SDFP File Photo. Photo by Andy Cohen
By Andy Cohen
Embattled San Diego Mayor Bob Filner announced in a press conference this afternoon that beginning August 5 he will be entering a two week rehabilitation clinic. He announced no intentions to step aside as the city’s mayor.
The treatment program he will enter, he said, will be a full time residential program. He intends to return to full time duties at City Hall on August 19.
“The behavior I have engaged in over many years is wrong and inexcusable,” Filner said in his prepared remarks. “It has undermined what I have spent my entire career working for.”
“I am responsible for my conduct. I must take responsibility for my conduct by taking action to make sure it never happens again,” said Filner.
The mayor said that his entry into a behavior modification program is only the first step in what he called an ongoing process to prove that he can and has changed, even at age 70. “I must become a better person,” he said.
Filner told the gathered media and television audience that he had reached out to the women he had “offended” and offered his sincere apologies.
Filner said that while he is away at the rehab facility he will receive updates on city business every morning and evening.
He refused to answer any questions from the gathered media.
In the meantime, land use consultant Michael Pallamary announced outside of City Hall that he and his associates will launch a campaign to recall Filner on Monday, July 29. According to the city charter, recall petitioners have 39 days to gather 101,000 valid signatures from registered voters in San Diego. If the Registrar of Voters determines that the petitioners have not turned in enough valid signatures after 39 days, the city charter allows an additional 30 days to meet the requirement.
Pallamary said in an interview with NBC 7 San Diego that he will be using a combination of volunteers and paid signature gatherers in order to meet the required threshold.
Seven women have now come forward to accuse Filner of sexual harassment, and lawsuits have been filed both against Filner and the City of San Diego. Former Filner Communications Director Irene McCormack was the first to make her accusations public, enlisting famed women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred in filing her lawsuit against Filner and the city.
Andy Cohen
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Filner sets out on the road to reflection, responsibility and recovery. Let us all take a leaf from that book.
Compare all the clamor for Filner’s head on a resign stick with the usual reaction to public figures who go into rehab for alcohol dependency, for example. All those voices of the right will not silence, of course. But, perhaps we progressives can give him a chance.
The junior US Senator from Louisiana, David Vitter, still serves in Congress. I suggest the Filner advisors learn from the past and consider a change of party for the “recovering” Mayor. Apparently, Republicans with a deep abiding faith in family and god get lots of chances to screw up….
If Filner were to clean up his behavior toward women, would people hear
about it from the mainstream press? No, of course not.
Can we expect the mainstream press to revisit Frye, McCormack and the four
credibles of KPBS to ask them what they think about his retreat to therapy?
No, of course not.
The gospel according to Manlychester and KUSI and Channel 10 cannot be
subjected to reality if local GOP are to reinstate themselves with the national
party after their losses here.
Let wonderboy Todd the Inglorious and the captive mainstream press run the city for the next two weeks. Let’s see what they have planned for the city. Let’s see how popular their program is.
Actually, Frye responded to Filner in the press today.
Allred sent a statement to the press on behalf of her client.
One of the alleged victims, the school psychologist, talked to various media about Filner’s decision.
What did they say Randy?
Just about everybody has responded to the Filner therapy plan: Frye and the two attorneys and at least 6 of the 7 public alleged victims.
The entire city council plus the mayor will be on official break for five weeks. Council members will be gone for the entire month of August plus the first week of September. The mayor plans on being gone for two weeks.
Each year, every year — legislative business during the summer break comes to a complete halt. While the electeds take their summer vacation, the city manager (now called COO) and city employees keep the city’s engine chugging along. The world keeps turning while the tides ebb and flow.
Norma, can you persuade ANY journalist in San Diego to make these points publicly? I like the sane voices in these comments, but are any of us making these same comments where the rest of the (gullible) population can read them? I hope so. (Don’t know because I have sworn off the UT.)
One thing is certain; during their five-week-break most Council members,
being Filner-averse, will make themselves available to reporters to
collectively howl that the city just can’t be managed while Filner remains
mayor. It’s worth repeating, again and again, that this is the
mid-summer vacation, time for people to consider how to make it a
better place, a more democratic society.
It’s already true the city’s population is less docile and more sophisticated.
That change has forced the old guard to adopt sleaze attacks to knock off the Democrat. It’s true that most of the Democrats have joined the GOP, but
the sleaze
is the disease.
The August recess has been mentioned widely in the press.
And what does “the press” say about that, as well, Randy?
Come on, you know, admit it. You wrote it.
I haven’t written anything about the August recess issue. Clearly, it’s a perfect time for the mayor (or anybody else in high places at City Hall) to take some time off.
I think a recess for a lot of the howlers who get paid to write
would be a good idea, too. Sleaze is the disease.
Is it any wonder that I can’t stomach the corporate media and its actors!
This is a small circus with TOO MANY Clowns!!!
A Shur
I am shocked at your statement. You can NEVER have too many clowns!
If only they were funny? All they are doing now is using up all of the air in the tent!
Wish everyone would just step back & calm down for a bit … So nice to see some sane voices over here.
Instead of circling the wagons around this sexual harasser just because he’s “our” guy, we liberals (I’m not afraid to call myself that) should cut him loose. His disrespectful treatment of women is way beyond the pale. Liberals who say he shouldn’t resign are failing to take the long view, which is that he’s damaging our brand. Besides, there’s the simple question of right and wrong.
Sorry Martin, there IS NO “liberal brand”!!!! Unlike the stamped out of a mold “conservative” it is hard to find two liberals the same. Filner has spent a lifetime making progressive policy happen, not just talking about it. “Right and wrong” are very important. More so for liberals! But without really knowing the whole story or the outcomes how do we pigeon hole “right and wrong”? Do we allow a drunk driver that hit a lamppost to clean up their act (with help) or do we take away their license forever no matter how well they drove before the drinking?
I am very liberal! I want men and woman to be respected, on and off of the job!!! But I also believe that most of us can be redeemed no matter our shortcomings. “let he who is without sin…” I’m afraid that I’ve spent my life advocating for the underdog and that won’t stop now… Normally, the underdog would be the abused! But how do we tell that when there is a corporate media cabal and a whole circus of clowns (TOO MANY CLOWNS) making too much noise to hear the wind? I am not without “sin” but maybe you are?
If Democrats are rushing to give this guy a free pass on an issue that has long been one of the core issues of the party platform (feminism and women’s rights in the workplace) it tends to reek of hypocrisy and erodes credibility when that issue is raised again.
It also sets the stage for politicians of both parties- and executives in corporations, and the public in general, to believe this is now acceptable behavior for men toward women.
Hey, if I see a beautiful woman walking down the street maybe I’ll just grab her and shove my tongue down her throat? Why not, the Mayor gets away with it?
With all the sexual assaults in O. B. in the last couple of years, and the reports of this being rampant in the military, you’d think you could set politics aside for a minute and think “you know this is really unacceptable behavior.”
What does unacceptable mean to you? To me it means this guy’s career should be over. Now. He knows better than this.
And we should too.
For the city in general, I don’t agree that we should forget this because we finally have a knight in shining armor to stand up to special interests.
The armor is forever tarnished and he’s not going to be able to effectively slay any dragons because of it.
“He knows better than this.”
There’s where you and I disagree. I honestly don’t think he does know better. He’s gotten away with it for so long, and until now no one’s really challenged him on it, so it’s sort of been given tacit approval.
Part of the problem–and it’s something that I’ll maybe address in a future column–is that throughout his political career I don’t think he’s ever had anyone seriously challenge his actions. No one on his staff until now has ever been able to stand up to him and tell him that he’s just, plain, WRONG. He’s never surrounded himself with trusted confidants who actually challenge him. And that’s a big part of the problem. Everyone’s always simply looked the other way, shaking their heads saying “That’s just Bob being Bob.”
In essence you’re saying you believe that:
Bob doesn’t know you can’t grab a woman and force your tongue in her mouth because you think she’s beautiful.
Bob doesn’t know you shouldn’t grab women, put them in a headlock, drag them down the hallway after you told them to come to work with no panties on and demanded kisses from them.
The problem is that nobody told Bob, a 70 year old man with decades of public service as a statesman working around women, these things are not appropriate.
Assuming I shared your beliefs is this a rational argument for me as a constituent to believe he has qualifications to run the city effectively?
He’s supposed to be the leader, not one who needs supervision.
Particularly in light of his claims he doesn’t think his transgressions amount to sexual harassment, to assume your position would require me to believe the guy could be cast in “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”, or is a poster child for Down’s Syndrome. (not making light of either) How could he have gotten to this point of his career with an innocent. childlike naivety of the taboo of such actions?
I understand the desire to hold on to hope that existed that he would be the one to forward long desired agendas, but for whatever reason we each believe it’s gotten to this point- (I’m not so sure we aren’t in the same book on that, if not the same page because I think it’s a mix of crazy and stupid too, to simplify it)
Bob Filner now carries such enormous baggage from this the additional load of anyone’s agenda makes him unable to carry on. Surviving to the end of his term will be a monumental task in itself.
How will he take on special interest groups? Corrupt corporate/political relationships? All of these things require leadership and personal credibility as you can’t point fingers when all fingers point at you.
I do lack your experience and finger on the pulse of local politics, Andy and the staff here has more than enough acumen in these issues to give a good analysis when needed. At this point we’re being ridiculed on a national scale, that’s unusual. Didn’t happen in the Petco Park/Stallings scandal, even Golding’s GOP convention shenanigans didn’t get much copy outside the state. I think it’s time to see the guy for what he was. Not what you thought.
John: Perhaps you will remember the TIME magazine cover with Mayor Murphy on it? This is not the first, nor will it be the last time that a San Diego mayor will go down in flames for not playing ball.
You make an excellent and nicely turned point about the challenge of taking on special interests “when all fingers point at you,” but in reality, no Democrat, Republican, or Independent with a chance of replacing him would even consider, when mayor, continuing Filner’s fight for Balboa Park, workers, or the homeless. You may think that is okay.
While Murphy indeed made the cover of a national publication, ultimately it was the troubles of the City of San Diego that brought shame to the Mayor’s office- not the other way around. (Murphy was never seriously accused of malfeasance in the pension debacle, incompetence at worst)
Perhaps something that flew over your head at mach one is that as a result of that news coverage Dick Murphy gracefully resigned?
Oops. As for: “You may think that is okay.”
You probably justified this somewhat cheap shot by my shot at you about finding sexual assault acceptable and excusable. I did provide a detailed dissection of your statements which lead me to arrive at that conclusion. You however are merely projecting with that. You didn’t state it as fact and just said “you may”, so no offense taken. Well I don’t so now you know. Proletariat bottom feeder to be sure.
Yes, Murphy gracefully resigned. I was disappointed that he didn’t fight for the office, but fighting is very very hard.
On a more affable note, since you are a self-proclaimed “Proletariat bottom feeder,” it is nice to see the Council making the vote for a prevailing wage requirement for contractors. Perhaps we can agree on that.
While I didn’t follow the story too closely then I feel in retrospect Murphy was a decent man who lacked the experience and thick skin for the job. Kind of a male conservative Pollyanna idealist who ran for the showers when the going got tough. I can’t say I’d do any different, politics is a tough career. In fact the way progressive Filner is brushing this off as if little is amiss I think in every possible way the two mayors are opposites. Murphy was no doubt a conservative who would seek to please those who legislate by the holy book, so I was not sorry to see him go.
On prevailing wages well like unions in general they are too often a double edged sword. If it reduces the gap between the classes and allows people who punch the clock to do so and actually make ends meet I’m all for it. That assumes a perfect world where there are such jobs for all who want them. The recent debate over forcing Walmart to pay high wages in the District of Columbia did see credible arguments that in the end the poor suffer because jobs would be cut.
So if it’s agreeing on higher wages for hourly workers of course we agree, is there a workable way to realize it, and what would this do to our border situation, is what’s unclear.
Thank you for offering the olive branch.
That’s not really true though. He’s been rejected and told to stop in pretty much every incident we’ve heard about, and at least one actually documented the incident in a formal email to him and his COS at the time saying “this is unacceptable,” he has just chosen to ignore those pleas. McCormack said he asked him to leave her office and he claimed no one could throw him out because he’s the mayor.
It’s true that formal complaints haven’t been filed before and that a public campaign hasn’t been launched. But this current situation strikes me as what happens when you ignore how people react to your behavior for years, and ignore people who say, ‘this is wrong’ to your face and in writing. So I have no empathy for Filner now that it’s come to pass the way it has. Sounds to me like it was the only way to force a change in his behavior.
I agree. It is now clear that far from giving the mayor a free pass, 36 Democrats voted to rush to judgment and not forego the pleasure of deciding his penance either. I would say that the press in general and those in the stampede it has generated are usurping the role of the investigative panel, judge, jury, and lord high executioner.
Clearly the mayor has a problem that needs to be addressed. He has agreed to that much. But from there on, the calls for resignation seem premature and shall we say…curious? Every time someone we elect has problems, we should unelect them with buyer’s remorse? Davis? Aguirre? Murphy? For crying out loud, tend to the transgression, when there is one, and then in the Next election cast your vote for or against a man or woman based on how well he or she did the job in that term.
This isn’t a lifetime tenure at the Supreme Court, for instance.
” in the Next election cast your vote for or against a man or woman based on how well he or she did the job in that term.”
That’s fine. Just so it’s clear, you find physical sexual assault against women acceptable and excusable behavior. It’s just a “problem” that anyone has.
I don’t see how you get from “Clearly the mayor has a problem that needs to be addressed” to “… you find sexual assault against women acceptable and excusable behavior.” Seems to me that your characterization (not Cynthia’s) of it as “just” a problem is a distraction from the issue of what is the appropriate response.
Thank you, rak. Nor could I make the logical leap from one statement to its ostensible restatement.
Not surprised you both seem offended by your position once it was stripped away from its obfuscating ambiguity and revealed for what it was.
The first paragraph sees you attack his accusers, the implication due process should have been allowed. Unless you just fell off the turnip truck you know damn well his lame responses have been a veritable admission of guilt.
“But from there on, the calls for resignation seem premature and shall we say…curious?”
Another implied attack on the accusers. “curious”? You don’t know WHY people don’t want a man in the mayor’s office shoving his tongue down women’s throats? (she’s clearly implying ulterior motives by his accusers)
” Every time someone we elect has problems, we should unelect them with buyer’s remorse? Davis? Aguirre? Murphy?”
Again implies that what Filner did is a common everyday thing expected from most politicians, and asking why should we do anything about it.
“For crying out loud, tend to the transgression, when there is one,”
I loved that one, “when there is one”…. suggesting that there is NOT one now.
” then in the Next election cast your vote for or against a man or woman based on how well he or she did the job in that term.”
Clearly suggesting that we forget about it, let him serve his term, and judge him on the performance of his job. Which, if I am not mistaken, includes not assaulting subordinates in the workplace.
“This isn’t a lifetime tenure at the Supreme Court, for instance.”
I guess that one means physical sexual assault in the workplace is okay if the women only have to endure it four four years, not several decades or more.
And there’s the very fact I’m saying his behavior is unacceptable and he must go, and she is replying in rebuttal. And still is. I mean wouldn’t it be simpler to have just replied “to reiterate I think it was unacceptable”?
If you need anything else painfully obvious explained to you, feel free to ask. Next installment: Water is wet, and where did you think a bear ****s but the woods?
My apologies to other commenters for feeding the trolls …
You wondered how I came to the conclusion I did. I took the time to dissect it point by point and all you have to reply with is a personal insult?
Stay classy.
“His disrespectful treatment of women is way beyond the pale. Liberals who say he shouldn’t resign are failing to take the long view, which is that he’s damaging our brand. Besides, there’s the simple question of right and wrong.”
“Right & wrong”: The special interests and battles our elected Mayor and the public are pitted against are great and profound wrongs, committed by characters that will never confess to corruption, greed-lusting, power-mongering and aren’t ever likely to offer contrition, practice reflection, nor seek redemption.
The closed doors they smoothly-operate and live behind are guarded by their media-machine. They are not saints. How could they be? Those they hurt most are the vast silenced majority.
“His disrespectful treatment of [certain] women is way beyond the pale”. . . but his error pales in light of those that would be hurt by this city losing this mayor since there isn’t another stalwart to take his place.
The Mayor acknowledges his wrongs and vows to make amends. Why can’t we live with that, especially in view of the current social and political climate? How/WHY is so much condemnation had for this single man, while so much violation and subversion toward the silenced majority (the public), by several identifiable rich and powerful men and women goes unchecked?
“Brands” are for the brand-able. Think for yourself. Should the masses jump from the frying pan, into the fire? That’s what the special interests and powerful hope for and are working and paying overtime to see happen.
Nearly every “name” personality, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, local or national, has asked City of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner to resign because it politically expedient or popular to do. However, there is also a very high percentage of faceless and nameless people such as ourselves, who strongly believe in:
1. Due Process – the right of an individual facing criminal allegations to face his or her
accuser in a court of law by a jury of his or her peers
2. The hidden presence of “the Lynch Mob,” including Papa Doug and his Manchester
Mess
3. Why would Gloria Allred make a statement, and I am paraphrasing that, ” . . . if
Mayor Filner resigns, we may decide to drop our lawsuit.” What does a lawsuit filed
by Gloria Allred on behalf of her client Irene McCormack-Jackson, seeking monetary
damages and the resignation of City of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner have anything
to do with each other.
4. The answer to the above may explain why four or more “officers of the court,”
Allred, Briggs Gonzales, Pallamary, to name a few, are proceeding with this matter.