Clout: Controverial Goode aide draws fuss over Facebook postings
LOVE HER or loathe her, you have to admit that Latrice Bryant knows how to get noticed. City Hall was abuzz this week over postings on a private Facebook page that appeared to belong to the controversial aide to Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. Several posts from the page were provided to PhillyClout by multiple sources.
LOVE HER or loathe her, you have to admit that Latrice Bryant knows how to get noticed.
City Hall was abuzz this week over postings on a private Facebook page that appeared to belong to the controversial aide to Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. Several posts from the page were provided to PhillyClout by multiple sources.
"Is it okay for your boss to ask you to marry him or her? What happens if you say no?" asked one posting.
A later post read: "Would you sell your soul to the devil for 90k? Would you sell it for less in the recession?" Both posts were quickly deleted.
Bryant earned $90,000 last year, but took a pay cut like other Goode staffers and this year is making $85,500.
We stopped by Goode's office to ask about the Facebook fuss. After telling Bryant to leave the room, Goode said he hadn't read the posts and didn't want to know what they said about him.
"I could care less about any of this," Goode said. "After the nonsense from last fall, I got back to work on my legislative agenda."
Bryant drew media attention last September for holding up signs in Council calling Fox 29 racist after a reporter pursued her for a story about her attending to personal business while logged in as working at City Hall.
Goode intervened this week when we tried to ask Bryant about the Facebook postings.
"My staff is not allowed to talk to the media," Goode said, stepping between PhillyClout and Bryant. "The matter is closed. It's over. It's done with."
We're still waiting to hear if the Bryant site will approve us as a Facebook friend. The site has 322 friends who could see her posts. That includes other Council staffers, one Council member, state representatives, ward leaders, reporters and others active in city politics.
Goode, who has his own Facebook page, is not listed as Bryant's friend. On his page, Goode later proclaimed: "When I get engaged, I'll tell the world."
D.A. to bury hatchet Monday?
We told you last week that District Attorney Lynne Abraham and her one-time protege, Seth Williams, both sounded OK with a face-to-face meeting to heal some old political wounds.
Abraham felt betrayed four years ago
when Williams mounted a primary-
election challenge.
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, chairman of the Democratic City Committee, has apparently succeeded in getting Abraham and Williams to meet Monday. Brady didn't deny setting up the meeting when we asked earlier this week at a "unity lunch" he arranged at The Palm.
Williams and three other candidates - Dan McElhatton, Michael Turner and Brian Grady - attended the lunch but Dan McCaffery, who finished second in the race, was noticeably absent.
Brady predicted Abraham will be in Williams' corner for November's general election against Republican Michael
Untermeyer.
"She wants to be helpful," Brady said. "We're going to have a good meeting."
DiCicco to face challenge?
Councilman Frank DiCicco says he intends to seek another four-year term, but his enrollment in the city's lucrative Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) means "the seat is up for grabs," according to one potential competitor.
Democratic ward leader Matt Myers says he'll reach a decision by Labor Day about running in 2011 to lead the 1st Councilmanic District. "I'm seriously looking at it," Myers said.
Myers, 52, is the brother of former U.S. Rep. Michael "Ozzie" Myers - who went down in the Abscam scandal in 1980 - and chief of the inheritance-tax division in the Register of Wills Office.
He has been allied recently with John Dougherty, leader of Electricians Local 98, but says he has been encouraged to run by many other unions and numerous political associates.
DiCicco's enrollment in DROP will allow him to collect $392,194 when his Council term ends in 2011. Theoretically, he could run again, retire for a day, collect the money and start another four-year term. Myers says voters won't stand for it.
"Frankie's a friend of mine," Myers says, "but on DROP, reality hasn't sunk in yet."
DiCicco said that if re-elected, he would either forgo his DROP payment or donate his salary back to the city for four years, to avoid the appearance of double-dipping.
"If I'm going to work, I'll work for my pay and nothing more," he said.
No free ride for Specter?
According to a poll released this week by Susquehanna Research and Polling, 63 percent of registered voters believe that newly Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter should face a primary challenge next year.
That's good news for U.S. Rep Joe Sestak, who intends to take on Specter in the primary. And good news for PhillyClout since we prefer competitive races.
Quotable
"I think they're delightful in
office. They're great legislators. I never did, never will discourage them."
- U.S. Rep. Bob Brady on the number of women in elected office locally. *
Staff writer Bob Warner contributed to this report.
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