Controversial Corbett adviser set to leave his position Tuesday

HARRISBURG - Robert W. Patterson has an exit date.

The controversial adviser to state Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander will step down from his $104,470 position at the end of the month, department officials said.

Patterson, a special assistant to Alexander, submitted his resignation last week as The Inquirer was preparing to publish a story about his outside role as editor of a conservative, faith-based journal. But department officials acknowledged Wednesday that he was still working for the state and that his exit date was "still being determined."

They would not elaborate.

Efforts to contact Alexander and Patterson for comment have been unsuccessful.

A department spokeswoman said Thursday that Patterson's last day will be Tuesday.

In its initial announcement of Patterson's departure last week, the Corbett administration distanced itself from views expressed in the journal, which has criticized key welfare programs administered by the Department of Public Welfare and offered opinions that women should be stay-at-home mothers and not use birth control pills.

The department hired Patterson in October. Officials said he chose to resign because he had been denied his request to remain editor of the Family in America journal while working for the state.

Patterson began writing for the publication in 2004 and was named editor in 2009. The journal is published by the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society in Rockford, Ill., which opposes abortion, divorce, birth control, feminism, and homosexuality, and advocates for a "child-rich, married-parent" family.