In more than five decades of operation, the Maine Turnpike Authority has never had an ethical code of conduct, but it’s apparently about to get one.

A subcommittee of the Turnpike Authority Board met Monday and, according to Public Affairs Manager Dan Paradee, will recommend that the authority adopt the same code of conduct that applies to Maine state employees and officials.

The decision follows revelations first appearing in the Portland Phoenix that five top Turnpike Authority managers and three of their chief engineering consultants were treated to a $1,342 dinner by a New Jersey highway consultant.

The Phoenix reported that the dinner included cocktails, lobster, filet mignon and other delicacies, all washed down with multiple bottles of wine, including a $295 bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1999, the restaurant’s most expensive wine.

The highway consultant, Vincent Leonetti, picked up the tab for the evening. He is a former deputy executive director for the South Jersey Transportation Authority and a friend of Maine Turnpike Authority Executive Director Paul Violette.

Paradee explains that Leonetti and Violette became acquainted through their work with the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. Leonetti now has his own consulting firm, Transportation Management Consultants LLC and is being paid $7,500 per quarter by the Maine Turnpike Authority.

Paradee explains that Leonetti was ordering the wine that evening and, out of a sense of friendship, he selected some pricey vintages, pushing the cost of the dinner into the stratospheric range.

In retrospect, the Turnpike Commission officials and even Leonetti now have regrets. There is, of course, the appearance of impropriety, that the toll-paying public just doesn’t like the sight of public employees and officials living high on the hog.

With many Mainers struggling to heat their homes, put gas in their cars or food on their tables, the idea of public employees sitting down to a nearly $150-a-plate dinner just rubs folks the wrong way.

But there is more than the simple appearance of impropriety – the very real potential for abuse. We are regularly proud that Maine has, by and large, dodged the kinds of scandals that plague East Coast states and communities.

Many of those scandals involve two components: public money and large construction projects. We sincerely hope the Maine Turnpike feast was a rare lapse of judgment. The Turnpike Commission should act quickly to adopt tighter standards for dealing with contractors and consultants.

But the incident also stands as a warning to all public officials to use common sense and to avoid such compromising situations.