COLUMBIA - One of the governor's sharpest critics on his handling of Santee Cooper's board will chair a Senate panel that will screen nominees for the board and review five bills that seek to change how the board is appointed.

Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, will lead the subcommittee. Also on the panel is Sen. Dick Elliott, D-North Myrtle Beach.

The subcommittee is scheduled to meet today to discuss a schedule for hearings on the bills and confirmations.

Hearings will be held in Horry, Georgetown and Berkeley counties, Santee Cooper's main service area, as well as in Columbia, Rankin said.

Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, named Rankin to lead the panel.

Rankin said that shows his concerns are shared by the top leadership in the Senate and are not simply his own.

McConnell also wrote one of the bills that would change the utility's board structure.

Sen. Bill Mescher, R-Pinopolis, a former Santee Cooper president, also is on the panel.

Will Folks, Sanford's spokesman, said Wednesday that recent bond sales show the governor's actions have not affected the utility's financial position.

In December, Sanford fired board Chairman Graham Edwards because Edwards did not want to pay the state treasury as much money as Sanford asked, and did not want to stop awarding grants to community organizations.

Santee Cooper is a state-owned utility that serves most of Horry and Georgetown counties, but it does not receive state funds.

The turmoil at the utility resulted in a downgrading of the agency's outlook for its bonds by one of the top three ratings analysts.

The agency also agreed at the governor's request to pay for a valuation of the utility, which Rankin and others see as a precursor to an attempt to privatize it.

Folks said Sanford has not proposed privatizing Santee Cooper and has not instructed the utility's board to do so either.

Interim Santee Cooper Chairman Guerry Green said it is reasonable to find out the value of the utility and the study is not related to an attempt to sell it.

Green is one of four of Sanford's nominees who must pass Senate confirmation. He held the Georgetown County seat on the board when Edwards was fired, and Carl Falk of Pawleys Island was nominated to take Green's seat.

Vernie Dove of Myrtle Beach resigned from his Horry County seat on the board but said it was not related to the governor's dispute with Edwards.

Sanford has nominated John Molnar, director of Grand Strand Regional Hospital's emergency division, to the slot.

The other nominee is Dial DuBose, who was named to an interim position on the board last summer.

The Senate plans tougher screening for the candidates than it has conducted in the past.

Two of the bills the committee will review require screening for board nominees similar to that given to candidates for the Public Service Commission, college boards and other state positions.

Some knowledge or experience with utilities or similar business will be required.

The subcommittee will question the candidates and make a recommendation to the full Senate Judiciary Committee, which could request to question them again.

Besides requiring screening for nominees, the bills under consideration would take away the governor's power to remove board members at will.

The measures also would apply to the State Ports Authority, another board that is appointed by the governor.

Folks said the bills are "destructuring," as opposed to restructuring of government. Legislators may as well dissolve the board and run the utility themselves as put the proposed new regulations in place, he said.