Liquor board chief defends training contract

HARRISBURG - The chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board yesterday defended a lucrative contract that his agency awarded a company to train store clerks and managers in the basics of customer service.

"Our professional-development program for our retail employees is a key component of our effort to deliver on Gov. Rendell's mandate to transform the [agency] from a Prohibition-era government bureaucracy into a 21st-century business that puts the customer first," Patrick "P.J." Stapleton II said in a statement.

"This contract is appropriate - both in its content and in the way it was awarded," Stapleton wrote about the Liquor Control Board's $173,000 contract with Solutions 21 of Pittsburgh.

The defense came a day after Rendell called for the contract to be investigated for any possible conflict of interest. The president of Solutions 21, Buddy Hobart, is married to a regional manager of the Liquor Control Board. The relationship has raised questions about whether favoritism played a role in awarding the contract.

"All conflicts of interest should be investigated," Rendell told reporters in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said the governor didn't necessarily believe the contract was wrongly awarded, "but rather believes that the facts should be investigated and the truth should come out."

A number of state senators also have questioned whether the expense is prudent given the recession and tight budgets.

Liquor Control Board officials have said they believe the agency followed the letter of the law when giving the job to Solutions 21.

"We look forward to a full review," agency spokesman Nick Hays said Wednesday.

Hobart could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Under the contract, Solutions 21 is coaching the agency's employees in the fundamentals of being good sales representatives, including how to greet customers and thank them for their purchases.

Liquor Control Board officials have said Solutions 21 submitted "the lowest and best" offer among five firms that bid for the contract.

They also have asserted that the contract complied with the state's Adverse Interest Act, which among other things prohibits state employees from influencing contracts in which they have an interest.

The act also prohibits state employees from having an "adverse interest" in any contract with the state agency that employs them. The act defines that interest as being "a stockholder, partner, member, agent, representative, or employee" of a company seeking such a contract.

Hays has said regional manager Susanne Hobart does not do any work for her husband's firm.