Jay McCalla, the affable former deputy managing director for Mayor John Street, is not only the new chief of staff for Councilman Rick Mariano, but he's also in charge of his PR. Though his new boss had been indicted recently—making re-election, much less freedom, an iffy proposition—McCalla says he will be packaging Mariano to make him more appealing to the constituents in his district.

A federal grand jury indicted Mariano last month for conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and bribery. Subsequently, Mariano fired Walter DeTreux, who was his chief of staff, and another staffer, both of whom appeared before the grand jury. Despite the indictment, Mariano chose not to resign. The city charter says that we can't have convicts in office, so if he loses his case at trial next March, Mariano is out.

McCalla admitted that he has his work cut out for him.

One of McCalla's jobs is to make sure that the office continues to service the constituents as well as continuing all the work Mariano was doing in council before the feds distracted him.

McCalla dismisses the citywide negative publicity Mariano is receiving. "People in, say, Chestnut Hill don't know him like the people in his district do. They don't know how he helped someone's kid not get kicked out of school."

So despite the councilman's legal woes, McCalla said that Mariano's constituents are supportive. "When we walk around the district, they say, 'Keep the faith, hang in there, Rick,' and we get a lot of mail in the office. I had to assign an aide to respond to the letters that people wrote."

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan appeared to be one of the most popular powerful people at Philadelphiamagazine's Power 50 Party held last week at the Palm. Meehan, who ranked number nine in the magazine's Power 50, was the center of attention as he sipped a drink and held court.

Mayor Street (10 on the list) and state Sen. Vincent Fumo (14) did not attend, but you can imagine the chat they might have had with the attorney.

Meehan's indictments of Street's associates has left a pall over the mayor's office, while Meehan's deep investigation of Fumo's entanglements with his nonprofit, Citizen's Alliance, continues. Rumors were that Fumo could escape indictment but one of his close aides, who also works with the nonprofit, will be the fall guy or girl.

Also at the party was local NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire 35), who said he will decide very soon if he will run against U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah next year. Fattah (17), wasn't there. Bruce Crawley, chairman and founder of the African-American Chamber of Commerce (45), said he is supporting Mondesire because he thinks Mondesire will do more for economic development in Fattah's district then Fattah will.

"As head of the Chamber I support jobs for minorities," explained Crawley. "Without a strong economy, you have no jobs. Fattah's issue has always been education, but not jobs."

Mondesire has promised to run against Fattah if Fattah runs for mayor in 2007. He is also angered by what he calls an inside deal between the mayor and Fattah about switching seats in the near future. (Fattah would be mayor and Street would run for Congress.) By the looks of things now, Fattah has been raising the money to make the run. Fattah is Street's candidate and Crawley would be sticking it to Street with this endorsement.

There's been a lot of publicity about mayoral candidate Tom Knox since his recent announcement that he plans to contribute $5 million of his own cash to his campaign. His Web site, www.knoxforphilly.com, offers a detailed bio. While describing his life—everything from growing up in a housing project, to his rise as a successful entrepreneur of software companies, banks, health-care and insurance companies, as well as his unpaid position as former Mayor Ed Rendell's deputy mayor for the Office of Management and Productivity—it doesn't list the candidate's role at the beleaguered Philadelphia International Airport. The airport, where no-bid contracts went to the mayor's friends and a $1 million no-bid contract went to Street's brother, Milton Street, was part of the City Hall probe.

Knox was the chairman of the airport's 33-member advisory board.

Knox said that he is no longer the chairman. That title belongs to Mark Alderman, whose day job is chairman of Wolf Block.

"I am now vice chairman," said Knox of his pro-bono appointment. He said he would look into the oversight on his bio.

When asked about corruption at the airport, Knox said, "The advisory board has no authority. They do absolutely nothing. We only meet four, five times a year."

But why would a mayoral candidate want to be on a powerless board over an entity with such a bad image?

Knox said, "I'm there because I can still tell them what I think. If I'm elected, things will change."