Filner resignation: San Diego council to vote on harassment settlement

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Bob Filner enters the San Diego council chambers to announce that he is resigning as mayor as his supporters applaud in the background. He was publicly accused of sexual harassment by many women. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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In the San Diego City Council chambers Bob Filner announces he is resigning as mayor. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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As Bob Filner addresses the City Council, the official San Diego city statement is projected on a screen. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria, right, listens to public comment about Mayor Bob Filner during a special meeting in the council chambers. Later in the afternoon, Filner appeared and announced his resignation, with Gloria appointed interim mayor. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

By Richard Marosi

Aug. 23, 2013 2:40 PM PT

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego City Council entered closed session Friday afternoon to vote on a proposed settlement that would lead to the resignation of Mayor Bob Filner, who has been accused of sexual harassment by nearly 20 women.

A series of speakers addressed the City Council before it entered closed session about 2 p.m.

Joan Raymond, a retired garbage truck driver, expressed support for Filner and urged the council to let San Diego voters decide his fate, calling fears of civic paralysis overblown.

“It’s the city workers in the field that make the city run 24/7. Our water is still being delivered. Our toilets are still flushing. Our trash is still being picked up despite this political hysteria,” Raymond said.

Laura Fink, one of Filner’s accusers, pressed for his ouster, telling council members: “Today I stand shoulder to shoulder with the other women that have come forward asking for the mayor to resign .… Without the mayor’s resignation, our city will continue to be paralyzed with this scandal, progress will be arrested, and our focus will continue to be monopolized by this dark chapter in our history.”

David Ross, a San Diego resident who has known Filner for 15 years, argued that the city should allow the recall process to take place.

“This individual allegedly has done some things that are reprehensible in his representation of this city,” Ross said of Filner. “Now it has yet to be proven in court. In the meantime, you don’t pay someone on the way out with a golden parachute …. So do the right thing and let’s wait for this recall to talk for the people.”

Migrant rights activist Enrique Morones defended the mayor in stark terms.

“When my children ask me where were you when the public lynching of Mayor Filner took place, I will tell them I was not an accessory,” Morones said. “I stood at the side of a man, Bob Filner, who stood on the side of us for 40 years. He has dedicated his lifetime to serving the oppressed.”

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Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.

Filner resignation: San Diego council to vote on harassment settlement

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