City Workers Rally for Colleague After Tragedy

By ERIC S. PAGE

Updated 4:52 PM PST, Wed, Apr 22, 2009

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Zumaya said Alferos, who is also survived by a 16-year-old brother and a sister who was a year younger, was employed part time at the county registrar's office was good to his mom. He had plans to go

After a city clerk's office worker's son is killed in a car accident, co-workers help out in all the ways that count.

Tina Davis' son Paul Alferos Jr., 19, was killed in a car accident in the 2900 block of Clairemont Drive just after 1 a.m. on April 4. In the car with him was Mario De La Rosa, 21, of Serra Mesa, who was behind the wheel of the speeding Toyota Camry when it crashed into a telephone pole. Alferos died at the scene; De La Rosa was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital, where he, too, died.

The families were, understandably, devastated after the crash. Davis, who had just taken time off from work because of an illness, now had a funeral to pay for and little paid time off for her bereavement.

The co-workers of the information researcher, though, pitched in and donated their time off to Davis in what is called a "catastrophic leave bank." Although Davis is "coping," as her friend Maria Zumaya put it, she has yet to return to work.

On Wednesday, her friends from the office had a Super Nacho fundraiser for Davis in the main lobby of the City Administration Building, which had nearly 40 people standing in line by 11:45 a.m.

"This is a financial hardship on her family, so we're holding this fundraiser to help her family," Zumaya said, who later added that the Municipal Employees Association had also lent a hand with funeral expenses for the family.

Donations in Davis' name can be sent to the Municipal Employees Union, 9620 Chesapeake Drive, Suite 203, San Diego, CA 92123 (make the checks payable to Tina Davis.)