San Diego City Mayor Bob Filner has agreed to resign from his position on Aug. 30 after receiving 17 sexual harassment allegations, announced City Attorney Jan Goldsmith during a closed-door city council session on Friday, around 6:45 p.m. ET.
Goldsmith said Filner has already agreed to abdicate his office after three days of thinking it over, adding that the San Diego mayor had passed a "signed resignation" earlier, which the city council members accepted in a 7-0 vote.
Attendees of the meeting remarked Filner was quite emotional in his public resignation announcement while claiming that he was a victim to the 'lynch mob' composed of women accusing him of unwanted physical contact, forcible kissing, and appalling conversations.
"If given due process, I would be vindicated," Filner said. "The city should not have been put through this... And my own personal failures were responsible."
The 70-year-old mayor also admitted that he may have showed inappropriate behavior to women at times, but he strongly denounced to have harassed anyone in the past.
"To all the women that I've offended, I had no intention to be offensive, to violate any physical or emotional space," Filner, who has only been in office for barely nine months, uttered. "I was trying to establish personal relationships but the combination of awkwardness and hubris led to behavior that I think many found offensive."
However, he later on defended himself by saying that he was a victim to the "hysteria of a lynch mob" which he referred to as an "affront to democracy."
"They found the weapons they needed in my own failures as a human being," he added.
The San Diego City mayor also claimed that his decision of ending his term earlier than expected was probably the biggest decision he has made in his life.
Goldsmith stated that the agreement between the City Council and Filner will cover the outgoing mayor's legal fees for a lawsuit filed by his former communications director as well as any settlement costs excluding punitive damages as the case may be. The city attorney also added that the city is willing to pay for Filner's attorney fees if he is to hire one, adding that it is still the duty of the city to provide the mayor's legal defense.
"Without the mayor's resignation, our city will continue to be paralyzed by this scandal, progress will be arrested and our focus will continue to be monopolized by this dark chapter in our history," Political Consultant Laura Frank, who also accused Filner of physical harassment in 2005, said.
Democratic City Council President Todd Gloria will be the acting mayor for the time being until a special election is realized within 90 days after Filner's resignation.
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