SAN JOSE — While thousands of people poured into SAP Center Tuesday to pay their respects to fallen officer Michael Katherman during a public memorial, Mayor Sam Liccardo and Vice Mayor Rose Herrera weren’t there.

City Hall sources told this newspaper that Liccardo and eight other council members were asked not to attend the public service. It was the family’s request, they said they were told, based on the San Jose police officer’s will. Katherman was killed on duty last week in a motorcycle accident.

Liccardo confirmed he did not attend the service in a text message Tuesday.

“I didn’t attend the service to honor Officer Katherman’s family’s preference that most of the members of the City Council not attend,” Liccardo wrote. “The tragedy of Mike’s loss makes the wishes of his family paramount over any other consideration.”

Other council members would only discuss the matter on condition that they not be identified due to the sensitivity of the situation.

“I was just told we were not invited,” said one council member Tuesday. “It’s frustrating because we want to pay our respects. But the Police Officers’ Association apologized and said it’s the family’s wish.”

While council members said they weren’t given a specific reason, they said they believed it stemmed from tensions between the mayor and council and city employees — especially police officers — over Measure B pension reforms.

Although Liccardo settled the pension dispute last year and the city is now asking a judge to repeal Measure B, bad blood remains between the mayor and the rank-and-file police who backed his opponent.

There were two exceptions: Councilman Raul Peralez, a former police officer who served with Katherman, and Councilman Ash Kalra, who had opposed Measure B. Also in attendance were City Manager Norberto Dueñas and four county supervisors.

Shunning politicians at police officer funerals is rare, but not unprecedented. Liccardo attended slain officer Michael Johnson’s funeral last year, though he did not speak. In Oakland, police did not allow Mayor Ron Dellums to speak at the funeral for the four officers who were killed on the same day in 2009. In New York, thousands of city police officers last year turned their backs while Mayor Bill de Blasio eulogized a slain officer, angry over his perceived support for anti-police protests.

But a San Jose council member banned from Tuesday’s service said, “I’m not offended by it.”

“When people die,” the council member said, “they have a right to have the funeral the way they want to.”

San Jose Police Officers’ Association President Paul Kelly said in a statement that “a ounce of respect and remembrance for Officer Katherman’s sacrifice is all his family requested on this very difficult day.” He criticized the newspaper for reporting the family’s request to exclude the mayor and council members, saying it valued “chasing a salacious headline over common decency.”

Contact Ramona Giwargis at 408-920-5705. Follow her at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis.