Councilman Goode & aide continue to bungle media crisis

City Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. and his chief legislative aide, Latrice Bryant, have created in the last two weeks a textbook example of how not to handle a media crisis.

First, Bryant held up signs in Council's Sept. 18 session, accusing Fox 29 News of being racist for investigating her work hours.

Then, Goode harangued the media a week later for lacking diversity. A man escorting Goode then repeatedly bumped and blocked a Fox 29 reporter.

Now, Bryant has issued an apology filled with excuses for what she called her "inexcusable" behavior, along with an inaccurate claim that she doesn't have to come to work during the summer.

It has been the story that will not die, mostly because Bryant and Goode keep escalating the issue. The central point of Fox 29's investigation - Bryant claimed to be at her $90,000-a-year job at times during the summer when she was not working - has been overshadowed by repeated accusations of racism.

Gregg Feistman, a public-relations executive who teaches the subject at Temple University, said that that might be the point.

"It's such a loaded charge that roils up so many emotions of people," Feistman said about racism. "Parties have often done this as a distraction from the real issue."

But the distractions, Feistman added, keep people paying attention and the issue alive.

Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who now teaches a "dealing with the media" class at the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government, said that Goode and Bryant are breaking the first rule of handling a media crisis, which is: End it as soon as possible.

"This whole thing is a lose-lose for that office," she said. "Picking a fight with the press is really self-defeating. You don't win with the press."

In the latest chapter, Bryant attacked Fox 29 in an apology to Goode while saying that her behavior had been "inappropriate and inexcusable." That refers to signs she held up in Council that read "Fox 29 News are racist," and equating a reporter with the Ku Klux Klan.

Bryant noted that Fox 29 had been "stalking me" during Council's three-month summer recess.

"And this was a period in which I was not even contractually required to work," Bryant wrote.

Anne Kelly-King, Council's chief accounting officer, said that that claim is not accurate. Full-time Council employees must work 37.5 hours each week, including the summer, unless they use vacation time or sick leave.

Bryant's letter was released Sunday by her attorney, Michael Coard, who did not respond to e-mails or phone calls from the Daily News seeking an explanation. Nor did Bryant or Goode respond to e-mails.

Bryant again injected race into the issue when she complained that Fox 29 reported her salary. She said that she remained "just as steadfastly opposed to Fox 29's implications that an educated 36-year-old African-American woman with nearly 15 years of city work experience should not earn a decent salary consistent with what white males (who do less work) commonly earn."

While Goode and Bryant have thrashed about, no one in city government has offered any serious criticism of their actions. Council President Anna Verna last week said that any action against Bryant would have to come from Goode.

And Goode has offered an explanation for why time sheets submitted this summer by Bryant inaccurately showed her work hours. Goode said that his staff had not been filling out the sheets every day, leading to mistakes. That has since been corrected, he said. *