Police union chief leaves amid conflict
Martin Halloran has stepped down as president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association amid tensions between the union and City Hall. He was replaced Wednesday by union Vice President Tony Montoya, a longtime undercover police sergeant.
The move was announced during the police union board meeting Wednesday — one day after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors rejected two of Mayor Mark Farrell’s nominations to the Police Commission, who were seen as too close to the union.
The decision helped convince Halloran that it was time to leave, said Gary Delagnes, a former association president who still consults with the union.
“Dealing with City Hall and the Police Commission, it’s been wearing on him,” Delagnes said. “The way we were treated by the city and the lack of respect by City Hall really wore on him.”
Montoya has been on the union’s executive board for 18 years and is a career street cop who worked out of Mission Station. He has been in charge of the undercover unit there for the past six years, Delagnes said.
At times he has faced controversy. In 2000, he was suspended for 30 days after being charged with neglect of duty for failing to report an incident of alleged brutality three years earlier.
Montoya, though, is notably less brash than his two former predecessors. That could help ease tensions between some city departments and the union.
Halloran, also a police sergeant, was a former investigator with the city’s arson task force before becoming involved in labor politics and eventually being nominated as president of the union in 2013. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
He was one of several union officials overseeing the contract negotiations with the city that began in October for a new three-year contract.
The two sides reached an agreement in early May after the talks went to an arbitration board. The panel approved yearly 3 percent wage increases for the rank and file and rejected attempts by the city to speed up police reforms.
Those reforms were recommended after a comprehensive review by the U.S. Justice Department following several police shootings, including the 2015 killing of Mario Woods. The department urged the city to bar officers from shooting at moving vehicles and to consider arming them with Tasers.
Halloran helped put a pro-Taser measure, Proposition H, on the June ballot. In November, the Police Commission voted to arm officers with Tasers, but it was slow to approve a policy on their use.
Prop. H, which would immediately arm officers with Tasers, prompted the commission to adopt a new policy, so officers would have the weapons by the end of the year.
Commissioners Joe Marshall and Sonia Melara, who were appointed by former Mayor Ed Lee, often voted in step with the union on use-of-force issues. Mayor Mark Farrell renominated them after two other commissioners stepped down, but the supervisors rejected them Tuesday.
“We have a great respect for Joe Marshall,” Delagnes said, “and when they took him out of the Police Commission, Marty was like, ‘What are these people doing? This is an absolute zoo.’ ”