L.A. Now Live: Latest in the San Diego Mayor Bob Filner scandal

Talk with Times reporter Tony Perry at 9 a.m. about the latest twists in the San Diego Mayor Bob Filner sexual harassment scandal.

On Tuesday, with reporters camped outside City Hall waiting to see if Filner would return to work, the mayor apparently was in a second day of mediation to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against him.

The mediation, overseen by retired U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, is underway at a downtown office building several blocks from City Hall.

At Irving’s order, none of the participants would discuss details of the mediation, specifically whether one condition for settling the lawsuit by Filner’s former director of communications Irene McCormack Jackson is that Filner resign.

When he announced that he had signed up for two weeks of intensive therapy to begin to learn how to treat women with respect, Filner said he would return to work Aug. 19 prepared to be “the best mayor I can.”

But as the recall movement against him prepared to begin a signature-gathering campaign, Filner’s aides and lawyers told reporters they were unsure whether he would be returning as previously promised.

He reportedly was taking “personal time” after completing his behavorial therapy regimen.

On Sunday, the recall movement began the daunting task of gathering enough signatures to qualify a recall election for the ballot. Several hundred people participated in a “Freedom From Filner” march that ended at City Hall.

At the rally, attorney Gloria Allred, who represents three of the 16 women who have accused Filner of sexual harassment, repeated her call for him to resign.