City Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr.'s chief legislative aide, the target of scrutiny from a local television station, has seen her salary soar in recent years.
But court records show that the city has filed liens against the aide, Latrice Bryant, six times in the last five years for failure to pay her gas bills.
Bryant yesterday said that the court records are in error.
She drew attention last week during a City Council meeting by branding Fox 29 News as racist.
Fox 29 News plans to air a story tonight by reporter Jeff Cole using video of Bryant allegedly attending to personal business while logged in as working at her City Hall office.
Goode, confronted on Thursday in a City Hall hallway by Cole, became angry when asked about video of Bryant leaving his home one day at 11:30 a.m. Cole suggested that Bryant appeared "as if she may have spent the night there."
Goode yesterday told the Daily News that he and Bryant are not romantically linked.
"Is there a social relationship? Yes," Goode said. "Is there a romantic relationship? No."
Bryant drew attention to the Fox 29 News probe by holding up signs in City Council's session that said "Fox 29 are racists" and "Jeff Cole KKK."
Bryant has worked for Goode since 2000. Her salary has increased from $36,000 that year to $90,000 today.
She left Goode's office briefly in 2004 for an unsuccessful run for the state General Assembly.
Since 2005, her salary rose steadily from $59,377, including: a 2006 increase of 8.7 percent, or $5,191; a 2007 increase of 7.4 percent, or $4,764; and two raises this year for a combined 29.8 percent, or $20,668.
Goode yesterday said that he has consolidated staffing in his office budget for legislative duties and constituent work, which allowed him to eliminate two jobs. That leaves Bryant responsible for the work once done by two people, Goode explained.
"My staff tends to be higher paid but have more responsibility because there are less people," he said.
Court records show that the city has filed six liens against Bryant since 2003 for unpaid Philadelphia Gas Works bills. Five of the liens, for a combined $6,495, have been satisfied, but the latest, for $1,113 filed by the city in May, is still active.
Bryant, in an e-mail yesterday, denied that any liens had ever been filed against her property, and that any records showing liens against her are "incorrect and should be corrected."
Regarding the allegation by Fox 29 that Bryant was attending to personal business while logged in as working, Goode said that he had learned of a problem with how his staff logged its work hours. Staffers were not filling out time sheets on a daily basis, leading to mistakes.
That problem has been corrected, Goode said.
Fox 29's reporting led to widespread speculation about Goode and Bryant.
"At the end of the day, I would not be commenting on my personal life at all except Jeff Cole tried to connect it to time-sheet accuracy," Goode said. *
