COLUMBIA, S.C. - 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 has a tough job: running the staff, keeping the governor abreast of developments and trying 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 as he left a lengthy state Budget and Control Board meeting Wednesday.

Carter has been on leave from the university since Sanford took office. He's continued to draw his college pay of $136,000, but 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 wives, Sanford said. "But ultimately when they take it back to their bride, the bride says 'I didn't sign on for this,'" Sanford said.

Some from the business world have been thrown by the pay cut, he said.

"It's been a very, very tough position to fill. We're not there yet," Sanford said.

When Carter leaves, "it may be for the time being we run this on a ... team approach," Sanford said.

A leading role in that approach would go to Beaufort lawyer Tom Davis, Sanford said. Davis worked in Sanford's campaign last year and joined the governor's staff in August as a senior policy adviser.

First lady Jenny Sanford has been involved in the search and has taken on some administrative duties in the governor's office as the search for Carter's replacement progresses. She's regularly seen in the halls outside her husband's office.

Sanford said he plans to take the time to find the right person for the job. "I'm not going to pick somebody just to pick somebody."