Report: Filner’s Office Canceled Sessions That Would Include Sexual Harassment Training

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner speaks during a news conference at city hall Friday, July 26, 2013, in San Diego.
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San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s office canceled new employee and management training sessions that would have included sexual harassment training, a former high-level city official and two other City Hall sources told Voice of San Diego in a report published Wednesday.

The city’s former chief operating officer, Jay Goldstone, told Voice of San Diego that at the beginning of Filner’s term, the mayor’s office said it didn’t have time for training sessions covering administration basics like payroll and benefits, and canceled them. Two City Hall sources confirmed to the news website that going over a state law mandating sexual harassment training within six months of taking office would have been part of those canceled sessions. 

Filner’s attorney Harvey Berger had written a letter Tuesday to City Attorney Jan Goldsmith arguing the city was responsible for Filner’s legal fees in a sexual harassment suit filed against him because it “failed to provide” sexual harassment training to Filner. Berger alleged that city trainers had “unilaterally” canceled the sessions.

Goldstone disputed that claim.

“Absolutely not. I am 100 percent certain that they did not cancel it,” Goldstone told the news organization.

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