FOR 15 INTENSE weeks last summer, 12 business leaders from across the state worked to examine state agencies with an eye toward improving management, performance and accountability across the government.

With the help of more than 300 volunteers from the public and private sectors, they produced a 198-page report that detailed hundreds of ways to save money by more efficiently handling administrative functions from human resources and procurement to transportation and information technology. Like the 14 study groups assigned similar tasks over the previous century, they concluded that South Carolina has too many separate state agencies, a problem that is compounded by the fact that many of them operate as independent fiefdoms; that we need fewer agencies and clearer lines of authority; and that the governor should have control of nearly all agencies.

And then, as Columbia businessnesswoman Barbara Rackes recounted recently, they waited for somebody to come forward and really work for these reforms.

The holidays came and went, and they waited.

The Legislature returned, and they waited.

A Senate panel took up legislation that would accomplish many of the reforms, and they waited.

The governor, who had incorporated some of the proposals in his executive budget, talked about them several times, but never organized a campaign to build support; neither did anybody else.

And so the panel killed several reforms outright, and gutted many of the others, then sent a shell of a bill to the full Senate.

“Finally,” Ms. Rackes told our editorial board, “several of us looked at each other and said, ‘Darn it, we’ll just do it ourselves.’”

It’s still difficult to say exactly who “ourselves” are, but she and Columbia attorney Ken Wingate and 13 others, many from the original MAP Commission, formed a coordinating committee to develop a plan. The committee crosses racial, gender and party lines “because we believe restructuring government transcends all those.” They started talking to friends and colleagues, who started talking to friends and colleagues, about the need for reform. They pooled their e-mail lists to come up with about 70,000 names of people who are being urged to lobby their legislators for reform. They set up a website, changescnow.com, that outlines the need for reform and helps people get in touch with their legislators.

The message is provocative. “If You’re Happy With The Way Things Are In South Carolina, Thank A Legislator,” it begins. It recounts a few of the reasons people might not be happy with the way things are in South Carolina, from the nation’s 7th highest infant mortality rate and 5th highest violent crime rate to 3rd highest highway death rate and 8th highest unemployment rate.

“How long do we need to apologize for being first where we should be last and last where we want to be first?” the Web site asks. “When will our elected representatives start fixing what’s broke and working to make South Carolina more competitive — economically, academically, healthwise and in every other manner?”

The group hopes to get 10,000 people to contact their legislators in the next couple of months. The goal, Ms. Rackes said, is to “drive people into the political process who have felt unserved, underrepresented, left out; people who don’t know what to do about it.” Organizers are focusing on the general concept of government restructuring, without getting into the specifics of which constitutional officers should be appointed, which agencies merged.

“With the number of days left, we can’t get people educated in detail,” Ms. Rackes said. “It has to be we’re tired of being 49th or second, and we are here, and we are angry and prepared to participate.”

Ms. Rackes and Mr. Wingate are realistic enough to see this as a multi-year effort. Even if the Legislature does manage to pass something this year, it won’t be everything we need.

The good news is that since the effort began last month, the prospect of something passing this year has gone from practically nonexistent to within the realm of possibility.

Last week, the initiative got its first boost in months, when House Speaker David Wilkins agreed to work with the governor to bring several important restructuring bills to a vote in the full House this month. That’s critical, because lawmakers had agreed in January that the House would wait until the Senate had passed something before it even considered the topic. Quick action by the House on a few important initiatives could prevent the possibility of the Senate limping into action in the final weeks of the session and passing something the House simply does not have time to consider. It also could put pressure on the Senate to act, to avoid being outdone.

These latest developments make this new grass-roots effort all the more important. As long as legislators are able to convince themselves that their constituents don’t care about something that ruffles as many feathers as government restructuring does, they’re not going to lift a finger.

Ms. Scoppe can be reached at cscoppe@thestate.com or at (803) 771-8571.