San Diego mayor Bob Filner has agreed to resign on August 30 amidst a storm of sexual-harassment allegations.
During a speech in the wake of the announcement, Filner apologized, before the city council, with a quaking voice to the city of San Diego and his former fiancée Bronwyn Ingram. He also apologized to the women he said he “offended,” but maintained that he had not sexually harassed anyone and blamed a “lynch mob mentality” for his resignation.
He blamed a combination of “awkwardness and hubris” for his behavior and pledged to make amends.
“Not one allegation, Members of the council, has ever been independently verified or proven in court,” Filner said.
The resignation of the city’s first Democratic mayor in more than two decades is part of an agreement made between his lawyers and the city attorney over a sexual-harassment suit filed against him by his former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson. Jackson is one of more than a dozen women who have alleged that the mayor sexually harassed them by attempting to kiss, grope, and inappropriately touch them.
The San Diego City Council voted unanimously, 7–0, to accept the deal, and the city is reportedly expected to pay some of his legal expenses.