A Story of Corruption & Virtue on the Chief's Advisory Board
So I asked Chief Pridgen why would he want me on the board? His answer was that he wanted to hear from a diverse group of perspectives, that he valued different voices and opinions. He said that he knew how much I cared about San Leandro, that I had a principled and important point of view to share. So, in that spirit of good faith, I accepted his invitation and joined the CAB.
During my time on the board, I struggled to have meaningful conversations, share important information, and collaborate with fellow board members. Meetings were rushed and discussions were discouraged. Even personal meetups were frowned upon and group email exchanges were banned entirely. I often faced hostility from certain individuals who refused to acknowledge even the most blatant brutality and overt misconduct by the SLPD in their history. The mildest disagreement and most benign questions were held in suspicion. The prospect of taking my own notes to share with fellow members who asked for them repeatedly derailed discussions, as CAB leadership constantly amended our rules to try and stop us from cooperating or swapping ideas. Each new requirement was intentionally designed to diminish transparency and avoid accountability. Yet I complied with every arbitrary change, making my personal notes crystal clear and professionally polished, with regular offers for anyone to submit feedback or revisions, as well as change their mind about wanting to receive copies.
During my time on the board, I struggled to have meaningful conversations, share important information, and collaborate with fellow board members. Meetings were rushed and discussions were discouraged. Even personal meetups were frowned upon and group email exchanges were banned entirely. I often faced hostility from certain individuals who refused to acknowledge even the most blatant brutality and overt misconduct by the SLPD in their history. The mildest disagreement and most benign questions were held in suspicion. The prospect of taking my own notes to share with fellow members who asked for them repeatedly derailed discussions, as CAB leadership constantly amended our rules to try and stop us from cooperating or swapping ideas. Each new requirement was intentionally designed to diminish transparency and avoid accountability. Yet I complied with every arbitrary change, making my personal notes crystal clear and professionally polished, with regular offers for anyone to submit feedback or revisions, as well as change their mind about wanting to receive copies.
While I was doing that, they also took the opportunity to ram through a new vice chair that they knew was ineligible to serve and lied about their term of service, freezing out those of us looking to participate more deeply and violating the very charter they swore to uphold.
Yet, I was undeterred, channeling a spirit of cooperation, open communication, and community-building. I shared critical information to protect our new vice chair from identity theft, the possible removal of their kids from SLUSD, and even potential dismissal from the board. I gave free tutoring on statewide legal developments to fellow members. I even covered for members who had to miss meetings due to a scheduling conflict or sudden emergency. I joked and laughed with fellow members at police department gatherings, trying to find common ground in the strange shared experiences of our lives.
Yet, I was undeterred, channeling a spirit of cooperation, open communication, and community-building. I shared critical information to protect our new vice chair from identity theft, the possible removal of their kids from SLUSD, and even potential dismissal from the board. I gave free tutoring on statewide legal developments to fellow members. I even covered for members who had to miss meetings due to a scheduling conflict or sudden emergency. I joked and laughed with fellow members at police department gatherings, trying to find common ground in the strange shared experiences of our lives.
Little did I realize that a minority of CAB members, alongside rogue individuals in the police department were engaged in a quiet operation to have me removed, filing false complaints, making spurious allegations, and spreading unfounded accusations. They ranged from the patently ridiculous, "your notes make us feel unsafe," and "your opinions are dangerous," to the subversive and insidious, "you only care about your personal agenda" and "this isn't the place for your questions." Some well-intentioned members even blamed me, frustrated with the distractions and drama, taking it out on me as the victim of these attacks rather than the actual perpetrators. But I worked hard, volunteering for events and soliciting input from stakeholders. I thought that the crybullies would stop if I just showed that I was here for the same reason as everyone else: a better and safer San Leandro.
Take note and take care.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Chief Pridgen was sidelined due to a bogus workplace investigation spearheaded by the San Leandro Police Officers' Association who lost their minds at his decision to hire an immensely qualified Black female lieutenant, the first for our town. With his absence, I lost the very person who believed in my presence there the most.
So, this campaign of retaliation found a champion in Interim Chief Kevin Hart. A corrupt cop who left the Kensington Police Department in disgrace and dysfunction. Initially, Hart engaged in a bait and switch regarding his agreed-upon compensation package after he had already been hired. Instead of taking accepting responsibility for his mistake, he issued an ultimatum that the taxpayers foot the bill for that mistake after it was too late for them to hire a replacement in time.
So, this campaign of retaliation found a champion in Interim Chief Kevin Hart. A corrupt cop who left the Kensington Police Department in disgrace and dysfunction. Initially, Hart engaged in a bait and switch regarding his agreed-upon compensation package after he had already been hired. Instead of taking accepting responsibility for his mistake, he issued an ultimatum that the taxpayers foot the bill for that mistake after it was too late for them to hire a replacement in time.
Hart also misled the public about illegal surveillance of elected officials, “records released on Senate Bill 1421, the state’s new police transparency law, showed cops used a confidential law enforcement database to look up information on Cordova. That disclosure sharply contradicted statements by Harmon’s successor, former Chief Kevin Hart, who said in 2016 that he’d found only a minor infraction of the use of the database involving Cordova’s records.” Indeed, records showed that multiple officers engaged in this practice and harassed numerous community members as well as police board members outside of the department’s jurisdiction, which is shocking for such a small department under his watch. Hart was also implicated in other unprofessional behavior attacking elected officials, board members, and others, even as he defended violations of department policy on off-duty conduct and that investigations of corruption were not done to standard.
Ultimately, he resigned before his contract was up while being under investigation for wrongfully leaking details about an ongoing investigation over a traffic stop of a police board member. “Hart earlier this year became the subject of an investigation related to that incident when the police board agreed to hire a lawyer to investigate allegations that Hart had wrongfully revealed details of the investigation into the traffic stop.”
I had serious misgivings about Interim Chief Hart from the beginning, which I communicated to City Manager Fran Robustelli, as well as the city council and other community leaders. However, at the first CAB meeting, I gave him the chance to show whether he'd learned any lessons from his past mistakes at Kensington. Perhaps unsurprisingly, but still unfortunately, he was adamant that he hadn't done a single thing wrong. He told us he welcomed questions and concerns. When I voiced mine, he promised we would schedule a meeting to discuss them. I took him at his word in good faith and reached out. But that meeting never happened.
The attacks against me reached a whole new level when Interim Chief Hart realized I had been sharing my notes with fellow CAB members who requested them. And those notes contained documentation about his troubling record in law enforcement. Suddenly, I was targeted with a letter threatening a lawsuit for libel and a promise to improperly remove me from the CAB, in violation of the law and CAB charter. The allegations were a reiteration of the same lies I had been facing - smears about my attitude and demeanor not being sufficiently ingratiating, fears that my personal notes were undermining the department, and demands that I stop sharing them, stop talking with fellow CAB members, and stop fulfilling the oath I took when I joined up in the first place. To add insult to injury, Interim Chief Hart sent that letter to the entire CAB membership and part of the command staff at SLPD.
Naturally, I had to respond and protect myself from these illegal and unethical tactics to infringe on my First Amendment rights to speak up about public acts by public officials based on public information, as well as my duty to help improve public safety by acting as an advisor to the department. I filed a formal complaint. In it, I outlined each accusation and allegation in detail. I attached receipts. I cited witnesses, times, and dates. In doing so, I neutralized the immediate threat of a lawsuit and shifted some of the burden back onto those who are supposed to be held to higher standards.
But, little did I realize that instead of working on protecting the people of San Leandro, Interim Chief Hart was compiling a dossier of opposition research on me. He filled it with scrapes of my personal social media accounts, redacted emails from random critics, and isolated reports from stalkers -- not to protect anyone's privacy or to adhere to a nondisclosure requirement -- but to mislead the majority of CAB members who supported me. Context was stripped out. Quotes were cherry-picked and strung together haphazardly. I was characterized as a dangerous radical by people who were themselves zealots and fanatics
The full scope of their strategy became apparent when Interim Chief Hart set a motion on the next agenda to expel me from the CAB. While I successfully rebutted every lie and accusation, rallying even some of my detractors to realize this was taking things too far, it still wasn't enough. Crucial supporters were conspicuously absent. My accusers were granted anonymity while I had to withstand open scrutiny in silence. Interim Chief Hart used his bully pulpit to the fullest extent by convincing the CAB leadership to submit anonymous motions for my removal rather than embracing an open and transparent democratic process. They used secret ballots counted by the very people seeking my expulsion. The SLPD administrative assistant initially wouldn't even let me cast a ballot at all.
They won, barely. The vote to expel me passed 9 to 8.
I told my fellow CAB members that I wish they could have talked to me. I wished they could have accepted my repeated invitations to have a conversation. I shared my disappointment with those who refused to even consider working together to build a better, safer San Leandro. But I also made it clear that the actions taken today did nothing for public safety, crime, or policing. All it accomplished was to further divide us and make it easier for the corrupt few to maintain their hold on any meager piece of power they could get. I also told them that if they truly believed I should be expelled, even despite everything they know, then I just wanted to say: it was still an honor and a privilege to serve with them, and that I wish them all the best. I thanked them and walked to the door.
But Interim Chief Hart wanted to get one last insult in, I guess, mocking me with an insincere gesture as if he had not just leveled numerous damaging false accusations and manipulated the board to silence me. It took everything I had not to laugh in his goofy face. When I told him that his actions were foolish, unethical, and endangered my family, Interim Chief Hart spat out that I should "take responsibility for your life." It's ironic that his accusation was actually a confession of his own failure to take responsibility for his abuse of office, abuse of discretion, and his history of misconduct in law enforcement.
Still, I left with a sigh of relief, and my head held high. I finally knew where I stood while others sat. The nonsense was over, for now at least. I withstood months of immense pressure from crybullies and ideologues to surrender to their petty cruelty and pitiful grievances. Instead, I stood up for myself, my family, and my community. I spoke truth to power and brought awareness to their abusive practices.
But Interim Chief Hart wanted to get one last insult in, I guess, mocking me with an insincere gesture as if he had not just leveled numerous damaging false accusations and manipulated the board to silence me. It took everything I had not to laugh in his goofy face. When I told him that his actions were foolish, unethical, and endangered my family, Interim Chief Hart spat out that I should "take responsibility for your life." It's ironic that his accusation was actually a confession of his own failure to take responsibility for his abuse of office, abuse of discretion, and his history of misconduct in law enforcement.
Still, I left with a sigh of relief, and my head held high. I finally knew where I stood while others sat. The nonsense was over, for now at least. I withstood months of immense pressure from crybullies and ideologues to surrender to their petty cruelty and pitiful grievances. Instead, I stood up for myself, my family, and my community. I spoke truth to power and brought awareness to their abusive practices.
And I really hold no hard feelings towards my fellow CAB members, even those who made incorrect and spurious claims about me or voted to expel me. Their decision was based on bad information and the actions of an interim police chief engaging in bad faith under the color of their public office. They, like me, wanted an end to the toxic distractions caused by CAB leadership and a chance to focus on the work we all signed up for building a better, safer San Leandro. I understand why it may have been easier for some to simply pick the path of least resistance and I hope they are able to find a productive path forward in my absence.
True, my time as a member of the Chief's Advisory Board is over, yet I learned valuable lessons about the politics here in San Leandro. Now, I can focus on reform and reconstruction where it matters most and where it works best. Obviously, there will always be those who prefer bullying and bigotry, but what I'll remember most is the kindness and generosity of the people who supported me. I know all of their names and now they know mine.
Take note and take care.
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