Editor of journal critical of welfare still has DPW job

HARRISBURG - A controversial adviser to Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander is still working for the state and will do so for an indefinite period, despite last week's announcement that he had resigned.

Last week, officials said Robert W. Patterson, a special assistant to Alexander, had quit his $104,470 position as The Inquirer was preparing to publish a story about his outside role as editor of a conservative, faith-based journal.

In announcing Patterson's exit, 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 opposing birth control - as well as musings on how condom use could rob women of reported mood-enhancing benefits of chemicals in semen.

Even so, state officials acknowledged Wednesday that Patterson did yet not have an end date for his employment.

"His resignation effective date is still being determined," said department spokesman Carey Miller, adding that his "transition of duties is under way." She would not elaborate.

Efforts to contact Alexander and Patterson for comment were unsuccessful.

Generally, the state's policy for non-civil-service employees is that they provide two weeks' notice of their departure, unless unable to do so "because of extenuating circumstances."

While they are permitted to give more notice, it is unusual for there to be no end date, state officials said.

Patterson continues to draw his salary and reports to work. He is one of four special assistants to Alexander.

Last week, Miller said Patterson had decided to resign because he had been denied his request to remain the 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.

In his columns, Patterson presents, summarizes, and opines on research relating to families.

They include entries on how children of single mothers are more likely to be overweight and those of working mothers more likely to be a "couch potato," and how women who take the Pill are less likely to find "Mr. Right."

He also authored a piece advocating scaling back assistance programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, and cash assistance for the poor.

The programs, he argued, are the legacy of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty - which, Patterson argued, produced "more of a quagmire than Vietnam ever was."