By Police1 Staff

OAKLAND, Calif. — Ex-convicts are being encouraged by city officials to join a commission that will oversee everything from disciplining Oakland’s officers to the hiring and firing of the police chief.

Both a flyer and an application on the city’s website for positions on the city’s new nine-member commission state “formerly incarcerated individuals encouraged to apply.”

According to KPIX 5, the measure to create the police oversight commission was overwhelmingly backed by voters in November.

Oakland Police Officers’ Association President Barry Donelan said voters weren’t told felons would be allowed.

“This is a bait and switch,” Donelan said.

Tal Klement, one of eight panelists who will decide the commission members, told KPIX 5 that the police department “should be welcoming the viewpoint and participation of all members of the city of Oakland and that includes people with criminal backgrounds.”

Klement said they’re encouraging it because “that’s the population that has had the most contact with police and the measure itself asks for communities that have had frequent contact with police.”

Commissioners won’t undergo background checks either because the panel feels it will discourage formerly incarcerated people from applying, Klement said. The only group that is banned from applying are former or current Oakland police officers.

The application closes at the end of June.