Vallejo Heads for Another Bankruptcy; Oakland, LA, San Diego Doomed as Well

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Vallejo Heads for Another Bankruptcy; Oakland, LA, San Diego Doomed as Well

Ex-San Diego Mayor Sentenced to Home Confinement for Harassment

Bob Filner was sentenced Monday to three months of home confinement and three years of probation for harassing women while he was mayor of San Diego, completing the fall of the former 10-term congressman who barely a year ago achieved his long dream of being elected leader of the nation’s eighth-largest city.

Filner, who resigned amid widespread allegations of sexual harassment, pleaded guilty in October to one felony and two misdemeanors for placing a woman in a headlock, kissing another woman and grabbing the buttocks of a third.

Superior Court Judge Robert Trentacosta’s sentence was the same as what prosecutors recommended in a plea agreement with Filner. The 71-year-old former mayor faced a maximum penalty of three years in prison for the felony and one year in jail for each misdemeanor.

The judge specified the Filner may not seek or hold elective office during the term of his probation and will be monitored by GPS during his home confinement, which begins on Jan. 1 and ends March 31. Exceptions to home confinement include medical, mental health and therapy appointments as well as travel to religious services.

Filner spoke briefly during the sentencing hearing.

“I want to apologize to my family who have stood by me through this ordeal, to my loyal staff and supporters, the citizens of San Diego and most sincerely to the women I have hurt and offended,” Filner said.

He promised to earn back their trust and recover his integrity.

“Certainly the behaviors before this court today will never be repeated,” he said.

Melissa Mandel, supervising state deputy attorney general, said victims in the criminal complaint did not want to address the court. She said Filner had demeaned, humiliated and embarrassed them.

“Today is the day that Bob Filner begins to pay his debt to the citizens of San Diego,” she said.

Filner sold himself to voters as a champion of civil rights, she said, but his behavior revealed a “very different person.”

“Only time will tell if Filner is the changed man he claims to be,” she said.

Filner, who is divorced, was convicted of felony false imprisonment for restraining a woman against her will at a fund-raiser on March 6 and applying additional force when she resisted. His attorney, Jerry Coughlan, has said it was a headlock.

The misdemeanor counts of battery were for kissing a woman on the lips without permission at a “Meet the Mayor” event on April 6 and grabbing another woman’s buttocks at a May 25 rally to clean up Fiesta Island in Mission Bay. None of the victims have been identified.

Nearly 20 women have publicly identified themselves as targets of Filner’s unwanted advances, including kissing, groping and requests for dates. His accusers include a retired Navy rear admiral, a San Diego State University dean and a great-grandmother who volunteers answering senior citizens’ questions at City Hall.

The charges do not involve Filner’s former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, who expedited the mayor’s downfall by becoming the first to go public with sexual harassment allegations in July. She has filed a lawsuit against Filner and the city, claiming her boss asked her to work without panties, demanded kisses, told her he wanted to see her naked and dragged her in a headlock while whispering in her ear.

Gloria Allred, McCormack Jackson’s attorney, said outside court that Filner was “one lucky man” for being spared jail time.

“Mr. Filner, count your blessings. Your freedom is a gift which you do not deserve,” she said.

McCormack Jackson did not speak.

Filner disappeared from public view after leaving office Aug. 30, less than nine months into a four-year term. He said little when he resurfaced six weeks later to plead guilty in San Diego Superior Court, but his attorney told reporters then that the former mayor “profusely apologizes” for his behavior.

The former mayor devoted himself to jogging, getting therapy and talking to friends after leaving office, his attorney said in October. Television news crews hoping for a glimpse of Filner were disappointed when he showed up at jail a day earlier than expected for booking.

Filner was elected San Diego’s first Democratic mayor in 20 years, promising to put neglected neighborhoods ahead of entrenched downtown business interests. Two city councilmen seeking to replace him in a special election runoff — Republican Kevin Faulconer and Democrat David Alvarez — have embraced Filner’s neighborhoods-first mantra while scarcely mentioning the former mayor by name.

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – America

Ex-San Diego Mayor Sentenced to Home Confinement for Harassment

San Diego Mayor Resigns but Remains Defiant

The resignation speech given by San Diego Mayor Bob Filner reflected the same fiery, defiant tone that launched the political career of the former congressman and 1960s civil rights activist.

But Friday, Filner was giving his response after agreeing to step down as leader of the nation’s eighth-largest city amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations.

“Obviously this is the toughest decision of my life. You all know me to be a fighter,” he said. “Unfortunately, on my own — and you all helped cut off any support for that — I can’t afford to continue this battle even though I know, if given due process, I would be vindicated.”

Filner apologized to the city and his accusers but also said his demise as San Diego’s first Democratic mayor in decades was the result of “lynch mob mentality” and continued to deny his actions amounted to harassment.

Filner spoke after the City Council voted 7-0 on a deal that ended a political stalemate after 17 women publicly accused him of acting inappropriately from patting bottom to forcible kissing.

The agreement stipulated that Filner leave office by Aug. 30 in return for the city paying legal expenses related to a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by his former aide.

Filner blamed his downfall on his own shortcomings but also said those failures were used as “ammo” to stop a leader willing to shake up the city’s power base, such as hoteliers and developers.

Filner evoked memories of his young adulthood, when he joined the Freedom Riders in their campaign against a segregated South and spent two months in a Mississippi jail for inciting a riot after he and others confronted an angry mob at a bus station.

“You know I started my career facing lynch mobs, and I think we have just faced one here in San Diego, and you’re going to have deal with that,” he said.

He said not one allegation has been proven independently or by a court, adding “I have never sexually harassed anyone.”

Much of Filner’s 15 minutes in the chambers sounded like a campaign stump speech. He trumpeted a five-year labor agreement with city unions, efforts to install solar panels on city buildings and clean up bird droppings at La Jolla’s postcard beaches. He urged his successor to pursue a laundry list of initiatives from addressing climate change to bringing the Olympic Games to the region.

Filner had for weeks resisted calls to resign, and underwent two weeks of behavioral therapy before returning to work this week.

But his support diminished as more women — including a university dean and a retired Navy admiral — came forward and told stories of Filner touching, making lewd comments and even placing them in headlocks.

Peggy Shannon — a great grandmother who said Filner would ask for dates and once took her hands and told her he could last eight hours at night — found Filner’s speech “hurtful.”

“I know we’ve proven something — because he is no longer mayor,” she said. “So due process runs in different ways.”

Under the agreement, the city will pay Filner’s legal fees in a joint defense of the lawsuit filed by the mayor’s former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, and pay for any settlement costs assessed against the mayor except for punitive damages, said City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. The city would also pay up to $ 98,000 if Filner wants to hire his own attorney.

Goldsmith said the city was obligated to provide his legal defense no matter what.

McCormack, as she is known professionally, claimed the mayor asked her to work without panties, demanded kisses, told her he wanted to see her naked and dragged her in a headlock while whispering in her ear.

She was the first one to publicly accuse the mayor.

“My thoughts are with the courageous women, who because they spoke out, galvanized the residents of this great city and its elected leaders to rise up against a serial sexual harasser and a gross abuser of power,” McCormack said. “Bye-bye, Bob. You will not be missed.”

Filner still faces a criminal investigation. Nicholas Pacilio, a spokesman for the California attorney general’s office, confirmed after the mayor announced his resignation that an investigation was underway but declined to elaborate.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is fielding complaints of sexual misconduct by the mayor and delivering its findings to the attorney general’s office. San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who lost to Filner in last year’s election, has recused herself.

When Filner’s resignation takes effect, Todd Gloria, the Democratic City Council president, becomes acting mayor until a special election is held within 90 days. Democrats enjoy a solid edge over Republicans in voter registration, but the GOP will capitalize on the Filner debacle to try to reclaim an office it has held for nearly all of the last four decades.

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – America

San Diego Mayor Resigns but Remains Defiant

San Diego mayor to resign over sexual harassment: reports

San Diego mayor Bob Filner speaks at a news conference in San Diego, California July 26, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Fred Greaves

By Steve Gorman and Dana Feldman

LOS ANGELES | Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:15pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – San Diego Mayor Bob Filner will resign as part of a deal he reached with municipal officials over a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him and the city by a former aide, the Los Angeles Times and other media reported on Thursday.

But a high-profile attorney representing the plaintiff in the case said her client was not a party to the deal and that she opposed reported terms of a settlement calling for Filner to leave office in exchange for city assistance with his legal expenses.

“It is not appropriate for the city of San Diego to provide a gift of public funds to a sexual harasser to help him fight the victim of the lawsuit we filed,” attorney Gloria Allred told a news conference in Los Angeles

“While we strongly support the mayor’s resignation, we would hope that whatever resolution has been reached between the city and the mayor does not include the payment of any of the mayor’s legal fees,” she said.

Filner, who has kept a low profile in recent weeks, has come under mounting pressure to resign as mayor of California’s second-largest city amid a hail of sexual harassment allegations. He had for weeks resisted calls to step aside, while saying he would begin behavioral counseling.

The 70-year-old U.S. congressman was elected in November as San Diego’s first Democratic mayor in two decades. If he resigns, a special election for a successor would be held within 90 days.

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith announced a deal late on Wednesday but said the terms were being kept under wraps until after it had been presented in closed session to the City Council on Friday.

The proposed settlement capped three days of talks that variously included the city, Filner’s lawyers and Allred, who represents the mayor’s former press secretary, Irene McCormack Jackson, in her harassment lawsuit.

Allred said she was physically present during the first day of negotiations, mediated by a retired federal judge, but was absent on Tuesday and Wednesday. She said that mediation between her client and Filner’s lawyers was “ongoing.”

BARGAINING CHIP

Filner’s removal was widely reported to have been on the table as part of a potential resolution in the settlement talks, with the mayor using the prospect of resignation as a bargaining chip to obtain city help in covering his legal costs.

The city last month filed its own suit against Filner seeking to recover any damages it might incur in Jackson’s case. The City Council also voted to deny a request from the mayor’s private lawyers to pick up any of his attorney fees.

The Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks, reported on Thursday that Filner would step down as part of the settlement in return for the city paying some, if not all, of his share of any damages awarded in the suit. The local NBC television affiliate carried a similar report.

When asked Wednesday night whether the deal would require Filner to resign, a source close to an individual involved in the talks told Reuters, “I think it’s fair to say that looks like it’s in the cards.”

The mayor’s lawyers said on Thursday in a statement that a “tentative agreement” had been reached in the mediation but declined to disclose the terms.

The Times reported that the mayor was seen Wednesday night loading boxes into a sport utility vehicle after bidding farewell to his staff and cleaning out his office.

A 43-second video posted to YouTube on Wednesday night shows Filner climbing into the passenger seat of his SUV outside City Hall, with several cardboard boxes visible as a member of his security detail gets in the back seat. The video was attributed to a staffer for City Councilman Scott Sherman.

Since Jackson filed her suit last month, 17 more women have come forward to accuse Filner of groping, forced kisses or making other unwanted advances.

Among them were a retired U.S. Navy admiral, a college dean, a licensed vocational nurse, several business women and two military veterans who said he harassed them at a meeting for women who had been raped while serving in the armed forces.

Nearly every elected official in San Diego from both parties has urged him to step down, including all nine members of City Council. The mayor has apologized for what he acknowledged was a pattern of disrespectful and intimidating behavior toward women.

On August 5, he entered behavior-modification therapy at an undisclosed clinic. His lawyers said he left the clinic after several days but was taking additional time off last week before planning to return to work this week.

(Additional reporting by Marty Graham in San Diego; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Steve Orlofsky and Lisa Shumaker)

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Reuters: Politics

San Diego mayor to resign over sexual harassment: reports

San Diego Mayor Accused of Inappropriate Behavior by 11th Woman

The number of women to publicly accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of inappropriate behavior increased to 11 on Tuesday when a vocational nurse said she had been propositioned by Filner while seeking his help on behalf of a disabled U.S. war veteran.

The nurse, Michelle Tyler, told reporters that the mayor began stroking her arm and asking her out on a date while she was alone with him in his City Hall office in June – suggesting that his willingness to assist her depended on it.

The 70-year-old Democrat and former U.S. congressman has so far resisted mounting pressure to resign since his former press secretary filed a sexual harassment suit against the mayor and the city last month. He has instead entered intensive therapy.

Ten more women, including a retired U.S. Navy admiral and a college dean, have come forward in recent weeks to accuse Filner of groping them, making lewd comments or other unwanted sexual advances.

Filner has acknowledged a history of disrespectful, intimidating conduct toward women. On Sunday, he entered a clinic to undergo two weeks of behavioral counseling while taking a break from the daily routines of his office.

There was no immediate response from Filner’s office to the latest allegations leveled against him.

Tyler said she visited Filner on June 11, accompanied by former Marine Katherine Ragazzino, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder from her service in Iraq.

They had gone to Filner’s office asking him to intervene to help resolve administrative problems Ragazzino was having with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for whom Tyler has worked.

According to Tyler’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, Filner asked Raggazino to step out of his office, then turned to Tyler and told her, “You are really magnificent.”

“He started rubbing her arm and told her, ‘I will help your veteran,’ and then he said, ‘I want you to go out to dinner with me and spend time with me,’” Allred said of the encounter.

“I was not there looking for a date,” Tyler told reporters. “I was only there looking for assistance for Katherine, an injured U.S. Marine in my care. I believe that a person in power should not take advantage of their position to gain a sexual advantage for themselves.”

She added, “I felt that his rubbing my arm … and making me feel that help for Katherine was contingent on going out with him was extremely inappropriate and unacceptable.”

Allred, who also represents Filner’s former press secretary, Irene McCormack Jackson, said neither Tyler nor Raggazino was suing the mayor, but that she had filed a letter of complaint on Tyler’s behalf with the city attorney.

The San Diego County Democratic Central Committee and numerous elected officials of both parties have called on the mayor to step down, and he is now the subject of a recall campaign to unseat him.

Filner, through his lawyer, had earlier asked the city to pay for his defense because he never received workplace behavior training. The city has filed its own lawsuit, seeking to recover any damages it might be ordered to pay as a result of Jackson’s sexual harassment claim, along with court costs and attorneys fees.

© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

San Diego Mayor Accused of Inappropriate Behavior by 11th Woman

Four more women accuse San Diego mayor of sexual misconduct

1 of 8. San Diego mayor Bob Filner (C), is surrounded by reporters as he attends a ground breaking ceremony for improvements for the San Diego Trolley system in San Diego, California July 25, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Sam Hodgson

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO | Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:43pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Democratic Party bosses and elected officials from San Diego County planned to meet on Thursday evening to decide whether to urge embattled Mayor Bob Filner to resign over allegations that he sexually harassed a former aide and at least two other women.

The special meeting of the county’s Democratic Party Central Committee, which was expected to vote on a resolution calling for Filner to step down, comes a week after the same panel deadlocked 24-to-24 on a similar censure.

Since then, three women have come forward to publicly accuse the 70-year-old former congressman of making unwanted sexual advances and lewd comments to them, starting with a former press secretary who brought a sexual harassment suit against him.

Approval of a formal rebuke, or a demand for his resignation, by the Democrats’ local governing council would be non-binding. Only a recall election or impeachment could remove Filner as mayor of California’s second-largest city.

An official call for his ouster by local party leaders and fellow San Diego-area politicians would mark a sharp escalation on the pressure building on Filner to quit.

“The mayor has betrayed the trust of the people of San Diego,” county Central Committee Chairwoman Francine Busby said in a statement following last week’s vote. “The Democratic Party will continue to monitor this situation and take further steps as warranted.”

A number of prominent local Democrats have urged Filner to step down, including San Diego-area U.S. Representatives Susan Davis and Scott Peters and San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria.

Filner’s top two aides resigned when the scandal emerged.

A public opinion poll released late Wednesday found that 69 percent of San Diego residents believe Filner should go, up 10 percentage points since the same survey was conducted two weeks ago. Both polls were conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of the San Diego Union-Tribune and local television station KGTV.

‘HE SHOULD STEP DOWN’

As accusations surfaced against Filner on July 11, even before the alleged victims went public, the mayor admitted to having engaged in inappropriate behavior toward female staff members and said he was seeking professional help. He has so far insisted that he would not resign.

The clamor against him has intensified since his former director of communications at City Hall, Irene McCormack Jackson, filed suit against the mayor, accusing him of unwanted physical contact and suggestive comments. On one occasion, she claimed, Filner asked her to “get naked” and kiss him.

Since then, two other women, school psychologist Morgan Rose and political consultant Laura Fink, have come forward to level similar allegations.

Filner was elected mayor last year after a 20-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He made a rare public appearance on Thursday at a groundbreaking ceremony for a San Diego trolley construction project but declined to address questions about the scandal.

“I see you’ve found a way to attract media attention to our efforts on the trolley,” he said during the event.

Fink, who has said Filner patted her buttocks at an event in 2005, when he was a congressman, described the mayor as “someone who once fought for the powerless and now he is abusing his power.”

“I’m a Democrat and I agree with his political values, but if he can’t represent his values, he should step down,” Fink told Reuters on Thursday.

“This isn’t just a personal transgression. He doesn’t go after women on equal footing. He goes after women who need something from him, whether it’s their jobs or their causes.”

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Stacey Joyce)

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Reuters: Politics

Four more women accuse San Diego mayor of sexual misconduct

Former aide sues San Diego mayor, charging sexual harassment

1 of 6. Attorney Gloria Allred introduces Irene McCormack Jackson, the mayor’s former director of communications and plaintiff in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the City Of San Diego and its mayor Bob Filner, during a press conference in San Diego, California July 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Sam Hodgson

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO | Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:21pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, facing pressure to resign over allegations of making lewd comments and unwanted advances toward women, was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit on Monday by a former aide who accused the 70-year-old mayor of asking her to “get naked” and kiss him.

The lawsuit was brought by the mayor’s former press secretary, Irene McCormack Jackson, three days after the county Sheriff’s Department set up a telephone hotline to field complaints of sexual misconduct against him.

McCormack Jackson is the first woman since the scandal broke a week and a half ago to charge publicly that the mayor, a Democrat and former 10-term U.S. congressman from California’s second-largest city, had harassed her.

Filner’s representatives could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit. The mayor has recently admitted to inappropriate behavior toward female staff members but has indicated that he would not step down.

The 11-page suit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, accuses Filner on one occasion of placing McCormack Jackson in what she described as a virtual “head lock” – drawing her close with an arm gripped around her neck – while he suggested they get married and asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if we consummated the marriage?”

The complaint quotes Filner on a separate occasion, last month in the press secretary’s City Hall office, as telling her, “When are you going to get naked? Come on and give me a kiss.” The lawsuit said she responded by telling him he should leave.

“The past six months turned out to be the worst time of my entire working life,” McCormack Jackson told a news conference. “I had to work and do my job in an atmosphere where women were viewed by Mayor Filner as sexual objects or stupid idiots. I saw him place his hands where they did not belong on numerous women.”

CALLS FOR RESIGNATION

McCormack Jackson was hired by Filner in January but resigned as the mayor’s spokeswoman in June and is now director of communications for another city department.

Calls for Filner’s resignation began on July 11, when former San Diego city councilwoman and fellow Democrat Donna Frye joined two attorneys in leveling allegations that at least one woman, who they did not name, had accused the mayor of harassing her.

Filner responded by acknowledging that he had “failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me, and that at times I have intimidated them.”

He went on to say he had “reached into my heart and soul and realized I must and will change my behavior,” adding that he was seeking professional help and that he and his staff would undergo sexual-harassment training.

Days later, Frye and the two lawyers, Marco Gonzalez and Cory Biggs, called again for Filner’s resignation and gave more graphic details of his alleged behavior. Frye said then that the mayor had made unwelcome advances against two constituents and had “jammed his tongue down” the throat of one of them.

Marco and Gonzalez said a client who worked for Filner had alleged he groped her and suggested that she not wear panties.

In recent days, a number of prominent local Democrats have publicly urged Filner to quit, including San Diego-area U.S. Representatives Susan Davis and Scott Peters and San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria.

Filner’s top two aides also have resigned since the scandal emerged.

Before he was elected mayor in 2012, Filner represented the southern portion of San Diego and much of the California-Mexico border area for 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, including a stint as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Lisa Shumaker)

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Reuters: Politics

Former aide sues San Diego mayor, charging sexual harassment

San Diego County Sues to Revive California"s Gay-Marriage Ban

San Diego County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg sued to block a state directive ordering him to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, saying California’s Proposition 8 marriage ban is still valid.

Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris, both Democrats, don’t have supervisory control over county clerks and a San Francisco federal judge’s 2010 ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional doesn’t apply to Dronenburg, according to a petition filed with the California Supreme Court today.

“On the one hand, respondents have ordered him not to enforce state law and are threatening to punish him if he does not comply with that order,” Dronenburg’s lawyers said in a court filing. “On the other hand, petitioner has an independent statutory obligation to enforce California law defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman.”

Dronenburg asked for an immediate injunction blocking the directive and letting him refuse to issue gay couples marriage licenses until the lawsuit is decided.

“The filing offers no new arguments that could deny same- sex couples their constitutionally protected civil rights,” Harris said in a statement. “The federal injunction is still in effect, and it requires all 58 counties to perform same-sex marriages. No exceptions.”

© Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

San Diego County Sues to Revive California"s Gay-Marriage Ban