COLUMBIA - Gov. Mark Sanford's chief of staff leaves in five days, but the governor says he may have to run his office without a top deputy for a while and resort to a "team approach" until he hires someone.

A governor's chief of staff runs the staff, keeps the governor abreast of developments and tries to put policies into practice.

Fred Carter, a former Budget and Control Board director and former chief of staff for then-Gov. Carroll Campbell, is eager to get back to his job as president of Francis Marion University.

"Five days and five minutes," Carter said Wednesday as he left a lengthy state Budget and Control Board meeting.

Carter has been on leave from the university since Sanford took office. He's continued to draw his college pay of $136,000, but he took no salary from the Governor's Office.

Sanford said the search for a replacement has been "an intriguing process. ... Fred Carter is irreplaceable. He has an astounding level of institutional memory."

The "challenge has been to try and find somebody who has some degree or breadth of experience in state government, somebody who believes in where the administration is coming from and somebody who can do this," Sanford said.

Some have been interested up to the point where they discussed the job with their spouses, Sanford said.

"But, ultimately, when they take it back to their bride, the bride says, 'I didn't sign on for this,'" Sanford said.

First lady Jenny Sanford has taken on some duties as the search for Carter's replacement continues.