By the time San Diego Mayor Bob Filner left office August 23, 2013, just about every fellow Democrat on the planet had told him to resign.
Eighteen women (at last count) had accused the mayor and former congressman of groping them or making lewd comments, the list ranging from his former communications director (who sued him for sexual harassment) to military veterans to a 67-year-old great-grandmother.
In a public apology, Filner conceded that his conduct had been “inappropriate and wrong,” then he disappeared into two weeks of what he called “intensive therapy.”
But by then it was way too late, and a signature-gathering effort to oust him by ballot measure was underway. Meanwhile, federal, state, and local investigators began gathering information and building cases against Filner for financial issues dealing with developers.
In the end, he was forced to negotiate with city officials – in a mediation setting overseen by a retired federal judge – the terms of his departure.
In exchange for his resignation, the city agreed to pay some of his legal fees, which may amount to several hundred thousand dollars.
But for most San Diegans, the cost of seeing the back of Bob Filner apparently was worth it.
- Brad Knickerbocker, staff writer
