Filner themes — obnoxiousness, shadiness — merge
June 30, 2013
By Chris Reed
Cal Watchdog readers have been updated regularly on the goofiness and ugliness that’s unfolded in San Diego since veteran Democratic congressman Bob Filner took over as mayor in December. The two main themes of Filner coverage are his sheer stinking obnoxiousness and his sense that the law doesn’t apply to him because he’s such a noble guy. (He really thinks this; he was a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s, therefore he’s always pure.)
Now the two themes have meshed in a scandal that offers a perfect snapshot of the mayor of California’s second-largest city. This coverage is from the Voice of San Diego:
“Mayor Bob Filner’s recently departed deputy chief of staff, Allen Jones, said Friday the mayor knew full well about a negotiation with a developer that many are calling extortion — and that he stands by it.
“Jones’ comments came hours after Filner announced he had returned a $100,000 donation to the city from the developer Sunroad. The mayor said he made the decision after he discovered a memo between a Sunroad representative and Jones that explicitly laid out a quid pro quo between the city and the developer.”
OK, that’s juicy enough. But why is Jones “recently departed”? Was it because of heat over the scandal that he blames on the mayor but which also makes him look bad?
That’s how the mayor rolls: ‘repeated humiliation of staff’
Nah. It’s because Jones thinks the mayor is obnoxious.
“Allen Jones, the longtime ally of Mayor Bob Filner, the one who set up his transition to mayor and worked as his deputy chief of staff said he resigned because of the mayor’s repeated humiliation of members of his staff.
“’On a number of occasions, I talked about how I thought the way the mayor interacted with and treated mayoral staff and members of boards and commissions and others was demeaning and abusive. And it, most importantly, undermined his ability to pursue the progressive agenda he campaigned on,’ Jones said.
“He said he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“’When I see mayor’s staff treated in that demeaning of a manner so often, if I remained, I believed I was being complicit in sustaining that abusive environment and I can’t do that,’ Jones said.”
So the mayor is blaming his extortion scandal on a top aide who just quit because he found the mayor to be obnoxious. I can’t think of any parallel to this, and I’m a political junkie.
Filner asks if anyone else wants to quit. As a matter of fact …
Wait, there’s more. Jones wasn’t the only top staffer to quit.
“The mayor described a staff meeting in which Jones had brought up concerns about the way Filner was treating staff. When Jones said he was leaving, Filner said he asked if anyone else wanted to, and [communications director Irene] McCormack said she did.”
A fact that Filner didn’t reveal for a week — his press secretary abruptly quitting. This stuff is comedy gold.
At least if you don’t live within San Diego’s borders, where obnoxiousness, scandal and dysfunction in your city are more dismaying than entertaining.
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Doomers…..apply fo a position……get in on the benefit wagon…..you’ll never regret it!
It’s Mayor Bob Filner, Chris. Deal with it.
Chris seems to be dealing with it just fine. Filner on the other hand isn’t dealing with it well at all.
Queeg, maybe you could give us a few pointers on how to hitch a ride on the big, red benefit wagon.
Chris is only dealing with Mayor Filner like he’s being told to do by his corporate masters at the U-T San Diego. Ever since Mayor Filner won the election last year, “Papa” Doug Manchester and his buddies have been using Chris like a two-bit harlot to come up with a weekly screed against the mayor.
Even for a fringe, right-wing editorial provocateur, Chris Reed’s writings are becoming increasingly unhinged when it comes to Mayor Filner.
By the way, did you know that Mayor Filner’s popularity with the voters is higher now than when he was elected?
Filner is a bully, he has either attended or sent a representative to planning board meetings and threaten them if they do something he disagrees with on an issue. I don’t think he can help himself, so soon he’ll be thrown out of office because of his behavior and illegal antics.
The citizens of San Diego voted for a “strong mayor” form of government when they amended the city charter a few years ago. Those same citizens followed up by electing Bob Filner as the mayor of San Diego. Goldsmith clearly hasn’t gotten the message, nor have planning groups that don’t recognize the sea change that has occurred. Filner is doing exactly what those who voted for him elected him to do: overturn the downtown Republican good old boy power structure that has run the city since World War 2.
By,”good old boy power structure,” Skdog means the RAGWUS feeding Zombies that have BK’d the city, and stealing from the taxpayers!! 🙂
As usual, Mr Jackass hasn’t a clue. The fact is that San Diego was run by a good old boy network of developers, corporate lobbyists, and Republican pols for years, right up until last November. So any alleged bankruptcy or so-called theft took place while Donkey’s buds were in charge.
Yee Haw! Hold everything, I’m getting some popcorn and settling in for this show, which is shaping up as a classic America’s Finest City fiasco, possibly bigger than strippergate. This time center stage is occupied by a psycho-septuagenarian-freedom rider, who is not only a public employee union sock puppet, but a manic detail-obsessed control freak. Aforementioned control freak will, of course, plead total ignorance of the matter at hand. Also I don’t doubt for a second that he is even more popular now than when elected. He will of course be riding on the MEA float on Pride Day parade…….