S.F. reviews back pay to Newsom aide / Woman in affair with mayor got $10,154 after leaving post









Photo: Kim Komenich Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Image 1 of 3 - - Photo: Kim Komenich Image 2 of 3 Ruby Rippey-Tourk, 34, who once worked as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's appointment secretary, is seen in this undated photo. Newsom apologized, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, for having a sexual relationship with Tourk who is married to Alex Tourk, Newsom's former campaign manager. Alex Tourk confronted the mayor and resigned on Wednesday, Jan. 31. (AP Photo/Drew Altizer) ** NO SALES, MAGS OUT, TV OUT ** Ran on: 02-02-2007 Ruby Rippey-Tourk is the married woman with whom Mayor Gavin Newsom had an affair. Ran on: 02-07-2007 Peter Ragone Ran on: 02-07-2007 Peter Ragone NO SALES, MAGS OUT, TV OUT less Ruby Rippey-Tourk, 34, who once worked as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's appointment secretary, is seen in this undated photo. Newsom apologized, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, for having a sexual relationship ... more Photo: DREW ALTIZER Image 3 of 3 Alex Tourk Mandatory credit: Courtesy Luke Thomas/Fogcityjournal.com Ran on: 02-02-2007 Alex Tourk worked as Newsom's deputy chief of staff and then became his campaign manager. Ran on: 02-02-2007 Alex Tourk and Ruby Rippey-Tourk once were a prominent City Hall power couple. Ran on: 02-02-2007 Ran on: 02-02-2007 less Alex Tourk Mandatory credit: Courtesy Luke Thomas/Fogcityjournal.com Ran on: 02-02-2007 Alex Tourk worked as Newsom's deputy chief of staff and then became his campaign manager. Ran on: 02-02-2007 Alex ... more Photo: Luke Thomas/www.fogcityjournal S.F. reviews back pay to Newsom aide / Woman in affair with mayor got $10,154 after leaving post 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the woman who had an affair with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, received $10,154 in unexplained retroactive pay after leaving her job as his commission appointments secretary, public records show.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Thursday that privacy laws prohibit the city from explaining the basis for the payment or discussing hundreds of hours in paid leave that Rippey-Tourk also collected.

In a written statement, Herrera said he is reviewing the payments to ensure they are proper "under city laws and procedures," adding that his office would have no further comment before that examination is concluded.

Rippey-Tourk is the wife of Alex Tourk, the mayor's former deputy chief of staff, who moved on to run Newsom's re-election campaign before resigning last month after learning of the affair.

Newsom publicly apologized for the affair and betrayal of his political aide Tourk after it was reported by The Chronicle.

After the affair with the mayor, which took place in 2005, Rippey-Tourk attended rehabilitation for substance abuse in the late spring and early summer the next year.

City payroll records show Rippey-Tourk received a $10,154 check that a deputy city controller says paid Rippey-Tourk after the fact for a 10-week period last summer while she was on leave from her city job. Due to privacy restrictions, officials said they could not disclose the justification for the retroactive payment.

A spokesman for Rippey-Tourk said the retroactive payment was for leave time donated by other city employees under a policy that allows such a transfer in cases of catastrophic illness.

"No money came from the city's general fund," said Sam Singer, a San Francisco public relations consultant who is a friend of the Tourks. "It was donated by other employees who shared a strong friendship with the Tourks and who are by any measures standup, compassionate human beings."

Colby Zintl, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Human Resources, said claiming a catastrophic illness -- defined by the city code as a "life-threatening illness or injury" -- is the only way a city employee can receive donated leave time from co-workers.

Officials from the Department of Public Health, which certified Rippey-Tourk's medical condition, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Singer conceded that Rippey-Tourk was never suffering from a catastrophic illness but merely was permitted to claim reimbursement and receive the retroactive payment under that designation.

Newsom said all payments made to Rippey-Tourk were appropriate.

"I have absolute confidence that everything was done above board," he said Thursday when asked by The Chronicle about the matter. "In fact, I've been assured of that by everyone who is involved."

Questions also linger about the hundreds of hours of leave time Rippey-Tourk took during her nearly three-year tenure on Newsom's staff and whether she actually accrued that much time over the course of her employment.

According to documents obtained by The Chronicle under the state public records law, Rippey-Tourk claimed about 1,040 hours of leave pay.

Yet, according to Deputy Controller Monique Zmuda, anyone with Rippey-Tourk's length of employment and job classification could be expected to accrue about 720 hours of leave time -- including vacation, holiday and sick time pay -- since January 2004, when Rippey-Tourk was hired to work as Newsom's appointments secretary.

The revelation caused some in City Hall to wonder whether Rippey-Tourk had been paid improperly and who authorized the payments.

"Some significant questions have been raised that bear additional scrutiny," said Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin. "We need to get to the bottom of this. We're talking about the taxpayers' dollars."

The Chronicle first started inquiring about Rippey-Tourk's salary payments on Feb. 6, but city officials waited more than a week to respond, saying they needed to ensure they were not releasing confidential information and to retrieve pay records from a warehouse. Newsom's press office has been involved in vetting much of the information requested of the controller's office and the city's Department of Human Resources.

Late Thursday, Newsom's office released copies of Rippey-Tourk's pay time sheets covering the first nine months of 2006. In most cases, former Newsom chief of staff Steve Kawa authorized the time sheets, although nine of the 16 sheets filed were not signed by any supervisor, including the period when she was placed on medical leave while seeking rehabilitative treatment. The time sheets also reflect that Rippey-Tourk never worked a full week throughout her last nine months of employment with the city.

Newsom himself has acknowledged having a problem with alcohol and is undergoing outpatient rehabilitation at the Delancey Street Foundation.

Thursday's announcement by Herrera about an inquiry into the payments to Rippey-Tourk is the second time that financial questions have been raised involving the affair.

Last week, the mayor agreed to continue to pay Tourk's salary as campaign manager out of his own pocket until his former aide finds new employment.

Newsom campaign aides had considered paying the severance arrangement out of campaign funds collected from political donors -- but a city attorney opinion raised doubts about the legality of such an arrangement.