Pro tem staffers also took hefty raises

More news from the mayor pro tem's office this morning: In addition to more than $130,000 in unauthorized bonuses, employees there also seem to have given each other $60,000 in pay raises during Carol Alvarado's two-year yerm as mayor pro tem. The raises, which ranged from 11 percent to 64 percent, were found in records released to the Chronicle yesterday.

The two highest-paid employees — who also got most of the bonus money now under investigation — signed forms authorizing each others' raises, the records show.

All four still are drawing the salaries, since they have been suspended with pay during a probe of the bonuses.

Alvarado, who apologized publicly to her council colleagues Wednesday for any distraction caused by the scandal, replied "absolutely not" when shown a spreadsheet detailing the raises and asked whether she approved them.

"I'm concerned now because that is a government document," she said. "Now we're looking at somebody who falsified official government documents."

Christopher Mays, a staffer in the mayor pro tem's office, got the biggest raise: 64 percent, which increased his base salary to $44,148 from $26,936. Florence Watkins got a 55 percent raise, bringing her salary to $52,000 from $33,000 (that doesn't include the more than $46,500 in bonuses she received; she said last week she knew it was wrong to take the bonuses, but she thought she deserved them). Rosita Hernandez, the office manager, got a 37 percent raise, taking her salary to $78,000 (Hernandez also took $47,500 in bonuses, making her one of the highest-paid city employees). The odd woman out, Theresa Orta, got an 11 percent raise, to $29,952 from $26,884. We bet she's wondering why she got the shaft about now: "You guys! You told me I got the biggest bonus!"

Hernandez and Watkins signed the paperwork authorizing the raises; Alvarado had given both women permission to sign forms on her behalf. Alvarado said she never OK'd anything more than a 2 percent salary increase, which is more in line with normal city pay raises. Alvarado has maintained she didn't know anything about the creative budgeting going on in the mayor pro tem's office, saying she couldn't keep track of everything her subordinates did. Mayor Bill White maintains that he has confidence in Alvarado, but he said it looked like the pro tem's office budget of $320,000 — up 25 percent between fiscal year 2005 and FY '06 — might have been too high. It's not clear whether any of that increase was used for the raises and bonuses.

A report on the raises and bonuses is expected from HPD investigators as early as Friday, and City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (who recently had something of a run-in with Alvarado) has called for an independent audit of the pro tem office.