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COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford "trusts the judgment" of the chairman of the state's highway commission in calling for the resignation of the executive director of the state Department of Transportation, a Sanford spokesman said.

But Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Sanford, said the governor wasn't in a position to independently call for the ouster of DOT Executive Director Elizabeth Mabry.

Sanford's appointee to the board, DOT Chairman Tee Hooper, said during a contentious commission meeting Thursday that he would ask Mabry to resign if he had the authority, saying it was best for the employees of the giant agency and taxpayers.

Mabry, who has led DOT since 1997, replied that any fault of leadership at the agency could be shared by Hooper.

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Other commissioners backed Mabry at the meeting, and Hooper acknowledged the board is split about her tenure.

"Tee is the governor's appointee and he is the person directly familiar with the workings of DOT, and we trust his judgment," Sawyer said.

"We're not in a position that we have direct oversight of the agency. Tee is there to do a job as the governor's appointee, and we trust his judgment as a businessman and someone who has held that role for nearly four years to make the right call."

Talk of Mabry's future comes three weeks before the Legislative Audit Council is expected to publicly release a critical performance review of the agency's management and spending.

The audit report was requested by lawmakers last year following allegations of mismanagement by Hooper made in a private letter to Mabry that later surfaced. Hooper wrote then in the letter that he would ask Mabry to step down if he had the authority.

She has continued to deny that the agency has been mismanaged.

DOT operates the fourth-largest road system in the nation, yet trails all other states in the amount of federal and state funding received per mile, officials have said. The agency supplies most of its $1 billion annual budget from federal revenues and state gas taxes, which haven't been raised since 1987.

On Thursday, the board -- over Hooper's objection -- passed a legislative resolution declaring a "transportation funding crisis," the same words used by Mabry earlier this summer, and asking lawmakers for additional funding.

Legislative leaders have said they want to give the agency more money, but only coupled with reforms.

Hooper said the agency's problems, which he said include morale, a lack of focus and leadership, need fixing before lawmakers are asked for more money. He said the situation will only get worse with the release of the LAC report.

"I don't think we'll have any credibility if we don't take action," he said.

Some commissioners agree with him. Others do not.

Commissioner Bobby Jones of Camden, a supporter of Mabry, told board members that the real change needed was the attitude of the Legislature. He said he has requested an increase in the state's gas tax repeatedly over the years without success.

Sanford has repeatedly said the agency must be made accountable before more money is granted.

"Serious questions have been raised about their fiscal management," Sawyer said. "They have an audit pending that by all indications is going to be highly critical of the agency's spending practices.

"Yet they plow ahead and ramrod through a request for more money. That's not a system that looks out for either the taxpayers or for the best interest of the state's infrastructure."

He said the entire system "screams for reforms."

The governor has said the agency should fall under restructuring to make it more accountable. Sanford said in 47 other states the governor appoints either the transportation agency's director or its board.

In South Carolina, the governor appoints the board chairman. The other six members are appointed by the Legislature.

"Tee Hooper is the only person on that board who is charged with representing the state as a whole," Sawyer said. "Everyone else on the DOT commission is charged with looking out for a particular area.

"Tee is not allowed to vote unless there is a tie, and when he raises questions about the agency's leadership, he is dismissed by the executive director because she knows at the end of the day he is very unlikely to vote on her future."

Hooper said after Thursday's meeting he wasn't sure where the agency was headed.

"I don't seem to have much support," he said.