Based on his salary from last year, San Francisco mayor Ed Lee is the best paid mayor in California, beating out Los Angeles, Oakland, and every other town in our state. But it wouldn't necessarily have been so, if it weren't for a ballot measure approved by SF residents over a decade ago.

The Chron reports that Lee's salary last year was $297,387, based on information found on the State Controller's Government Compensation in California website. LA mayor Eric Garcetti comes in second, at $246,303, and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is third in CA at $212,000.

In terms of San Francisco's employees, Lee barely begins to chart, however: The position of SF Mayor isn't even well-paid enough to make in on the first page of the government compensation's ranking of SF staffers. Instead, he comes in at #41, after a SFFD Battalion Chief position ($298,907, with $182,945 of that as regular pay and $76,255 in overtime) and just ahead of a Senior Deputy Sheriff who last year made $296,721 ($113,676 regular pay, $167,037 in overtime).

The mayor, it's worth noting, claimed no overtime in 2016. His pay is also miles beneath SF's best paid employee, the chief investment officer SF's retirement system. As reported in September of last year, William J. Coaker Jr. had a base pay of $507,831.60 in 2015, compensation that rose to $527,343 in 2016.

Of course, Lee could have been even lower on the salary rankings if it weren't for Proposition C, a November 2006 ballot measure that allowed SF to set the salaries of its top seven elected officials based on the salaries paid to their counterparts in other Bay Area counties. In the May after voters approved Prop C, the city's Civil Service Commission, which sets SF's elected officials' salaries, was then able to increase then-mayor Gavin Newsom's salary by $57K: from $188,816 to $245,749, the Ex reported at the time.

As part of Prop C's amendment to SF's charter, those top elected officials' pay would "be re-evaluated every five years to ensure they remain on pace with five other Bay Area counties," the Ex reported in 2007.

Here's something that will blow your mind just a bit: That 2007 Ex piece was likely edited by Deirdre Hussey, who was then the managing editor of that publication, before becoming the Ex's executive editor in 2010. (I'm social with Hussey, but she had no hand in this report.) She left the paper in 2012 and (after a series of other gigs) became Lee's spokesperson in 2016.

So it was Hussey who responded to the Chron report noting Lee's top salary ranking last week, telling the paper that as of May 2012, the Civil Service Commission had “certified the base salary for elected officials, including Lee, for a five-year salary cycle for the period of July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2017.” Which means we're due for another round of salary certifications shortly. Daniel Lurie, take note!

Related: SF's Best-Paid City Workers Hit New Income Highs

According to a press release put out on PR Newswire by her attorney, Dr. Arlene Ackerman has filed suit against the San Francisco Unified School District in San Francisco Superior Court.

She is seeking damages in excess of $172,000 for nonpayment of salary and other compensation, saying that the district breached a written agreement. Dr. Ackerman resigned from her post in June 2006--a resignation forced by the board of education in accordance with a so-called "compatibility clause."

Spring is springing all around us (Hello, Sunshine!) and while we can't afford to go on a real vacation on our salary, we can afford to dream. Which is why we love Flight 001.

The cool high-design low-ceiling retro-terminal-style shop (on 4th Street in Berkeley, and on Hayes in San Francisco) makes us feel all James-Bond-y, and we love fondling the soft leather and slick plastic carry cases, the mini packages of everything one could ever need on a trip, the clever gadgets and gee-gaws, the design-y "generic" labeling the store uses on their own travel-size, travel-wise products. A great selection of guidebooks will help you plan (or visualize)-- and why not try the testers of lotions from exotic locales (including Greece, Scandinavia, and the Eastern Bloc)?

Sure, it's silly for us to just go on and on about some STORE. And yet, we get so much pleasure out of the shop every time we visit, we just had to pass the word along, in case there are any other travel gear sluts geeks aficionados out there like us...

And hey, they're having a sale. Don't say we don't look out for your and your wallet (which needs replacing, by the way-- did we tell you about this great luggage store...?).

First, more details of the deal has been released. The key thing is that Zito will make only $10 million this year as he agreed to backload some of his salary to help the Giants and their budget. Which is another way of saying "have money left over for the other Barry." The signing should come soon. The Giants budget this year will be $92 million, their highest yet and about $12 million more than their standard $80 million. This all sounds well and good-- we like teams that spend to win, but one wonders what would have happened if they decided to break the bank earlier. Like, oh, resigning Jeff Kent. Or going after Vlade. Or another good starter to back up Jason Schmidt.

According to John Shea, the Giants thinking is that the Phonebooth is primarily a pitcher's park. Pitcher's parks usually means you need to emphasize pitching and defense, something they didn't necessarily need to concentrate on with a healthy (and jacked up) Barry B in the lineup. With a not quite healthy Barry for one season and no Barry for the season after that (probably), the Giants are now much more serious about going in a pitching and D way. Since Zito is a flyball pitcher playing in a park with a spacious outfield and in a division full of parks with spacious outfields, Zito could possibly do better than he was doing before. And while the names Mike Hampton and Kevin Brown are being bandied about-- two pitchers who signed seven year deals and turned out to be major busts-- everyone is thinking that Zito could be the second coming of Tom Glavine. Glavine is, of course, a pretty good bet for the Hall of Fame.

You know what hasn't been done yet? Barry Bonds' contract. In fact, while everyone is saying it's a done deal, it's not quite done, meaning that the i's haven't been dotted and the t's haven't been crossed and Barry Lamar's John Henry has not yet been put on a piece of paper.

So what's the holdup? Everyone is saying that it's a super-complicated contract and this just might be more complicated than most. In fact, the Giants might be setting new precedents in contract stipulations. Like no brown M&M contract stipulations. Mmm….brown M&Ms….

First, there's a salary deferral to be worked out. In other words, Barry's going to be bought on a layaway plan. It's not known how it will work out yet as it is still being worked out, but the Giants are supposedly trying to finagle of way of getting Barry and getting somebody else for the team too, something they desperately need (cough...Barry Zito...cough). It is one of the things that Sabean is saying to defend himself for the contract.

Then there are incentives to be worked out. According to reports, Barry could get up to $20 million next year based on certain things like plate appearances. Once again, this stuff is one of the things holding things up because it has yet to be worked out.

But wait, that's not the really interesting thing. In fact, that stuff is boring. According to the Contra Costa Times, there's also an "indictment" clause to be worked out. The Giants also want less personal trainers in the locker room and want to make it so that he can't refuse to pinch-hit if called for, something he did last year. As for the Barry, he's requesting more control over the potential memorabilia he's about to uncork and that reporters can't ask questions at his locker room.

Next season is already off to a great start.