North Charleston The Council on Coastal Futures wants a meeting with Gov. Mark Sanford after some members complained Friday their work is being undermined.

"I think it's all communications," said Wes Jones, chairman of the council appointed by the Department of Health and Environmental Control board in the waning days of Gov. Jim Hodges' administration.

Jones said a meeting would be "just to make sure everybody understands what everybody else is doing and the efforts being made to try to provide some clarity on some of these coastal zone issues."

The panel, composed of environmentalists, businesspeople, scientists, lawmakers and public officials, is reviewing regulations after 25 years of coastal management in the state.

"The governor would be happy to sit down and hear their thoughts on these regulations," said Will Folks, a spokesman for Sanford. "He's open to exploring any idea that's going to balance economic development interests with the need to maintain quality of life."

Some council members complained about a separate meeting set for later this month including attorneys, DHEC officials, environmentalists and others to discuss a bill introduced recently in the Senate.

If approved, permits issued by DHEC's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management would no longer automatically be stayed when someone files notice of appeal. The Council on Coastal Futures has wrestled with the issue, but has not yet made a final recommendation.

"If we're going to have these splinter groups go off and do things, why do we need to meet here every month?" Bluffton Mayor Hank Johnston asked.

The planned meeting was "to get together a group of parties who are interested in that issue to hammer out the details of what might be consensus," said Elizabeth Hagood, chairwoman of the DHEC board. She is not a member of the Coastal Futures council, but she attended Friday's meeting.

She helped lead a Quality of Life Task Force for Sanford after last fall's election.

"We had been in conversation with the governor's office -- members of the task force -- about putting together legislation that did have consensus," she said. "We had success before just sitting around a table working out the issues, and this was a continuation of that."

"Do you understand that when the chairman of DHEC and the board chairman of DHEC are on this committee, it basically undermines our work?" asked state Rep. Dwight Loftus, R-Greenville, who is on the Coastal Futures panel.

"It certainly had no intent of undermining anything Coastal Futures is doing," said Hagood, who added the information would be presented to the council later.

But council member Mike Wooten, of Myrtle Beach, said the separate meeting "totally undermines what this group should be doing in a public format."

State Sen. John Kuhn, R-Charleston, another council member, said there is little chance legislators will approve the bill this year. The council is expected to consider the permit issue next month.

Jimmy Chandler, an attorney whose clients include the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the Sierra Club, was invited to the separate meeting.

"If I can't represent my clients, go to meetings and go about my job, then perhaps it's time for me to resign from the Council on Coastal Futures," he said. "I want to make sure that being on the Council on Coastal Futures, I am not giving up my ability to represent my clients."

Because it is unlikely the bill will be passed this session, "we think it is appropriate to look at this issue in a little more detail before weighing in," Folks said.