Winner of wine kiosk bid gave to guv: Firm's donations to Ed exceeded $400K
A company that won a contract to supply state-controlled wine-vending machines at no cost to the state has two investors who have given more than $400,000 combined to Gov. Rendell's campaigns for governor, a Pittsburgh television station reported.
A company that won a contract to supply state-controlled wine-vending machines at no cost to the state has two investors who have given more than $400,000 combined to Gov. Rendell's campaigns for governor, a Pittsburgh television station reported.
WTAE-TV reported Thursday that the two investors in Simple Brands LP are Ira Lubert and Herbert Vederman.
Vederman was Rendell's campaign-finance chairman, and Lubert is an investor in two licensed slot-machine casino projects, the Valley Forge Convention Center and Rivers Casino, in Pittsburgh.
Simple Brands, based in Bala Cynwyd, proposed the kiosk idea and then was the only company to respond when the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board put the plan up for bid.
The board's chief executive officer, Joe Conti, said that the agency went through a fair and open bidding process, and suggested that the new technology kept other bidders away.
Under the contract, the liquor agency does not pay Simple Brands for the machines, called kiosks. Rather, Simple Brands must profit by selling advertising on the machines. The state must lease space for the machines and monitor them from afar by video link.
Board spokesman Nick Hays said that the machines still must undergo internal testing to prove that they can prevent sales to minors and intoxicated people before they are rolled out to the public.
If the machines pass the test, the state will set up a pilot program with a few of the machines in the Harrisburg area to determine whether the idea is profitable. Ultimately, the plan is to place kiosks throughout the state in places such as grocery stores.