There's no transcript to document his words, no tape recording to reproduce the voice inflections that might shade his meaning.

But John Street's remarks during an Aug. 31 meeting about the alleged difficulty of hiring qualified black men has generated lots of talk.

"It's the subject of many conversations," said Philadelphia NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire. "People are very concerned that he would use such rhetoric, and that he would have a spokesperson mislead the public about it."

The flap began Tuesday, when the late John White Sr. told reporters that Street had said in a meeting with supporters of his son, John White Jr., that he couldn't find qualified black men to hire.

Street campaign spokeswoman Caroline Brobeil called the accusation "ridiculous" Tuesday, and yesterday, Street offered an enlarged explanation.

Street said in an interview that while he did make a comment about the difficulties of attracting black men to his City Council staff, he said the White backers had taken the remark completely out of context.

The remark was prompted when the White supporters said there had been a shortage of black women in the Rendell administration, Street said. They asked him what he would do to correct that. Street first noted that he had a number of top aides who were African-American women.

He then said he added that it was hard to attract African-American men - not because none were qualified but because the best possible hires had too many other options.

"I said, 'They don't want to come and work for us,' " Street said, adding that no one in the room challenged his remarks at the time that he made them.

He said he still believes White and his backers are looking for excuses to justify the decision to endorse Katz.

Mike Pratt, a partner at the law firm of Pepper, Hamilton who attended the Aug. 31 meeting, said there's no question Street said he couldn't find African-American men to hire.

"He never qualified it, never explained it, and there were a lot of successful black men sitting in that room," Pratt said.

Asked whether Street's new explanation might have reflected his real meaning, Pratt said, "I can't speculate on what's in the mind of John Street, so I can't say if that's true or not true."

Mondesire said he's troubled by Street's comments.

"It goes to the way that he normally treats people," Mondesire said. "I think there's an insensitivity to some of his remarks that can be quite damaging, and if he becomes mayor, damaging to the city as a whole.

"He needs to apologize for the remark and move on," Mondesire said, "but to deny that it occurred is most unfortunate, because there's too much evidence to the contrary."

City Councilwoman Marian Tasco, an ally of White and at times a critic of Street, said she's heard some talk about the remark when it was made, but wasn't aware of a torrent of debate yesterday.

Staff writer William Bunch contributed to this report.