Pa. Senate off limits to Liquor Control CEO

HARRISBURG - In his official capacity as new CEO of the state Liquor Control Board, Joe Conti cannot interact with any members of the state Senate until the end of November, his one-year anniversary of leaving the upper chamber, according to an opinion this morning by the state Ethics Commission.

But Conti, a Bucks County Republican who served nine years in the Senate, can socialize with his former colleagues and rent a portion of a Harrisburg home from a senator, the commission said.

Conti, who had asked the Ethics panel for an opinion on his situation, said that he expected the outcome and could live by it.

"It's clear that I will have to be very careful with interaction," Conti said. " . . . We can talk about tax reform. We can talk about other matters. We can talk about the Phillies. But we can't talk about any matters with the LCB."

State law bars legislators from lobbying or otherwise influencing the chamber they left for one year.

Gov. Rendell, in a controversial move in December, urged the liquor control board to create the new $150,000-a-year post of CEO and to fill it with Conti. The appointment touched off bitter complaints from the board's chairman at the time, Jonathan Newman, who called the job unneeded and resigned a month later.

Conti has sold a home he owned in Harrisburg to Sen. Don White (R., Indiana) and now rents a room from him.

Anticipating the opinion, Conti said he has limited his face-to-face dealings with senators about any facet of the liquor store system and has not testified at recent Senate committee hearings.

He is not barred from interacting with the House of Representatives, where he served from 1993 to 1997.