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City attorney probes Mayor's office payouts
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SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Questions raised over the amount of money paid out to a former city staffer who had an affair with Mayor Gavin Newsom has prompted an investigation by the city attorney.
The investigation is focusing on the amount of compensation The City doled out in paid leave to Ruby Rippey-Tourk, Newsom’s former appointments secretary, with whom Newsom has admitted to having an affair about a year and a half ago. The affair became public when Rippey-Tourk’s husband, Alex Tourk, resigned last month from his position as Newsom’s re-election campaign manager after his wife told him about the affair.
Among the payments raising questions is a retroactive paycheck in 2006 amounting to $10,154 for nearly 252 paid leave hours. The check was issued to Rippey-Tourk sometime after her last day on the job, which was on Aug. 31, 2006. Under city employee rules, workers can apply for extended leave, during which time they can still be paid.
On Thursday, the City Attorney’s Office issued a statement that said, “With the full cooperation of the city officials involved, the city attorney has already begun the process of reviewing the paid leave to [Ruby] Rippey-Tourk to assure that it was done properly under city laws and procedures.”
All told, Rippey-Tourk was paid $21,755 for nearly 544 hours of paid leave between January and August 2006. In that same period, Rippey-Tourk received $44,928 in total compensation, according to the Controller’s Office.
In 2004, Rippey-Tourk made $63,523, her first year working in the Newsom administration, with $7,754 of it being in paid leave. In 2005, her compensation rose to $80,195, with $11,606 in paid leave.
Sam Singer, representing both Alex Tourk and Ruby Rippey-Tourk, said Rippey-Tourk took a leave of absence in May 2006 to enter an alcohol rehabilitation program. “Alex was left as a single parent trying to manage a household with only half the income,” Singer said. Tourk then asked The City if there was any way “to get assistance,” Singer said.
That assistance apparently came by way of a city provision that allows city employees to transfer their paid leave credits to other employees.
“Co-workers donated their sick time to Rippey-Tourk in a compassionate gesture to help her and her family,” Singer said.
In July 2006, Rippey-Tourk submitted her letter of resignation, which said that “after 10 weeks of introspection, I’ve decided the best thing for me is not to return to the Mayor’s Office, and instead move in another direction.”
Newsom’s press office defended the compensation in a statement, saying, “We are confident that this matter was handled appropriately and humanely.”
The Controller’s Office, which oversees The City’s payroll, found nothing on the books to suggest an impropriety.
“We calculate the pay based on the person’s rate of pay and their banked leave. We verify their leave before they’re paid their leave. I feel confident what she was paid was authorized through The City’s rules,” Deputy City Controller Monique Zmuda said.
“I believe the outcome of any investigation into this issue will show Ruby Tourk followed the letter and spirit of the law in seeking assistance for herself and her family during a time of great personal difficulty,” Singer said.
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4:08 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 10, 2007 re: "Newsom scandals can’t curb campaign cash"
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P. Fitzgerald said:
Hey..."Myself for Mayor!" You mean to say you have never done anything wrong in your entire life? I get so tired of people pointing fingers at other people. You know, Sir, we all are human and we all make mistakes and I am quite certain that all of you have some skeletons in your closets that you keep hidden. It is usually the ones that point the fingers that do. Quit harping on Newsom's past...and that is PAST with a capital 'P' and get over it. He made amends and has moved on. If God can forgive him then I think you can too! You double-standard finger pointer, do-gooders, make me want to vomit. Go clean up your own side of the street and bless your brothers and sisters instead of being the judge and jury. It really sickens me when people are so quick to jump on the bandwagon and condemn those around them that fall prey to defects of character that we all walk around with. Go work on your own defects and ask yourself what would Gandi do when you feel like pointing finger
242 agree | 217 disagree
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Myself for Mayor said:
I've decided that I am going to run for mayor on a simple platform. 1. I am not a panderer. 2. I am not an alcoholic. 3. I am not an adulterer. Has our society's morals really deteriorated so much that we do not care that our elected officials maintain such disgraceful values?
281 agree | 204 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
'Eyed wide open', SF is a complex city? are you brain dead? just give each supv 1 billion dollars and we could elliminate the mayor and his staff and be better off.
278 agree | 218 disagree
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Eyed wide open said:
I can't think of any large accomplishment other than bringing to the forefront some very real humanitarian issues which took bravery and fortitude and keeping an idealistic but irresponsible board of supervisors in check, all with a certain dignity and decency. The opportunistic prudism of the Gonzales camp fooled nobody but the choir. It is certain Matt Gonzales would have done absolutely zero, other than poetry readings, lip service and running the city in to the ground financially, while stoned on pot 24/7 (all, of course, while closely following the precepts of the Christian right). The Matt Gonzales types would have been way over their head in an extremely important and complex city like S.F.. Thankfully the voters knew it then, and Matt knows it now.
274 agree | 287 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The man is obviously planning to run for something beyond mayor at some point, most likely in '08 or '10. The kind of cash he's raising indicates the capacity to run at the very least a Congressional race; or perhaps one of California's statewide offices.
272 agree | 229 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
newsom looks good he's a poser and SF is a poser town.
280 agree | 257 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
please spare us the history rewrite. Newsom's drinking problem was merely an excuse for acting in a sleazy, despicable manner i.e. scumbag
310 agree | 278 disagree
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nobody said:
it's only because he's still young, people will overlook his mistakes. there's always the flip side, someone might contend with him, but so far, we haven't seen anybody in the fighting ring. he's a young person's game, city hall is not for the old heads anymore. he can have more illicit affairs and drink more vino than ever before, and he still might win. this is probably the strangest political scenery yet to date.
316 agree | 287 disagree
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Robert said:
This is one electiong i'm sitting out this time around. Newsom has disappointed me and i'm sure others. What has he done? I can't think of one accomplishment in almost 4 years in office.
283 agree | 283 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Newsom can't curb campaign cash? Well, why do you think the city's budget is $6.2 Billion this year? The contracts, jobs, Newsom has been doling out is translating easily to campaign cash contribution. Get a clue.
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