San Diego – The San Diego Business Leadership Alliance (BLA), an organization comprising 44 business membership organizations, voted today to call for Mayor Bob Filner to resign, effective immediately.
In doing so, the organization expressed support for, and acknowledged the courage shown by the eight professional women who publicly revealed their experiences of sexual harassment by Mayor Filner.
“We have two interrelated concerns,” said BLA Co-Chair William K. (Bill) Geppert, former Vice President and General Manager of Cox Communications in San Diego. “First and most obviously, we are appalled by the alleged behaviors of Mayor Filner. To say such behaviors are completely unacceptable is an understatement. If true, they demean the office to an alarming degree.
“Second, we are convinced that this crisis has done serious damage to the City of San Diego’s business climate,” he continued. “Our tourism marketing industry has been gutted, the Film Commission has been disbanded, the Chargers stadium talks are dead in the water, developers are being put in difficult positions or are simply not pursuing important projects. This must stop.”
Since July 11, San Diego has been rocked by allegations of sexual harassment by Mayor Filner backed up through personal and public testimonials by courageous women who have been victimized. Since then, prominent leaders have called on the Mayor to resign, including California’s senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins, Labor Leader and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales, Council President Todd Gloria and a super-majority of the City Council, among others. In addition, the Mayor has been asked by the nation’s premier women’s rights group, NOW, and his own national and local party leadership to step down.
Said BLA Co-Chair Benjamin A. Haddad, partner with California Strategies, LLC, “As many in our community have noted, the reputation of our city in the national eye is under attack. We cannot endure this after the work that has been done to restore our city’s operations and reputation over the past seven years.
“We acknowledge that it is extraordinarily difficult for those of us who rely on doing business with the city to take this position,” Haddad continued. “But we have a greater responsibility to the region – as well as to women everywhere – to say it is time to act. It is time for us to demand what is right, which is immediate resignation.”
In order to take a formal position such as this, the BLA’s bylaws state that in order to “Bind the Alliance to a course of action (it) shall require an affirmative vote of 75% of those Voting Member organizations present and voting.” (Section 4.9 – Membership Procedures)
The San Diego Business Leadership Alliance (BLA) is a business federation comprised of business advocacy organizations from throughout the San Diego/Tijuana region. It includes chambers of commerce, economic development corporations and trade associations representing over 17,000 businesses working together to strengthen the voice for business.
Our Mission: To effectively align and mobilize the strength of the collective voice of our region’s business advocacy organizations in order to promote job growth.
The motion that was approved:
The 35 voting members of the San Diego Business Leadership Alliance supports the courage shown by the several professional women who have boldly made public their experiences of sexual harassment by San Diego City Mayor Bob Filner. The behaviors displayed by the Mayor are completely unacceptable and reflect negatively on our City, on our region, and on efforts to maintain and attract jobs for San Diegans.
The mayor’s behaviors and choices have already had an adverse impact on doing business with the City of San Diego. Our coalition of business advocacy organizations from throughout the San Diego region finds that the Mayor’s ongoing and inexcusable behavior has hurt women, created chaos on various fronts and negatively affected our region’s reputation. We therefore collectively and formally call for his immediate resignation. We demand that the Mayor put the community first and do what is right for the City and the region.