Ethics panel limits Conti's interactions

HARRISBURG - In his official capacity as CEO of the state Liquor Control Board, Joe Conti cannot talk business with members of the Senate until the end of November - his one-year anniversary of leaving the upper chamber, according to an opinion yesterday 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 continue renting a portion of a Harrisburg home from a senator, the commission said.

"It's clear that I will have to be very careful with interaction," Conti said moments after the ethics panel voted unanimously on the opinion. " . . . 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."

The opinion is based on a section of state law that bars legislators from lobbying or otherwise influencing the chamber they left for one year.

Conti said he sought the opinion as guidance in what he can and cannot do as a former lawmaker now in a top bureaucratic post. And he acknowledged that fallout from recent controversies in the Capitol and a push by many to make Harrisburg more accountable was a factor in his move.

Harrisburg, he said, "is a different city than it was a few years ago. We all understand that. We want to do things in an entirely appropriate and legal manner."

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 in a public flap with Rendell.

Conti said he expected the ethics decision and had already limited his face-to-face dealings with senators about the state-run liquor system. For example, Conti said he has not testified at recent Senate committee hearings concerning the LCB.

Nicholas A. Colafella, an Ethics Commission member and former state representative, said Conti is not barred from socializing with senators or living with one of them while in the capital. After leaving office, Conti said he sold a home he owned in Harrisburg to Sen. Don White (R., Indiana) and now rents a room from him.

Nor is Conti prohibited from interacting with the House of Representatives, where he served from 1993 to 1997.

Sen. John Rafferty (R., Montgomery) said the ethics opinion won't hinder his work as chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, which oversees the LCB. Most of his dealings, he said, are either with LCB staff or its chairman, P.J. Stapleton, and not with Conti.

Yet, Rafferty said he didn't fully understand the decision, noting the LCB doesn't lobby the Senate as much as it answers to it.