No More “Closed Sessions” Discussing Lawsuits, Contracts or Personnel Matters in San Diego—All Going Public
by Stephen Frank on 07/02/2013 · 0 comments
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Thanks to the obnoxious bully, possibly bi-polar, Democrat Mayor of San Diego, the city council and city attorney can no longer hold legal closed door meetings to discuss contracts, lawsuits or personnel matter. Because Democrat Filner decided to use police force to kick out a black Assistant City Attorney from a meeting (was this the racist side of Filner showing up?) the safety and professionalism of city personnel are endangered. To solve the problem, so all can see the Filner craziness, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has decided all meetings with the Mayor will be open.
“The mayor is bound by state and local rules against harassment and abuse of employees in the workplace as well as other workplace protections,” Goldsmith said. “Although these are personal rights of our employees, as a supervisor I am responsible to protect those employees under my supervision from such conduct. As a result, I cannot look the other way and take no action.”
Filner-Goldsmith feud ratchets up
Goldsmith cites mayor’s “abusive” behavior in shutting down closed sessions
By Craig Gustafson, San Diego U-T, 7/1/13
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith called a halt Monday to any further closed session meetings at City Hall until city leaders provide guarantees that his lawyers won’t face further acts of abuse or harassment. He cited Mayor Bob Filner’s “abusive and incorrigible” behavior as the reason.
Goldsmith’s decision comes two weeks after his top lieutenant, Andrew Jones, was removed by police from a closed session hearing at the mayor’s behest. Filner accused Jones of being disruptive and leaking confidential information which Jones denied.
In a letter Monday to Filner and City Council members, Goldsmith accused Filner of violating the city charter by forcibly removing Goldsmith’s representative from the session, illegally reprimanding an employee without due process and ordering police action in violation of the law.
“The mayor is bound by state and local rules against harassment and abuse of employees in the workplace as well as other workplace protections,” Goldsmith said. “Although these are personal rights of our employees, as a supervisor I am responsible to protect those employees under my supervision from such conduct. As a result, I cannot look the other way and take no action.”
The next scheduled closed session — in which the mayor, city attorney and council discuss sensitive legal matters — set for July 9 has been canceled.
Filner didn’t immediately respond Monday to the letter. He did address his feud with Goldsmith at a news conference Friday.
“This is bad for the city that these disputes are occurring,” Filner said. “I do not want them to happen. They’re not in my interests. They’re not in Jan’s interests. They’re not in the city’s interest. So we do have to find a way of working them out.”
Filner, a Democrat, and Goldsmith, a Republican, are the only officials elected citywide in San Diego. They’ve been at odds since Filner took office in December. They aren’t on speaking terms and have clashed repeatedly over civic issues. Each insists the disputes aren’t personal but rather institutional conflicts despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Council President Todd Gloria issued a statement Monday saying things between the mayor and city attorney were getting out of hand.
“I believe you both love San Diego,” Gloria said. “I think you’re both aware that your relationship is a distraction that is affecting our ability to run an efficient and effective organization for the benefit of our citizens. The city can’t go on this way. I urge you to put our city and our citizens first and consider using a mediator to resolve this dispute quickly. This conflict has got to stop, and our collective focus must return to priorities like public safety and road repair.”
“I, of course, considered it something similar to asking Rosa Parks to sit in the back of the bus,” said Jones, who is black, in the interview. “I was extremely offended by it.”
Filner said Friday that he has been told repeatedly by the City Attorney’s Office that officials can’t disclose what is discussed in closed session publicly and Jones broke that rule. Filner raised the issue at the June 18 closed session and then accused Jones of trying to intimidate the council by interrupting conversations before having him removed by police.
“I’m the chairman of that closed session and I say ‘Please sit down. I did not recognize you.’ And he refuses,” Filner said. “That’s a personality conflict. He’s disrupting the flow of business in closed session and it’s deliberately done.”
Goldsmith and Jones have a different view.
“The transcript showed that Mayor Filner acted as accuser, judge and jury, and then used his police force to enforce a sanction (forced removal),” Goldsmith wrote. “This was not based on anything that Mr. Jones did or said during the June 18 closed session meeting, but allegedly at sometime in the past. Mr. Jones received no due process — not a statement of the charge or what disclosure the mayor was referring to; no right of Mr. Jones to be heard; and no impartial hearing officer to make a finding. What’s more, the ‘remedy’ of forced removal from this meeting was not permitted by any rule of law.”
The absence of closed session meetings could have a detrimental impact on city business. Legal settlements and decisions to initiate litigation would have to be discussed in open session which could give an information advantage to legal opponents.