduct
Wong, who worked for the Contra Costa Fire Protection District for nearly 30 years, will serve as an alternate police commissioner, taking over the seat formerly held by Karely Ordaz.
He told the council committee on Thursday that his biggest priority is getting the Oakland Police Department out of its 23-year federal court oversight program — the longest of any law enforcement agency in the nation.
In an interview with The Oaklandside after the meeting, Wong said he had four friends victimized by the “Riders,” a gang of Oakland police officers who kidnapped, planted evidence, and beat dozens of people in West Oakland in the 1990s. A civil rights lawsuit filed by victims of the Riders led to OPD agreeing to the now decades-long federal oversight program in 2003.
“We played basketball together at Lincoln Square,” Wong said of his friends. “I lost contact with them, but I remember being questioned by an Oakland police detective and the district attorney about them.”
Wong said he wants to use that experience, along with his time as a firefighter, to bring balance and institutional knowledge to the commission.
He told The Oaklandside he received a call from Lee about two weeks ago, asking him to serve on the commission. The two met decades ago when Lee worked for Congressman Ron Dellums and have stayed in touch over the years.
“It’s good to reconnect with her and find out what she’s up to,” he said. “I don’t know where she gets her energy from.”
If approved by the council, Wong and Grillo’s terms on the commission would expire on Oct. 16, 2028.
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