Posted on 02/18/2007 7:50:00 AM PST by freespirited
A new look at the payroll records of Mayor Gavin Newsom's former appointments secretary and lover. Did she get preferential treatment because of her affair?
There are many questions -- some city officials believe Ruby Tourk received special treatment during her two-and-a-half years at City Hall. But the main question now is, how 10 weeks of unpaid time off for alcohol rehab, turned into a paid leave.
After her affair with the mayor fizzled out, Ruby Rippey-Tourk went on unpaid leave from her job as Newsom's appointments secretary to attend alcohol rehab, according to her spokesman.
She resigned with a letter in July of last year, saying, "I had always planned to return to City Hall and get right back into my position -- but 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."
After she quit, Tourk filed for the city's Catastrophic Illness Program, or CIP. City employees can donate their vacation and sick leave to another city employee if that person is facing a life-threatening illness.
Dr. Michael Katz, Director, S.F. Health Department: "To get onto the program the person has to have an illness which could result in their death in a relatively short period of time."
We caught up to the city's public health director this afternoon. He decides whether employees qualify for the program. Mitch Katz wouldn't talk about Tourk's case directly because of federal privacy law. But, he says the vast majority of people in CIP have a terminal illness such as AIDS, cancer or Parkinson's disease, and that it's relatively unusual for someone with an alcohol problem to qualify.
Dr. Michael Katz: "I mean, if the question is, 'Are there people with substance use issues that do and could result in their death in weeks to months?' -- the answer is, yes."
Newly-elected supervisor Ed Jew doubts Ruby Tourk's alcohol abuse should have qualified as a catastrophic illness.
Ed Jew, San Francisco Supervisor: "It's basically for those individuals that are really at their last leg of life -- cancer, individuals with AIDS. And I'm concerned with what I have been hearing, what I've been reading, that our tax dollars may have been misused."
After Tourk resigned and she got approved for CIP, her 10-week unpaid leave turned into paid leave, and the city cut her a $10,000 dollar check. The city attorney is investigating, and the Board of Supervisors may also take up the matter.
Ed Jew: "We may have to take a look at possibly a hearing to investigate this even more firmly from the Board of Supervisors."
Supervisor Jew also wonders whether the mayor's office pressured the public health director to approve the Catastrophic Illness Program for Ruby Tourk because of her relationship with Newsom.
Dr. Katz denied that happened.
ABC7's Dan Noyes: "So, you're saying that you never got a call from either Gavin Newsom--"
Dr. Michael Katz: "Never got a call from the mayor's office about the CIP program period."
Dan Noyes: "Any decision on CIP was purely based on the medical merits."
Dr. Michael Katz: "Right."
Dan Noyes: "No influence at all from the outside?"
Dr. Katz responds by shaking his head.
The city attorney's office is also investigating discrepancies in Tourk's payroll records obtained by the I-Team. Several of her time sheets are unsigned, especially the ones when she was on leave.
Chris Lehane, Democratic Consultant: "The timesheets are an item that people are going to focus on, because it seems to be where the rubber hits the road on this particular issue."
Democratic political consultant Chris Lehane says voters can accept an affair, but possible misuse of public money may be another matter.
Chris Lehane: "If, for example, there is a problem with the time sheets there's absolutely nothing you can do to change that. It's already happened. If a mistake was made, a mistake was made."
We heard from good sources that Ruby Tourk began working for Benefit Magazine in May of last year, when she was on paid leave from the city. The owner of the magazine tells us today, she started as an unpaid intern last summer -- for the month of August, and perhaps a bit earlier -- and that she started getting paid September 1st after she had formally stopped working at City Hall.
So, the question remains, how could she be working anywhere -- even as an unpaid intern -- while on paid leave from the city?
Relatively unusual? Can't help but wonder how many similar cases the good doc has previously approved.
10 weeks in rehab?????
some Health Plan they give their folks out there!
Just pay the woman,she earned the money--the old fashioned way./s
she averaged 41 days of sick leave during the 3 years she was employed.
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