Drunk with Power
I guess it was too much to hope that Governor Rendell's recent re-election and announced disinterest in further electoral forays would lead him to set crass politics aside. Of course it was.
Now he's rammed through the appointment of former state Senator Joe Conti as the chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The Governor apparently couldn't be bothered to tell LCB Chairman Jonathan Newman that Conti was going to be hired until fewer than 24 hours before the LCB voted on the hiring, but what the heck, Rendell had the other two LCB members in his pocket.
Forget about how it looks that, in the wake of his pay raise fiasco, the Governor has handed a $150,000 a year job to an outgoing legislator who was either so dumb or so indifferent that he said he wasn't giving his salary increase back because he had already spent it on a water heater. What's particularly troubling is that, in the face of the laudable progress Newman has made to modernize and improve the ridiculous state store system, the Governor couldn't even be bothered to conduct a real search for a CEO or involve the person most responsible for the LCB's recent (if insufficient) progress.
According to the Inquirer, Rendell defended his actions by saying, "Do you hear of any $1.7 billion company that doesn't have a CEO?" Of course, a CEO is less necessary when you have a state-controlled monopoly over the industry in question. But the best part of all this is hearing Conti and others claim he is qualified to run this $1.7 billion company because -- I am not making this up -- he has been a legislator and, before that, he managed two restaurants. I guess if he had managed three restaurants he would be in line to take over General Electric.
Now he's rammed through the appointment of former state Senator Joe Conti as the chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The Governor apparently couldn't be bothered to tell LCB Chairman Jonathan Newman that Conti was going to be hired until fewer than 24 hours before the LCB voted on the hiring, but what the heck, Rendell had the other two LCB members in his pocket.
Forget about how it looks that, in the wake of his pay raise fiasco, the Governor has handed a $150,000 a year job to an outgoing legislator who was either so dumb or so indifferent that he said he wasn't giving his salary increase back because he had already spent it on a water heater. What's particularly troubling is that, in the face of the laudable progress Newman has made to modernize and improve the ridiculous state store system, the Governor couldn't even be bothered to conduct a real search for a CEO or involve the person most responsible for the LCB's recent (if insufficient) progress.
According to the Inquirer, Rendell defended his actions by saying, "Do you hear of any $1.7 billion company that doesn't have a CEO?" Of course, a CEO is less necessary when you have a state-controlled monopoly over the industry in question. But the best part of all this is hearing Conti and others claim he is qualified to run this $1.7 billion company because -- I am not making this up -- he has been a legislator and, before that, he managed two restaurants. I guess if he had managed three restaurants he would be in line to take over General Electric.
posted by FCB at 6:43 PM
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