Malia Cohen, who served on SF's Board of Supervisors from 2011 to 2019 and who joined the city's Police Commission last August, has just been elected its new president.

Cohen takes over as president from Damali Taylor, who had assumed the role of president last spring following the resignation of Bob Hirsch. As Mission Local reports, Taylor was reprimanded by Cohen for not holding a commission meeting last month despite there being a quorum of commissioners.

The five sitting members of the commission, which oversees the San Francisco Police Department from an accountability standpoint and addresses complaints by the public, unanimously elected Cohen as president, and Cindy Elias as vice president.

Per Mission Local, Cohen said she was "excited to be taking the helm and taking it with Cindy," and she said following Wednesday's unrest in Washington that it was all the more important to have "transparent leadership" when it comes to policing.

Cohen also serves on the state's Board of Equalization, to which she was elected in early 2019.

In her mostly ceremonial role as president of the Police Commission, Cohen will be in charge of scheduling and leading meetings. And he already took one step to institute a change — moving the half-hour public comment portion of each meeting to the top of the agenda, instead of putting it at the end of the meeting.

"I do believe it’s unfair for people to wait hours to give public comment," she said.

The commission meets weekly, on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Currently, two seats on the seven-member body are vacant, following Hirsch's and Taylor's resignations.