Jeanette Foxworth, 52, of New Orleans, was suspended last year from her role in the troubled Project Ocean initiative, which is two years late and has so far cost the city $18 million -- more than twice what it was expected to cost. In a separate matter, Foxworth was indicted in April by a federal grand jury in Connecticut on charges of paying a state senator $3,000 to help her win consulting contracts. She pleaded not guilty and faces trial in November.

Foxworth, president of Acetech Inc. in New Orleans, could not be reached for comment, nor could her attorney, Andrew Bowman, of Westport, Conn.

Foxworth was paid $150 an hour and averaged more than 82 hours a week for 13 consecutive weeks between December 2001 and March 2002 while working on Project Ocean. She was also working on an IT project in Connecticut in December 2001, according to a July 13 letter by Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who looked into the matter and detailed his findings in a letter to Philadelphia CIO Dianah Neff (download PDF from The Philadelphia Inquirer: http://inquirer.philly.com/pdfs/2006/projectocean713.pdf).

"It seems highly improbably that any person could sustain those kinds of hours for three consecutive months without any break," Butkovitz wrote. He said both the city and an IT recruiting firm handling her payroll for the city, Arcus LLC in Harrisburg, Pa., should have questioned the legitimacy of the billable hours.

Butkovitz also questioned whether Foxworth had the qualifications and credentials to effectively implement the water billing system, listing a series of possible exaggerations on her resume.