San Diego Mayor Bob Filner asked the City Council to pay his legal fees for his defense against sexual harassment allegations. In response, the City Council sued Filner.
The City Council unanimously voted to deny Filner's request, just after the City Council also unanimously voted to sue Filner for any costs to the city run up because of a sexual harassment lawsuit, which names both the city and Filner. "Intimidating women is not in Mayor Filner's job description," Councilman Kevin Faulconer said, the Los Angeles Times reports. "His employers, the San Diego taxpayers, should not have to bail him out of the mess he's created."
The City Council made the announcement shortly after an eighth woman came forward and alleged that Filner sexually harassed her. Lisa Curtin, the director of government and military education at San Diego City College, told KPBS that she met with Filner in 2011 about a local piece of property:
Curtin said that after the meeting, Filner asked to meet with her in private. She said once alone, Filner grabbed her left hand, twirled her wedding band and asked if it was real. Curtin said she responded with, “It’s about 25 years worth of wedding band.”
“He then asked me if it could come off while I was in D.C. and if I would go out with him,” Curtin said. “I said I really didn’t think so. And at that point, he pulled my hand closer to him and he reached over to kiss me. I turned my head at that moment and on the side of my face, I got a very wet, saliva-filled kiss including feeling his tongue on my cheek.”
Seven other women have made sexual harassment allegations against Filner, including Irene McCormack Jackson, his former communications director, who filed a lawsuit against him. Filner has said he will not resign, but is taking two weeks off for therapy before returning to work.
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