In City Weary of Scandal, Calls Grow For Mayor of San Diego to Step Down
By IAN LOVETT and ROB DAVIS, NY TIMES
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SAN DIEGO — In November, when Bob Filner became the first Democrat in two decades to be elected mayor here, he celebrated with his fiancée at his side in Old Trolley Barn Park, where he thanked hundreds of supporters who had showed up.

But after a week in which seven women publicly accused him of sexual harassment, it was all but impossible to find any Filner supporters in Old Trolley Barn Park. And Democrats and Republicans have been — at least temporarily — united on an issue: their insistence that the mayor resign.

Rather than mollifying his critics, the mayor’s announcement on Friday that he would take two weeks away from City Hall to seek what he described as intensive behavior therapy has only further angered many residents, who complained that he was dragging the city through the mud in hopes of salvaging his own career.

“I’m bummed. I voted for him,” said Mona Mukherjea-Gehrig, 46. “Can you change in two weeks? That’s a joke. What are you going to do in two weeks?”

Her husband, Dwayne Gehrig, who had not supported Mr. Filner last fall, agreed.

“I don’t think two weeks of therapy is going to set a lifetime of a certain pattern straight,” said Mr. Gehrig, 45.

San Diego’s political discourse has been upended since accusations that Mr. Filner mistreated women first surfaced two weeks ago, and the city has once again found itself the butt of political jokes. The “Filner headlock,” a nickname for the maneuver the mayor is alleged to have used to get women alone, has become a punch line at bars along 30th Street.

This is the latest in a string of recent political controversies. Eight years ago, Mayor Dick Murphy resigned amid a fiscal scandal that left this city known as “Enron-by-the-Sea.” That same year, Representative Randy Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes. And earlier this year, another former mayor, Maureen O’Connor, was accused of taking more than $2 million from a charity to feed her gambling addiction.

“We have kind of a bad history with politicians being corrupt and creepy here in San Diego,” said Nick Wyatt, 31.

Linda Reeves said she thought the mayor had been doing a good job until the scandal erupted. Now, she cringed as she admitted that she had voted for Mr. Filner.

“It’s like we’re the other end of Anthony Weiner,” Ms. Reeves, 64, said. “It’s Weiner and Filner. We’ve already been Enron-by-the-Sea. We don’t need this, too.”

Still, like many others, Ms. Reeves did not see the sexual harassment scandal as something that should dent civic pride. Rather, she laid the blame with Mr. Filner himself, who she said was compromising not only San Diego’s reputation, but also the city’s ability to provide basic services.

“The man-up thing to do is go,” she said. “He should resign and let us go on. I want my streets fixed.”

Whether Mr. Filner, 70, can ultimately win back some of his supporters is uncertain. But in the last two weeks, calls for his resignation have only grown louder, while his supporters have gone all but silent. Mr. Filner himself refused to answer questions at the news conference on Friday where he announced he would enter therapy in August.

The first woman to accuse Mr. Filner publicly, Irene McCormack Jackson, filed a lawsuit against him on Monday, alleging sexual harassment. In the days that followed, half a dozen more women, including a retired Navy rear admiral and a dean at San Diego State University, made their own allegations.

The San Diego County Democratic Party, which last week declined to call for the mayor’s resignation, voted overwhelmingly on Thursday night to ask him to step aside. And seven of the nine City Council members have now called for Mr. Filner to resign.

“Council member Cole is still standing by due process,” said Jimmie Slack, chief of staff to Myrtle Cole, one of the Council members who has not called for Mr. Filner to resign. “Nothing has changed in the last week or so except more women have come out,” he said. Ms. Cole “views all of that as part of due process, and is pleased to see that that is occurring, and pleased to see that the mayor is getting help.”

In his announcement, Mr. Filner suggested that while he is away seeking treatment at an undisclosed location, he would continue running the city government.

Members of the council who have been pushing him to leave are concerned that this is a recipe for paralysis. In recent weeks, Mr. Filner has watched a parade of city officials leave his administration, presumably in protest of his actions.

Despite the growing public opposition, there is little that constituents can do to compel Mr. Filner to leave office. A recall campaign would require more than 100,000 signatures in just over a month, an expensive and unlikely proposition.

Lorena Gonzalez, a state assemblywoman who was secretary-treasurer of the San Diego labor council, which pumped close to $2 million into Mr. Filner’s mayoral race, is among the most prominent of his former supporters to demand that he step down.

But she said such demands have probably had “no effect” on Mr. Filner.

“I don’t think anyone who knows Bob Filner is surprised,” she said. “He’s just incredibly stubborn and probably believes in the bigger cause of being mayor.”

San Diego Mayor to Enter 'Intensive Therapy' Following Accusations of Sexual Harassment
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Seven Women Came Forward This Week Accusing Filner of Sexual Harassment
By ALANA ABRAMSON
July 26, 2013 —

Mayor Bob Filner indicated today that he is not resigning, but said he will attend a two-week intensive behavioral counseling clinic after seven women publicly came forward to allege he sexually harassed them.

Calling his actions towards women "inexcusable," Filner, 70, apologized to the residents of San Diego and the women he offended.

"I must become a better person," Filner said. "I must take responsibility so it doesn't happen again."

Filner told assembled reporters that he will be at the clinic full time, though he will receive morning and evening briefings on city business. After completing the counseling, he plans to return to full-time mayoral duties on Aug. 19

Local and national Democrats have called on Filner, a Democrat, to resign amid the accusations, which have led to a sexual harassment lawsuit.

The San Diego County Democratic Party voted 34-6 for Filner to step down from office on July 22.

"We are not here to determine guilt or innocence," Francine Busby, chair of the San Diego County Democrats, wrote in a statement. "However, in the best interest of the city, the San Diego County Democratic Party has voted to ask Mayor Filner to step down, seek the personal help that he needs, and allow San Diego to move forward."

"Our opposition at this point still stands," Busby told ABC News immediately after the news conference. "There are still charges. There is still unacceptable behavior."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who chairs the Democratic National Committee, also issued a statement today calling for Filner's resignation.

"There is no place for this type of conduct in the workplace and certainly not in our city halls and public offices," she said.

Schultz added that she was "personally offended by his actions."

The San Diego County Sheriff's office had set up a hotline for women to come forward with complaints of harassment against Filner. The sheriff's office did not return calls for comment about the number of complaints received.

A Facebook group, "Recall Bob Finer," had more than 6,200 likes as of Friday afternoon. Twitter was filled with users expressing outrage over his actions and calling for his resignation as well.

Timeline of Accusations Against Filner

The allegations of sexual harassment against Filner have been brewing since mid-July, when a former member of his administration, Donna Frye, told a news conference there were serious accusations that Filner mistreated women.

Two weeks later, on July 22, Irene McCormack Jackson, Filner's former communications director, filed a lawsuit against him alleging sexual harassment. Jackson said in a statement that Filner had kept her in "the Filner headlock," in which she was "moved around as a rag doll while he whispered sexual comments in my ear."

She said Filner also told her she should work without her underwear and that he wanted to see her naked.

"The past six months turned out to be the worst time of my entire working life," Jackson wrote in a statement. "I had to work and do my job in an atmosphere where women were viewed by Mayor Filner as sexual objects or stupid idiots."

Jackson is currently the only woman to file suit, said her lawyer Gloria Allred. But six other women quickly followed McCormack's lead in publicizing their experiences with the mayor.

The following day, Laura Fink, a co-founder of the firm Fink & Hernandez Consulting and Filner's former deputy campaign manager, told KPBS that in 2005, then-U.S. Rep. Filner patted her "posterior" and made a crude joke. She demanded an apology, she told KPBS, but was afraid to publicize what happened because she did not want to put her career in jeopardy.

The next day, Morgan Rose, a school psychiatrist in the San Diego School District, said Filner had tried to kiss her in a restaurant in 2009.

Finally, on the evening of July 25, four women conducted a joint interview on KPBS testifying to similar experiences with Filner. Sharon Bernie Cloward, president of the San Diego Port Tenants Association; Patti Rosco, a businesswoman; Veronica Froman, a former Navy rear admiral who served as chief operating officer in former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders' administration; and Joyce Gattas, dean of the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at San Diego State University -- all maintained they had received unwanted sexual advances from Mayor Filner.

Like Jackson, Roscoe said Filner had put her in his infamous headlock.

"He would come in and try to kiss me on the lips and I'd have to squirm to get away," Roscoe told KPBS. "And just as recently as a few months ago this happened. I turned and he just slobbered down my chin."

Allred told ABC News that Jackson was currently her only client, but that her firm had spoken with some of the women who had come forward, as well as women who had not come forward. She would not specify which women she had spoken with.

"We don't know if there is an end in sight to the number of women coming forward," she said. "No one knows how many more will come forward."

Mayor Filner's Response

The mayor was contrite when the initial allegations emerged. He released both a written and an oral statement, the latter of which he posted on YouTube, admitting that he had intimidated women and claiming he needed to work on his behavior.

On Monday, he released another statement after Jackson filed suit, maintaining that he was "saddened" by the allegations, but that he did "not believe these claims are valid."

"That is why due process is so important. I intend to defend myself vigorously, and I know that justice will prevail," he said.

Until today's news conference, Filner's office did not issue any other official statements as the other women came forward, and his office could not be reached for comment.