By JULIE WATSON
Greg Timms, left, signs a petition to recall San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, alongside Tana Piontek, right, at a stand set up in the parking lot of a shopping center Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, in San Diego. Pressure is mounting against San Diego’s mayor to resign after a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against him, and the Democratic National Committee plans to vote on a resolution Friday urging him to step down immediately. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Mayor Bob Filner, besieged by sexual harassment allegations, sat down to the negotiating table with a key bargaining chip: His refusal to resign.
Now that a deal aimed at ending one of San Diego’s darkest periods of political turmoil has been reached, it’s up to the City Council to decide whether to cash in the chip.
The council is set to vote Friday on the agreement between the mayor and city negotiators that emerged after three days of settlement talks. Details have not been disclosed but city officials had said any deal needed to include Filner’s resignation.
“Without his resignation being part of it, it’s a nonstarter,” Republican Councilman Mark Kersey said Thursday.
A person with knowledge of the negotiations said the main sticking points during talks involved granting Filner indemnity and covering his legal fees in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Filner’s former aide, Irene McCormack Jackson. The person was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
That provision could prove tricky for the council, which was unanimous in wanting Filner to quit but also promised to not use taxpayer dollars to defend the 70-year-old mayor accused of groping and forcibly kissing at least 17 women.
San Diego is not new to political scandals — Mayor Dick Murphy was forced to resign in 2005 over a financial crisis — but even so Democratic consultant Chris Crotty said this has reached a new level. Some accusers have said Filner used a “headlock” to corner and grope them.
The City Council is in a no-win situation if Filner is demanding coverage of his legal fees in exchange for resigning, Crotty said. And if Filner doesn’t get what he wants, he could refuse to leave office, and the city’s political paralysis could continue for months or longer as a recall effort inches forward.
If voters were to decide, Crotty said: “I bet most would choose to hold their nose, say OK, and pay the money to get him out.”
And it may be a moot point anyway, he said: Under California law the city must defend Filner even if the City Council ends up saying it won’t. What’s more, after all the dust has settled, the city also could still be facing the lawsuit.
McCormack’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said she was not party to the settlement and she did not know its details. But she said she does not support paying the mayor’s legal fees and plans to move forward with the lawsuit.
“The mayor’s resignation should not be bought at the expense of his victims,” she said. “It would be morally wrong and hypocritical for the city to align itself with the mayor by helping him pay his legal fees.”
All nine members of the City Council, along with a laundry list of fellow Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have called on Filner to quit. Skywriters hired by opponents etched across the port city’s sunny skies before settlement talks began Monday: “Surrender Bob.”
The city’s first Democratic mayor in two decades has acknowledged disrespecting and intimidating women but has denied any sexual harassment. If he doesn’t resign, organizers of a recall effort hope to get him out of office with a special election. But it’s a slow, uncertain process that requires getting more than 100,000 valid signatures from voters. So far they have about 10 percent of that total with five weeks to get the rest.
Filner, a former 10-term congressman and college professor, was back to work at City Hall on Thursday, his lawyers said, after all but vanishing over the past three weeks while undergoing therapy for his behavior. His attorneys declined to comment on the settlement “due to the confidential nature of mediation and settlement discussions.”
Meanwhile, women have continued coming forward with accusations against Filner, who took office in December. The latest was a businesswoman who said he touched her buttocks while posing with her for a photo.
McCormack was the first woman to go public with allegations against Filner. She 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.
Should Filner resign, City Council President Todd Gloria would become acting mayor until a special election is held.
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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat and Michael R. Blood contributed to this report. Blood reported from Los Angeles.
