Many of you have heard about the planned false Filner recall, but let me summarize it here. As I understand it (and I’m not a reliable source on this), if a San Diego city recall effort fails, no recall can be attempted for 6 months. A Filner supporter (perhaps encouraged by city labor union bosses) reputedly is planning to do just that — file for a recall, go through the legal process, and then turn in almost no signatures.
If another recall also in progress then files its signatures, it will be disallowed. Yes, the recall (and the block) can be attempted again in 6 months, but all the sigs collected by the legitimate recall will be wasted — and the petition costs will all be for naught. This puts a damper on anyone coughing up the half million dollars or more necessary to make this happen.
This glitch resides in our city charter, so the city council cannot rectify this with a statute (overriding the mayor’s veto). So maybe there are other steps the city council can take, though both the legality and effectiveness are questionable. Defund the mayor’s office might be one. Reduce (or better yet, eliminate) his salary might be another. But this is uncharted (pun) ground, so I’ll leave such strategies to those who know something of such matters.
Comedians nationwide are praying that Filner remains in office. Bob is an ENDLESS source of ribald jokes. Our mayor is indeed The Joker.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jul/27/filner-sexual-harassment-recall-ruse/