The Facts

Supervisor Stephen Sherrill introduced a motion to suspend William Palmer from the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board and file 12 official-misconduct charges. If supervisors approve it next week, the Ethics Commission would hold a hearing before the Board decides whether to remove Palmer by a three-fourths vote. Michael Barba and J.D. Morris reported the process for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Inspector General found 14 ethics-law violations, including invoking his title during two law-enforcement encounters, using city email to contact the District Attorney’s Office about a personal matter, and trying to use his position to reach a potential witness in a secure hospital ward. Palmer disputes the findings.

The Context

Palmer joined the board in 2021. His 31 years of incarceration and later reentry work were central to his appointment to a public seat, as GrowSF previously reported. Supervisors reappointed him in 2023 through March 2027.

Current law protects oversight-board members from removal except through this misconduct process. Proposition F would generally let appointing authorities remove their own commissioners without cause.

The GrowSF Take

Sherrill was right to act. The findings are detailed and damning. Someone charged with overseeing law enforcement cannot invoke that office to intimidate deputies or reach a potential witness against him.

But Sherrill should not have to assemble 12 charges and push them through months of legal machinery to remove an appointed official who has plainly lost the Board’s confidence. The Board should be able to remove Palmer directly. That is why Sherrill supports Proposition F, and why GrowSF supports it, too.