Deputies' pay gets well at S.F. General Hospital

Deputies have gotten OT at S.F. General Hospital for years. Deputies have gotten OT at S.F. General Hospital for years. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Deputies' pay gets well at S.F. General Hospital 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

For years, the sheriff's deputies assigned to San Francisco General Hospital - where the body of patient Lynne Spalding was found earlier this month in a stairwell nearly three weeks after she went missing - have been pulling down some of the biggest overtime checks in the city.

Sheriff's officials tell us that at any given time, a quarter of the 28 deputies and institutional officers assigned on a 24-hour basis at San Francisco General are on overtime.

"We are understaffed," said sheriff's Chief Deputy Kathy Gorwood.

"We have not been able to hire people over the last few years, (so) we are using overtime departmentwide to fill minimum staffing requirements," Gorwood said.

In the past fiscal year, records show sheriff's Sgt. Gary Noda, who oversees some of the four-deputy shifts, was paid $61,200 in OT.

Fellow Sgt. Eric Cranston, who like Noda earns a base pay of $109,000, boosted his total earnings to more than $182,000 with overtime and other premiums.

Cranston started out years ago as an institutional officer, a job that requires less advanced training. He has long been one of the city's top wage earners, pulling down $220,251 as far back as 2006 when there were fewer restrictions on overtime and he typically worked an extra 2,500 hours a year.

Gorwood said that next month the department will be adding its first new academy class, with 22 recruits, since 2009. But she said it will take more - the Sheriff's Department says it is short about 55 deputies - to cut the overtime.

Spy games: The next time the National Security Agency decides to eavesdrop on the personal phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it might save itself the long-distance trouble: Her low-profile husband, quantum chemist Joachim Sauer, is a visiting professor at UC Berkeley's Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.

Merritt neck-loss: Copper thieves recently made off with a couple of key links in Lake Merritt's Necklace of Lights.

In all, they took more than 40,000 feet of copper wire, which is going to cost between $40,000 and $65,000 to replace. The work has already started at the back side of Fairyland because that is the darkest stretch.

Once that's done, work will move to the play area behind the Junior Center, said Oakland Public Works spokeswoman Kristine Shaff.

Too soon to say when the necklace will be back to its full strength or how long it will last.

Shock at the pump: When disgruntled firefighters photographed him pumping gas into his BMW sports car, it cost former Alameda Fire Chief David Kapler his $175,000-a-year job.

Fighting the dismissal has wound up costing Kapler more than twice that amount.

Not only was his nine-count wrongful termination suit tossed out, but a final judgment entered Friday by the Alameda County Superior Court also ordered Kapler to pay the city of Alameda $260,585.39 for attorney's fees and for other costs it incurred defending itself against the suit.

The legal fee judgment was the latest chapter in Kapler's tale of political woe, which began in August 2010 when the then-chief was caught on camera, by on-duty city firefighters, filling up his personal BMW sports car at the city's fire station gas pump.

The photo caper, which went viral, came after Kapler had shuttered one of the fire station pumps because of budget cuts.

Kapler claimed that the former city manager had allowed him to gas up his car as part of his pay package.

A city investigation found that no such contract provision existed and Kapler had only been authorized to use city gas for his official vehicle and only while on city business.

Kapler resigned in November 2010, just before he was to be terminated by the city.

In his suit, Kapler alleged that the gas theft claim was the work of firefighter union members who disliked his policies.

Kapler, who is believed to be living in Florida, could not be reached for comment.

His lawyer did not return calls.

And finally: San Francisco's Old Mint has found a fitting use - as a haunted house.

An enterprising group rented out the nearly 140-year-old granite landmark for the week and turned it into a paid Halloween attraction, complete with rooms full of ghosts, goblins and ghouls.

The nonprofit San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, which manages the Mint for the city, has dreams of one day turning it into a bona fide city museum.

Until then, says facility manager Tamara Hayes, they're keeping the lights on by hosting special events and renting it out with the hope that "the more people know about the Mint, the more they get excited and want to be part of it."

And maybe scared out of their wits.