HARRISBURG -- State Liquor Control Board Chairman Jonathan Newman is quitting to protest the "heavy-handed, political" method that Gov. Ed Rendell used to select the board's new $150,000-a-year chief executive officer.

Jonathan Newman

Mr. Newman resigned from his $65,000-a-year job at a board meeting yesterday. It takes effect Jan. 12.

Mr. Newman, a lawyer from suburban Philadelphia who's been on the board since 1999, said he was unhappy with a phone call he got from Mr. Rendell on Dec. 11, two days before the LCB met to vote on hiring former state Sen. Joseph Conti, R-Bucks, who retired from the Senate Nov. 30.

Mr. Newman said the governor expected all three LCB members to approve, without question, Mr. Conti as the new CEO, a job the board hasn't filled in 20 years.

"I said, 'Governor, we need to talk about this. I have some serious concerns,'" Mr. Newman said yesterday in an interview with the Post-Gazette.

He said he didn't think the board needed a CEO, especially at such a high salary. He feared the CEO might make board members "a paper tiger" by taking away their power and responsibilities at the agency, one of the most visible parts of state government.

If there were going to be a CEO, a national search should have been done to find the right person, rather than handing the job to a retired politician, he added.

"I was expected to rubber-stamp this position and I took issue with that," Mr. Newman said, adding he told Rendell aides that not only wouldn't he vote for Mr. Conti, but that he would publicly criticize the hiring, which he did.

Mr. Newman said a study could be done to see if the board needed a chief operating officer or a chief financial officer, but maintained that he, as board chairman, was basically handling day-to-day functions at a much smaller salary than $150,000.

But he came out on the losing end of a 2-1 vote Dec. 13. The other two board members, Patrick J. Stapleton III and Thomas Goldsmith, approved Mr. Conti.

To replace Mr. Newman as LCB chairman, Mr. Rendell yesterday named Mr. Stapleton, a Democrat from Indiana County. The governor must now fill the third seat on the board.

Mr. Newman said he isn't upset with Mr. Conti personally.

"It's the process,'' he said. "My protest is over the way it was done -- in a heavy-handed, political manner. It's the kind of thing that makes politics smell bad.''

He said state wine and liquor sales are up markedly in the past four years. The LCB is stocking better wines, keeping more state stores open on Sundays and instructing employees to be more customer oriented.

"I thought it was enough to do a good job. Perhaps I was naive,'' he said.

Kate Philips, Mr. Rendell's press secretary, said the governor hadn't forced Mr. Newman to resign, despite his extremely unusual step of publicly criticizing the governor. Mr. Newman agreed it was his idea to resign.

In a news release, Mr. Rendell said, "Jonathan's efforts have helped establish Pennsylvania as a world-class purveyor of specialty wines. He has done a tremendous job" of improving the operations.

Ms. Philips said the LCB is a $1.7 billion a year operation, and like any other such large enterprise, needs a CEO to oversee and coordinate day-to-day operations. In separate interviews, Mr. Stapleton and Mr. Goldsmith agreed with her and said Mr. Conti is the right man for the job.

Some critics claim the hiring looks like a political deal because he supported some major Rendell initiatives, such as raising the personal income tax and legalizing casinos, but Ms. Philips denied politics was involved. Mr. Conti couldn't be reached for comment.

Ms. Philips said Mr. Conti chaired the Senate committee that oversaw liquor issues and was active in pushing for Sunday sales of liquor and beer. She said he knows the liquor business because his family owned two restaurant/bars in Bucks County.

Mr. Newman, a Republican, was first named to the board by Gov. Tom Ridge and was made chairman in 2002 by Gov. Mark Schweiker. The governor names all three members, each for four-year terms, and picks the chairman. When Mr. Rendell took office in January 2003, he allowed Mr. Newman to continue as chairman and re-appointed him for a four-year term last July.

Mr. Newman said he'd always gotten along with Mr. Rendell.