Lawyer: Mayor never got harassment training, city may be liable By Amanda Watts, CNN August 1, 2013 -- Updated 0124 GMT (0924 HKT) (CNN) -- A lawyer for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner criticized the city for not providing sexual harassment training to the mayor, saying its failure to do so violated the law. In a letter to the city attorney, Harvey Berger wrote that Filner might never have been sued for sexual harassment had he been properly trained. "If there is any liability at all, the city will almost certainly be liable for 'failing to prevent harassment' under (the law)," Berger wrote in a letter dated Monday, and obtained Wednesday by CNN from City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. Amid calls for resignation, embattled mayor to enter clinic An intent of Berger's letter was to urge the city to pay Filner's legal fees associated with a sexual harassment filed against him by his former spokeswoman, Irene McCormack Jackson. The city is named as a co-defendant in that lawsuit. On Tuesday, the city council voted 9-0 to deny the mayor's request for taxpayers to pay his legal fees, according to Matt Awbrey, spokesman for City Council member Kevin Faulconer. San Diego mayor sued, called unfit for office Secrets that women of San Diego no longer keep about its mayor CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.