Story highlights
NEW: "I can forgive anybody but he needs to step down," Peggy Shannon says
She works at the Senior Citizens Service Desk at City Hall
15 other women have previously come forward
Filner has acknowledged failure "to fully respect" some women, but says he'll be vindicated
The latest person to accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment is a great-grandmother.
Peggy Shannon, 67, who works at the Senior Citizens Service Desk in San Diego City Hall, allegedly faced “continuous inappropriate sexual advances by the mayor while trying to do her job,” according to the office of her attorney, Gloria Allred.
Shannon said the mayor kissed her and once asked “me if I thought he could go eight hours in one night.”
“Every day that I went to work, I had butterflies in my stomach because I did not know what was going to happen the next time the mayor came by my desk,” Shannon told reporters Thursday.
“I have three sons, four grandsons and two great grandsons. As our mayor, you should be – but are not – a role model for any of them,” she said.
Later, Shannon spoke to CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live,” and called for the mayor’s resignation.
“I can forgive anybody but he needs to step down,” she said. “People are surprised that as a great-grandmother that this happened to me – so it could happen to anybody else.”
Shannon is the 16th woman to come forward with such allegations, according to CNN affiliate KFMB.
Filner’s office has not responded to multiple CNN requests for comment on the allegations.
As the list grows, city officials said Thursday that Filner might be booted from office later this month over a different, but related issue: money.
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‘Inappropriate movement on my body’
A local attorney became the 15th accuser against Filner, speaking to KFMB this week.
Kathryn Vaughn told the station that after her husband walked away at a public event 10 years ago, Filner “made an inappropriate movement on my body.”
Filner, 70, was elected mayor of the eighth-largest American city in 2012, after 10 terms in Congress. His accusers range from a singer at a campaign fundraiser to his former communications director, who called him unfit for office.
He has rebuffed calls to resign from all nine City Council members and from fellow Democrats, including California’s two U.S. senators. He now faces a recall effort that is trying to gather more than 100,000 signatures needed to put his future up to a new vote, though some political observers doubt organizers can succeed.
In July, Filner acknowledged that he “failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me” and that he was “embarrassed” by his actions. But he also said he would be vindicated by “a full presentation of the facts” and he would not resign.
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Mayor could be booted over money
Now, investigators are also looking into possible financial impropriety – including questionable charges at the Westgate Hotel, where Filner allegedly took women.
The San Diego’s City Attorney’s Office told CNN Thursday that it had found the charges were inappropriate. Filner’s attorney and the mayor’s office did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment Thursday.
The city attorney’s office said a rarely used section of the city charter, Section 108, dating back to 1931, would allow for Filner to be removed from office – without a recall – over unauthorized payments from the city treasury.
The city council plans to vote August 28 on whether to invoke that section. If it does, it would then ask a court to boot Filner from office.
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Kevin Faulconer, a Republican who sits on the council’s audit committee, raised questions about other charges as well.
He alleged that Filner charged hundreds of dollars in personal expenses and threatened the city’s credit by failing to pay the bill. The mayor’s city credit card was stopped in July, Faulconer’s office said.
“Mayor Filner’s continued abuse of power knows no bounds,” the councilman said in a statement. “Based on this new evidence, I am broadening the scope of my Audit Committee hearing to investigate how Mayor Filner was able to circumvent credit card rules and how to prevent negative effects on the City’s credit rating as a result of one person’s misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
CNN’s Kyung Lah and Linda Hall reported from San Diego; CNN’s Josh Levs reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Chuck Johnston and Matt Smith contributed to this report.