City officials did not cross legal lines in approving paychecks and other city payments — including $10,000 in “catastrophic illness” funds — to the city secretary who had an affair with Mayor Gavin Newsom, according to a report released Wednesday by the City Attorney’s Office.

The report did note, however, that some of the City Hall actions involving city payments to Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of Newsom’s friend and former deputy chief of staff, Alex Tourk, were unusual or inappropriate.

In February, the mayor admitted having an affair with Rippey-Tourk. The next day, Tourk resigned upon learning of the affair. The sexual relationship reportedly occurred in mid-2005. Rippey-Tourk resigned on Aug. 31, 2006. She had been working as the mayor’s appointment secretary since 2004.

Although the report exonerates Newsom and other city officials of any legal wrongdoing, it raised questions about what health matters qualify for the catastrophic illness program since Rippey-Tourk, according to statements from her press secretary earlier this year, applied for the program because of problems with alcohol and her participation in a substance-abuse rehabilitation program.

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Of the 1,000-plus employees who have been approved for the program, the City Attorney’s Office did not find any case in which the Department of Public Health certified eligibility solely on substance abuse, but said that the ruling on Rippey-Tourk’s behalf was consistent with the “broad discretion” that the program grants to the DPH director to decide what illnesses and injuries qualify as life-threatening. However, the report said it was difficult to assess whether city officials treated her application more favorably.

The report also noted that it was inappropriate that on several occasions, Tourk signed his wife’s timesheets, and revealed that former Human Resources Director Phil Ginsburg — now Newsom’s chief of staff — recommended that Rippey-Tourk apply to receive the financial benefits that the illness program provides.

The findings of the report were hampered because Rippey-Tourk, as well as her husband, refused to be interviewed for the investigation. Newsom was also not interviewed during the investigation. When asked why the mayor was excluded, Matt Dorsey, a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office, said that no questions would be answered about the investigation, and that the report “spoke for itself.”

The city attorney’s report also concluded that Rippey-Tourk did not exceed the maximum amounts of paid and unpaid leave she was permitted to take under city law, among other findings. The report did not detail the amount of leave, citing confidentiality laws.

By Wednesday afternoon, Newsom said he hadn’t read the report, but, based on what he had been told by his advisers, he was pleased with the findings.

Rippey-Tourk’s spokesperson, Sam Singer, said the report is a “complete vindication” of his client.

Some say questions still hang over the matter. City leaders, including Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and board member Ed Jew, expressed support for holding a public hearing on the matter.

“It was clearly unethical and there was clearly favoritism shown to an employee who had sexual relations with the mayor,” Peskin said. “It’s all evidence that the people involved drove a truck through the loopholes of the law.”

beslinger@examiner.com

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