Pa. Liquor Control Board was warned on wine kiosks
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HARRISBURG -- The state's ill-fated venture into wine vending machines would never have been uncorked if the Liquor Control Board had listened to employees' warnings.
An evaluation committee recommended in July 2008 that the board not enter into a contract with Conshohocken-based Simple Brands, the only company to submit a proposal to supply the kiosks.
The day after the committee submitted its recommendation, an attorney for the LCB instructed employees to hand over all hard copies of the report and to delete all electronic copies.
That concerns state Rep. Mike Turzai, whose office on Wednesday distributed copies of the email message from the LCB attorney who has since left her position. He also released copies of the committee's evaluation of the Simple Brands proposal.
The wine kiosks have been beset with problems since the state launched the program last summer.
Republicans accused then-Gov. Ed Rendell of steering contracts to Simple Brands because two of its investors contributed more than $400,000 to his political campaigns. Mr. Rendell and LCB officials have repeatedly denied that, saying the process was fair, systematic and structured.
But shortly after the kiosks went into service, consumers found them cumbersome to operate and mechanical problems prompted the LCB to shut them down just before the winter holidays.
Mr. Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, wants to dismantle the LCB and put alcohol sales in the hands of private entrepreneurs. His privatization proposal is scheduled to be vetted today during a public hearing near Hershey. Among the expected speakers is a manager of the Wegmans grocery chain, which recently told Simple Brands to remove the kiosks from its stores because of complaints from customers.
Employees on the evaluation committee anticipated those complaints.
"The committee has a general concern that the proposed process for purchasing products via the kiosk machine is cumbersome and may meet with public criticism for not being 'user-friendly,'" according to the evaluation memo submitted by Matthew Bembenick, a middle manager who recently left his position with the LCB.
Mr. Bembenick could not be reached Wednesday evening.
In the memo, he wrote that Simple Brands did not meet the requirements of the state's request for proposals and did not respond to numerous requests to provide written approval for the kiosks -- the first of their kind in the nation -- from the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
First Published August 11, 2011 12:00 am
