Councilman Jack Kelly has missed much of the mess — the indictment two weeks ago of his chief of staff, Chris Wright, on federal corruption charges.

Kelly, mostly absent from his City Hall office since then, was also not around yesterday when it was announced that Wright was taking an unpaid leave of absence until his court case is settled.

Kelly issued a brief statement through his attorney, adding that would be "all I will say" about Wright until the criminal case is wrapped up in court.

Kelly's statement portrayed Wright as a loyal employee doing what was best for the councilman's office. Wright later echoed the sentiment.

"Chris understood that his continuing presence in the office would be a distraction," Kelly's statement said. "I did not reach this decision lightly."

Wright responded with his own statement 52 minutes after his boss, saying he was sad to request the leave.

"I have taken this action because it is in the councilman's best interest and the best interest of the citizens of Philadelphia" said Wright, through his defense attorney's office.

Zack Stalberg, chief executive of the political watchdog group Committee of Seventy, had called for Wright to be suspended immediately after he was indicted two weeks ago along with Kelly's campaign treasurer and two brothers who had made substantial political contributions to Kelly.

"I think he did the right thing here," Stalberg said yesterday. "It's nice that they structured it in a way that made Chris look as good as possible."

Wright, a Council employee since 1988, is paid $91,179 a year. He has been using vacation time since the Aug. 5 indictment.

Wright is accused of using his City Hall post to help attorney Andrew Teitelman and real-estate developers Ravinder and Hardeep Chawla in return for $1,000 in cash, a rent-free apartment near Rittenhouse Square and free legal services for personal issues.

Wright's defense attorney, Lisa Mathewson, declined to say yesterday whether Kelly had asked Wright to go on unpaid leave.

Kelly, who was not accused of any wrongdoing in the indictment, has declined requests to answer questions about Wright.

Kelly's attorney, George Bochetto, yesterday said that the councilman has not been on vacation the entire time since Aug. 5. Kelly is working, he said, even when he is not in his City Hall office. And, Bochetto said, Kelly doesn't want to influence the court case for Wright "one way or another" by making public statements.

"He's certainly not going to comment on that at any time," Bochetto said. "That's just not appropriate. The federal authorities have spoken with Councilman Kelly. He has cooperated fully." *