WE DON'T KNOW JACK ABOUT CITY HALL SCANDAL

IT'S BEEN 10 days since the U.S. attorney charged Christopher Wright, chief of staff for Councilman Jack Kelly, with a fraud conspiracy and other charges in a nine-count indictment.

Wright is accused of using his official position with Council to give special treatment to two real-estate developers and their lawyer - all of whom have also been charged - in return for cash and gifts, including a free apartment and free legal services.

And in 10 days, we've heard barely a word from the councilman: No word on how long Wright will be able to keep his job, no word on how aware Kelly might have been about what might have been going on in his office or what he's doing to get to the bottom of these charges, and no word on how he intends to keep it from happening again.

And yes, people are innocent until proven guilty, but indictments are more than frail accusations; they are documented criminal charges.

Kelly, who was on vacation last week and will be away again next week, has only issued statements about why he wasn't issuing statements . . . to review facts, to discuss the situation with Council President Anna Verna, and as of yesterday, to talk with "other people." Since he's interested in getting input, here's ours:

In a city government tarnished with enough corruption cases to repopulate the prisons - see Corey Kemp and Rick Mariano, for starters - an elected official has an obligation to explain to taxpayers how he defends a staffer accused of, among other things, writing legislation on behalf of campaign donors, intervening on behalf of those campaign donors with the City Solicitor's Office to reduce a tax bill, getting cash and free housing in exchange.

We deserve to know what really happened, and how quickly Kelly is going to act on Wright's employment status, and how he's going to assure us that the rest of his operation is untarnished.

And while we're at it, we deserve to hear from Verna on her response, as leader of Council. The Council president has no jurisdiction over employees of other Council members, but she should be showing leadership by acknowledging the black cloud that once again hangs over Council thanks to one of its members.

Though the sickening string of corruption cases coming out of City Hall in the past few years resulted in new laws and reforms, like a beefed-up ethics commission and the mayor's appointment of a chief integrity officer (who, sadly, has jurisdiction only over the executive branch), we still long for a loud and outraged official voice who can say, at the very least, "These are disturbing allegations of unacceptable behavior."

The original pay-to-play scandal illuminated a "shadow government."

Jack Kelly's reluctance to answer citizens directly on this makes those shadows seem darker than ever.

Jack, where are you? *