City Supervisor and onetime mayoral candidate John Avalos went public today with an affair that he's been having with a top aide, Raquel Redondiez, SFGate reports. The affair, while inappropriate in the minds of anyone who's ever worked in an office, or politics, was not apparently verboten under city handbook rules. It appears it may have been going on for many years.

Avalos, 50, represents S.F.'s District 11 and is a married father of of two. He and his wife, Karen Zapata, a schoolteacher, separated earlier this year.

Redondiez earns $95,082 a year as Avalos's top office aide, and in a statement today Avalos says that he and she "have shared our feelings for one another" but are not currently "together." Redondiez went on unpaid leave as of May 28, and Avalos says he "felt it was most appropriate for her to find employment outside this office." He says that he and Redondiez first met a decade ago when they were both staffers in Chris Daly's office when Daly was Supervisor.

Here's a photo of the two of them walking out of the Balboa Park BART station in 2011, and here's a photo of Avalos, Redondiez, and Zapata, all together.

Avalos also says: "I let a lot of people down, and I'm really sorry... Overall, my relations mean a lot to me, and the trust people have in me means a lot to me. I have a lot of trust to repair with my family."

Avalos appears to hope that everyone will just give him a pass on this one, though it's unclear if this would impact any future potential mayoral run. He terms out of his Supervisor seat in 2016.

[SFGate]