By Pete
Something smells awful fishy here in San Diego and I think its the politics. For the past thirty years the Republicans have worked along with the elite developers to spend every dime in & around the downtown area, as the rest of the city went unnoticed. High rise condo’s sit vacant, an over sized & over priced unnecessary library built downtown as libraries around the city closed or went unfunded, A new & over priced baseball park built downtown for a below average team & lots of talk about a new Charger stadium, again, downtown, for the elite developer friends of the Republican mayors.
When Bob Filner beat the Republican front runner, Carl DeMaio, who was alleged to having been backed by big oil money from the Koch brothers in Texas, it was a shock that traveled through out the city. Filner, not only started his political career here in San Diego being on the City Council representing District Eight, one of the poorest districts in the city, but he also was a United States Congressman for over twenty years, and was returning to where it had all started to finally pull San Diego from the grips of the powerful strong hold the Republicans have been enjoying for thirty plus years.
Immediately he began putting his foot down and showed what a strong Mayor could do with a little common sense and the word No. He held his ground with the Tourist Industry and did away with their ridiculous forty year contract , making them settle with a five year contract and a donation to the 100th year Anniversary of Balboa Park. He quickly settled the dispute with the Unions with a contract both sides were able to agree to as fair.
He made it clear that although he wanted the Chargers to stay in San Diego, he wanted a fair deal on where and when a new stadium would be built and that he wanted to make sure it was a good deal that wasn’t going to be funded by the San Diego taxpayers. Instead of building a three story parking structure in Balboa Park, he showed that just by moving a few parking spots & adding a shuttle, that you can have more space without the traffic entering parts of the park.
Since his election, he seemed to be doing a pretty good job for the city & the taxpayer without bending to the will of the elite & the developers. He was showing he could be a strong mayor of all the people of San Diego. His political experience of 30 years was paying off.
Of course this wasn’t making the power brokers or the Union Tribune very happy. They lost their power after thirty years or more.
Everyone knows that the best way to ruin any Politician is to accuse them of either mishandling of money, and/or something Sexual.
That’s when it started. At first a story broke that Sun Road had emailed Councilman Kevin Faulconer, stating something about “the money has been paid”. I’m not sure why they would contact Councilman Faulconer to say that they had paid $100,000, of which was put in the general fund, but immediately he was making the rounds of KUSI and other morning news shows bringing it to the attention of the city. It seemed to me that it was the start of a scam to make it look like Filner was taking a bribe to do a favor for Sun Road. The money was returned.
Next was that Circus with Donna Frye & those two attorneys who came out in front of the cameras with alleged stories of sexual harassment, calling for Filner to step down as mayor.
After two or three news conferences’ that seemed to catch the ear of the city, it seemed they still needed more. Out pops a twenty-six year ex-employee of the Union Tribune, along with her attorney, Gloria Allred, accusing the mayor of sexual harassment and demanding him to step down as mayor. Gloria Allred is nothing but a media hound who seems to try all her cases in front of a lot of news cameras, which she once again did in this case.
Even Bob Filner deserves to be assumed innocent until proven guilty. Why not file any criminal chargers, get your facts, and any witnesses in order & let him have his day in court?
Enter next, a man who has had dealings with “land management” in the past & has brought a recall campaign against a City Council member he didn’t agree with some twenty years ago, Mr. Pallamary. Enter next, a few more accusers that go back to as far as 2003 to sweeten the pot of accusations.
God knows that some of these accusers may have felt violated by the mayor but one has to wonder why they didn’t come forward at the time of the alleged offense and why, in this day of high tech items, there hasn’t been one recorded picture, audio recording or witness to come forward to validate what they are claiming? I tend to believe Mr. Filner when he said that he may have intimidated or may have acted improperly around some women, but says he did not sexually harassed any of them. Why hasn’t anyone of them filed sexual battery chargers against him? Surely he has the right to defend himself in court, if in fact any of these women were truly violated in the way they are claiming.
Has the charges of sexual harassment come down to asking for a date or holding someone’s arm during a conversation? If in fact these actions really took place?
Could Bob Filner be correct when he said that this was all a “Lynch Mob” by those that lost their power over the city & a few news organizations who helped fuel these accusations?
One has to wonder how many would pass a lie detector test or who came forward with an accusation just for their fifteen minutes or maybe some sort of a payment just to ruin a man’s political career because he refused to go along with their wishes.
It’s a shame we will probably never find out what really took place because he has already been convicted, not in a court room, but in the pot-holed filled streets of San Diego, America’s Enron By The Sea.
** The above is only my opinion, as I see it, as a concerned citizen of which once was America’s Finest City. **
{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
Developing the downtown has brought millions of dollars in revenue and tourism. Without it the rest of the city and infrastructure would crumble. The guy that wrote this is the same herd of sheep that follows the Obamanation.
Check your pay stub in 2014 and 2015 when $$ is missing to pay for Obamacare.
Take a course in business and economics it may help. Oh yeah ask Obama to pay for your education too.
Obamacare? Where in this article was any mention made of President Obama or, for that matter, medical care or taxes? Of course downtown redevelopment has spurred increased tax revenue for the city, but it has also lined the pockets of the rich at consumer and taxpayer expense, has made the entire area inaccessible to former residents, and made a simple day watching the local baseball team with your son or daughter an economic decision instead of an outing of the American Pastime.
It us obvious to me your political leanings and the fine heritage from which is springs; George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Fox News. Drink your cool-aid before it gets warm!
Hey Are We talking about Obamacare ? Do all the Problems in the World trickle down to the lowest common denominator Obamacare ? Such a Fool !
People who use words like “Obamanation” in an article that has nothing what so ever to do with Obama are the same sheep who listen to people like Michael Savage and take what they say as the unquestionable truth.
Just another off-topic moron ranting about Obamacare.
Anyone up for some “San Diego – America’s Finest Oligarchy” window decals.
I need some font suggestions. Only the Higgs folks believe like I do that Comic Sans rules.
@ Tony – you are so right — and I would like to add that I am NOT happy that the tax payers will be paying the court expenses for Mayor Filner… If I did something like that I would be fired and no one would pay my bills or my fines… I would like to know what the final “DEAL” was for Filner..
The information of the final “DEAL” was presented on the day of the City Copuncil vote by the City Attorney to the news media, council members, and the public. He was very precise in his explanation, so, It’s no secret! By the way the “DEAL” was for both the CITY and Filner! As to the “…if I did that”, that is the problem! He was never found GUILTY of any wrong-doing, only ACCUSED of it! There are both Profit-Motives, and Political ones, heavily present in the background of these. But people like you, were satisfied of a persons guilt w/o allowing “due process” to determine it.
Today’s U-T is still pumping up the “lynch mob” if you look at the colorful Banner of today’s paper, you will see it. If you count the number of days it has done so, it was EVERY day for a month, including “Special Sections”; all on a story of “accusations.” News media wants the protections afforded to it by our Constitution, but do not seem to offer those afforded to the “accused”; due process! (like you)
Cat- you would have a public defender appointed and paid by the state for you if you could not afford defense for criminal charges.
You are welcome.
JJ
There seems to be a small camp entertaining the idea of a conspiracy theory behind the downfall of an otherwise promising leader.
One can only wonder if they also blame the traffic officer who writes their speeding ticket for that offense, or claim that the enforcement is biased and why aren’t there more cops patrolling other peoples’ streets instead of theirs.
Of course the big pitfall behind blaming others for our problems that it makes moving ahead difficult, and fosters a perpetual victim attitude- and says that they are so powerful there’s nothing that can be done to stop them.
The worst may be the lunatic fringe badge worn by the conspiracy theorist, that can only repel those from sharing your views.
Do you really think they bought off Donna Frye, who had never been bought off before? Do you really think all those women, who weren’t trailer trash but had reputable careers of their own, just made up their stories? All 8 of them? That’s the incredulous nature of conspiracy theories, it calls for us to suspend common sense ideas that it would be impossible to keep all the people involved silent or that some who’d been approached to participate would already have come forward to cry foul- and how much would you have to pay them for a lifetime of silence? No one crook would see that much value in such an investment, tens of millions of dollars, and realistically if the status quo is so entrenched Bob Filner alone could not upset their plans anyway as his actions would meet the resistance of all their minions below and around him.
As G. Wm. Domhoff asserted, there are no conspiracies, leaving his students to conclude that it’s just the general nature of things to happen as they always have and always will. A man showed poor judgement and abused his power to fulfill sexual urges. That’s never happened before. JFK much?
John, please keep your comments to yourself. They make too much sense.
Good thoughts, Joh. To riff off your last sentence, as I have his this mentioned a few times now, sure… JFK and Clinton engaged in much of the same behavior as Filner, albeit usually in a more consensual manner. I would just offer that the operative part of the word “progressive” is “progress”. We are about as far away from JFK’s historical moment as that moment was from women not even being able to vote, and as far as that moment was from one where you could own slaves in most of the country.
It doesn’t matter if Filner’s actions were closer to the norm in 1962, or even 1994. They clearly aren’t acceptable now, and IMO there’s no reason to treat them as such.
“JFK and Clinton engaged in much of the same behavior as Filner, albeit usually in a more consensual manner.”
The difference could be those two were charming and handsome, Filner not so. Most of us men do figure out our ranking in such things at an early age, and learn that (outside of additional attributes like money and power) forcing ourselves upon members of the opposite sex outside of our league only leads to embarrassment and rejection. Clinton would have got laid even if he were the pizza delivery guy. Filner may not have been spurned or even reported on if he’d had JFK’s charisma and looks.
Such is life. You can’t have what you want, and you don’t want what you can have.
You totally leave silence concerning the “politics” surrounding this! People respond to an accusation (especially one repeated often enough) as a Truth. An “accusation” of this type of behavior will have several affects, some of which are , to “run for cover” to avoid association with the accused; and, to draw forth others who see “opportunity” in the event! It didn’t need to be a planned conspiracy by all the actors in this drama, only for each to independently further their personal aims. The strongest actor in this drama was our local news media, one of which is owned by a land developer and hotelier, and from which was born the accusation in the first place. There being few other media willing to search out this connection, we, the public, were left to rely upon the presentation of the “news” by the only source presenting it into the “news feed” that sent it nationally. Perhaps there was no overt “conspiracy”, but there were forces at play here that had a vested political and monetary interest in its outcome.
Does anyone remember Downtown before the greedy developers got their hands on it? Say between the years of 1973 to 1993? It was a pretty seedy neighborhood. Nobody wanted to live down there; nobody was opening restaurants or business.
Let me know when NTC pays off for the City.
How about that housing lottery for the select few.
And The Rock was only going to be an academy.
Sure but you could afford to live there if you had to/wanted to. I did for a while, I think around ’86-88, and found its atmosphere attractive. I used to hang out downtown when I was in the Navy a few years before that.
One person’s “seedy” is another’s “vibrant”. One person’s “redevelopment” is another’s “gentrification”.
Consider that the people displaced when SRO hotels were razed to make way for high end condos didn’t always move on or die, they’re now pushing shopping carts when in the past you could rent a cheap room at a weekly rate. Is it that much of an improvement when housing becomes unaffordable? Even though I had to share a shower the room I had at 4th ave between Ash and Beech, for around a C note a week, was clean, comfortable and had a splendid bay view, and the trolley was just a couple blocks away.
However I concede that kind of “downtown”, like San Francisco’s Tenderloin or Mission, isn’t for everyone, and that’s why they have the ‘burbs.
If you are not a property owner you pay no taxes to the city. Development brings jobs and tax revenue. If you want a free game then go to your local little league games.
The trolley is accessible to all and goes to downtown and again another perk that the city foots the bill for and subsidizes.
This is not really accurate. The City has many types of funding sources.
Also, all forms of transportation are subsidized, especially car travel.
Actually the city receives just 24% of your property taxes. Other revenue sources include sales tax, TOT, fines and forfeitures, fees (permits, water/sewer) – all go to the city. The Trolley was built with Transnet’s half cent sales tax (which everyone pays) and federal money – the City pays nothing. It’s built by SANDAG and operated by MTS. Fares pay for almost half of the cost, Transnet and Federal grants subsidize the rest. As ridership increases fares cover more of the costs. And Little League games might be free to watch, but participation fees, once measured in ten dollar increments now are measured in hundreds. Hopes this helps Tony.
Oh please enough with the conspiracy theories Pete. Save it for an X-Files revival or campfire stories when the kids are tired of hearing about Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster.
The plain simple truth is Filner’s bad behavior ruined Filner. His attitude of “I can do anything I want” caught up to him. What he got away with as a Congressman didn’t fly as Mayor OK.
And the few good ideas Filner may have had does not excuse sexual harassment or sexual assault. Attend a professional sexual harassment training course Pete and open your progressive eyes.
No! It doesn’t! I totally agree! Now, …when was he found guilty as charged?
Why support due process? To guard the integrity of the political process. Filner was elected but 9 months ago after an acromonious campaign and an unrelenting opposition who immediately continued attacks including registering a domain name of “recall Filner” on January 7th. In other cities, in other times, the accusations would be vetted by the media, at least to some degree. As Pete has noted, the accusers have little supporting evidence and the media has declined to investigate details. Some accusers are special interests; they were lobbying Filner for something. One donated money to his debt as recently as January months after the her experience. I believe there is a mix of legitimate complaints, politically movtivated opportunists and victims of social mores. But in the end Filner was our mayor elected through our political process. Due process, the vetting of facts, would have provided an opportunity for the system to work, for the facts to be aired and would dispel if not at least weaken conspiracy theories. It did feel like a lynch mob. I saw no reports of any elected official pausing to reflect on the problems. And Conspiracy theories will live on.
I’m going to poke a hole in the conspiracy theory. The domain name recallmittromney.com was registered before the outcome of the 2012 election. So someone camped on the domian name recallbobfilner.com. The registration date doesn’t mean anything except whoever camped on the name got lucky and was able to use it.
Not much of a hole was poked!! The beat goes on and JEC does have credible information that is most relevant. We are all the poorer for the current dilemma. Bringing back Bob will not happen but I am ever hopeful that a similar positional stance will be taken by the next poser that “we ” put forward to lead “us” into a better and more acceptable future and hopefully not backwards as some would prefer, especially the owner of the UT and several hotels in our “finest city” .
How “lucky” for those THREE registered domain names to “happen” to find use here in San Diego in this recall effort after an “anonymous” filing for them in Arizona in January. Do you know who made those filings? Had to be authorized for use by that party here! Anyone you know?
There was little or no vetting of the accusers. Take for example, accuser #18, Dianne York. They rushed to hear her story about a photograph taken with Filner at the end of a meeting. There were others present the entire time. On TV she dramatically declared, “I’m doing this for San Diego, the United States and the World!” She stood right there and talked as if her spa was still in business (talking about clients who come from as far as L.A. to visit her spa) and called herself a “prominent business woman.” Later in the Don Bauder, in the San Diego Reader, revealed Dianne York’s “Spa of La Jolla” closed last year and that the eviction ended when she was physically removed by sheriff deputies. That she has dozens of lawsuits in local court records and had filed bankruptcy last year. Several years ago, she was a player on the failed reality show “Addicted to Beauty.” She got her 15 minutes of fame again, but at the expense of Bob Filner and a media that ignored fact checking.
Well said, even if long-winded.
The sexual harrassment is just one issue. The federal and State Anti Bribery/Kickback charges are still comming. This is why he resigned. Not for the sexual harrassment allegations.
Those investigations are currently underway. Again, these are “accusations”, not convictions. Furthermore, Filner’s resignation does not affect either the outcome of these, nor the penalties that would arise from them …IF found guilty. So-o-o! They are NOT any reason for a resignation!
How many articles are going to be posted here that try to lay the blame for Filner’s actions at the feet of Republicans, the media or some developer-fueled right wing conspiracy? As a left-leaning moderate who would rather eat his own shoe than ever vote for DeMaio, I couldn’t care less what he or the U-T think about all of this.
It should surprise exactly no one that they tried to capitalize on this for their own agendas. Doesn’t mean this is their baby. The only one responsible for Filner’s behavior is Filner, and quite frankly, this guy should have stepped down weeks ago. I’ve heard most of the harassed women speak to this, and found them to be rather credible. His habitual actions represent the EXACT OPPOSITE of what progressives stand for, and IMO, it is a disservice to the ideals and goals of progressive politics to be still defending this guy or trying to marginalize his own behavior.
It is NOT “… a disservice to the ideals and goals of progressive politics…”, or to the defense of “due process” to speak against the punishment of a person based solely upon “accusations.” If that basic principle is discarded, then there is no reason to have a court system. Where, then, will be your Constitutional Protections relied upon?
With regard to the question of whether or not Filner should have just done the right thing as a human being and step down from a public office, rather than any legal proceedings, I believe we passed a threshold where due process became a valid argument somewhere after the 8th-9th credible accuser and Filner’s own press conference admitting that he had a habitual problem and a “monster inside”.
The Fact is The Mayor was NOT given due process.
In this country, we are ALL supposed to have due process.
I am so very ashamed of all the people who did this & I wanted him
to go to a Court of Law. Consider the domain name of recall Filner, started
January 2013. He hadn’t even had a chance to do something wrong.
Where were all the naysayers then? I only knew of the airport worker who said he was
allegedly rude to her. Where were All the rest of them. We do not believe all the drama.
I wish he had not resigned. Jan G got what he wanted.
I do not trust the courts in SD.
Y
Please read my reply about camping on domain names. Someone registered recallmittromney before the 2012 election and Romeny didn’t win.
Why did Filner avoid due process by avoiding his deposition date? Speaking of which has Filner even given a deposition yet? Oh and we will get his day in court, civil and criminal. I’m amazed that progressives are living in such denial. Time to move forward and elect a new Mayor.
Hey Tony if you rent your land lord pays taxes. Where do you suppose they get that money?
So everyone loves Comic Sans.
Who cares about Mitt Romney.
I supported due process and had no problem with the recall.
Missing deposition dates isn’t a big deal. Especially since it was the City who was deposing him. The last deposition I had the Navy let the guy go bike riding across Texas. When he returned, two questions allowed me to hang his sorry carcass outside the shed. Who is this WE bull crap. The City Council sold you out if you wanted a trial.
Some recognition that DSD is a bribery issue not extortion.
Never saw any incorporation papers did you. You know the ones where the entity reserves the right to spend money to defend the board members.
Hey use paragraphs. Most of this crap is totally un-readable even after one (large Raceway IPA) beer.
You are all forgetting the fact that he chose to resign. Now why do you suppose that he chose to make a deal? If he was not guilty then he would not need to make a deal. It is pretty basic stuff. People of San Diego you need to wake up and open your eyes. The city is corrupt from the top down.
If fighting this would cause you to become bankrupt to prove your innocence, would you spend every dime you had on the gamble? It was the economic reality that caused the “deal”, not the truth of any allegation; and that is what he stated to the Council.
Could cause would be the gamble.
Read “If” by Rudyard Kipling.
So basic it went right past you.
Mayor Filner resigned to avoid personal bankruptcy. The City offered representation and funding for his own attorney as part of the settlement.
Missed CA Goldsmith lecturing you like you were a little kid about this, did you.
Your City Council had voted to deny him legal representation that is customary in all such cases.
The deposition was the City’s not Ms Allred’s.
I agree that you were cheated if you signed the recall petition. Sold as Recall, you were deceived into Resign or Recall. Read the petition and let me know when you find the word resign. Actually, I already know that answer. Tell someone else who signed.
God that was tough!
The Game of Spot the Troll.
Encourage the trolls with the first response.
Pick a subsequent post as a troll’s.
A drink of beer for every response after that.
Turn changes when your troll posts again or new troll posts.
You’re out when you post a response.
Started praying Cliff would go off-line.
I can’t stand Manchester, Lynch and Co as much as the next guy, but I can’t help but shake my head at this conspiracy theory. This was Filner’s fault, AND the Democratic Party’s fault. The UT was always going to be out to get Filner, they just happened to be handed 4 aces after several rounds of nothing more than a pair. They tried to break scandal after scandal unsuccessfully, but this one had teeth. It was the perfect story for the national media to take on and over simplify without really understanding the true political situation in this city. I had relatives and friends from all over calling me and giving me their uninformed opinion, and these are people who are quite progressive and follow politics. It really shows you how oversimplification of stories on a national scale can really exacerbate the situation. The UT barey had to do anything, it fell right into their lap and they knew ho to play it.
Beyond Filner, I’m most frustrated with the local Democratic Party. We have had GOP mayors for almost 3 decades. We all knew Filner could be divisive and a pitbull when it came to standing up to downtown interests. We KNEW he would royally piss off the UT and Goldsmith and that they would try extra hard to write daily editorials rife with yellow journalism until one caught fire. Why did we vet our candidate enough to know this could be a potential issue down the road. Yes, no one could have seen some of these women coming forward who have allegations stemming from over a decade ago. But they have caught wind of some of these more recent storiesc just before the election. It sounds like some of his staff was well aware.
Conspiracy? If the “downtown power brokers” were powerful enough, and coordinated enough, to orchestrate a progressive mayor’s ouster less than a year after being elected…they would have been powerful enough, and coordinated enough, to have prevented his original election.
Quick thought on money/investments downtown. Redevelopment law made it a win-win for all SD. Money was spent downtown rather than being sent to Sacramento.
It seems no one on here has any idea what due process is. Different posters keep tossing around the lack of due process etc. It relates to court, not public opinion, nor newspaper coverage. Who cares if the local paper is a mouthpiece for Republicans. What difference does that make? What does that have to do with harassing women? DC is a different beast where Filner’s “alleged” actions could easily go unnoticed. Here at home, it’s a different story.
If Filner goes before a judge and is found guilty without being able to provide for a defense, then that would violate his due process, and consequently, the law. People lining up against him, forcing his hand because he has become a distraction instead of leader, well then, that’s just how the ball rolls sometimes.
Was Anthony Weiner denied due process when he resigned from Congress? No, because it had nothing to do with the court of law.
What seems to be lost in all this is that he, and all politicians, work for us, not their own ambition, nor only their supporters.
Always expect the use of a myopic point of view.
A better description of what happened is extortion.
Politics, just another form of organized crime.
Too early to play Spot the Troll, this ain’t Sunday.
Remember that, unless voters choose to write in their own candidates, we’re limited as citizens to those who are willing to run for office. Filner was the only Democrat who stepped forward to run for mayor in an increasingly Democratic city. We had exceptionally poor choices even among the larger, primary field, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll have a better choice in the special election.
I’m with the article author and Cliff, on the due process and disgruntled power broker situation… for what it’s worth. Seems to me like these “accusations” would have squashed anyone from any elected office… had they been brought up during a campaign… why were they not? If I’m not mistaken the campaign was long and rather brutal if not boring at times. Why not take the win with scandalous information. I thought harrassers (especially of this so called magnitude) had historical patterns. Where was this harrassment information back during the campaign?
BTW. I rely on the OBRag for info waaay before the UT bird cage lining anytime.
As to the troll drinking game… I would have been sloshed right out the gate.